What are the most common PR situational analysis metrics and how can you use them to improve your campaign?

1 Media coverage

Media coverage is the amount and quality of exposure your organization receives in the news media, both online and offline. It can help you assess your brand awareness, reputation, and credibility among your stakeholders and the public. To measure media coverage, you can use tools such as media monitoring, media analysis, and media audits. These tools can help you track the volume, tone, sentiment, reach, and impact of your media mentions, as well as identify the key messages, sources, and influencers that shape your public perception.

2 Social media engagement

Social media engagement is the level of interaction your organization has with its followers and fans on various social media platforms. It can help you gauge your online presence, influence, and relationship with your target audiences. To measure social media engagement, you can use metrics such as likes, comments, shares, retweets, mentions, tags, clicks, views, and impressions. These metrics can help you understand how your content resonates with your social media community, how your brand advocates amplify your message, and how your brand sentiment varies across different channels.

3 Stakeholder feedback

Stakeholder feedback is the input and opinions you receive from your internal and external stakeholders, such as employees, customers, partners, investors, regulators, and media. It can help you evaluate your stakeholder satisfaction, loyalty, trust, and advocacy. To measure stakeholder feedback, you can use methods such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, polls, reviews, and testimonials. These methods can help you collect qualitative and quantitative data on your stakeholder expectations, needs, preferences, experiences, and recommendations.

5 ROI and KPIs

ROI (return on investment) and KPIs (key performance indicators) are the financial and non-financial measures that help you evaluate the outcomes and impact of your PR campaign. They can help you demonstrate your PR value and accountability, as well as justify your PR budget and resources. To calculate ROI and KPIs, you need to define your PR goals and objectives, identify your PR inputs and outputs, and establish your PR benchmarks and targets. You can then use formulas and tools to compare your actual results with your expected results and calculate your PR return and performance.

Using these PR situational analysis metrics, you can gain a comprehensive and objective view of your PR situation and make informed and data-driven decisions to improve your PR campaign. By regularly monitoring and analyzing these metrics, you can also track your PR progress and effectiveness and adapt your PR plan to changing circumstances and opportunities.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?