How to Measure Public Relations Activities- Part III

This is the last, but maybe the most important piece of the series of our articles about measuring Public Relations activities. In previous issues, we attempted to review detailed and expert cases, which could help PR professionals enhance their performance. Now it is time to list those items usually considered by upstream managers.

Firstly, a gentle nudge toward the fact that measuring PR activities by numbers is a complex, arduous, and controversial job. For instance, around 80 percent of PR specialists in the U.S. believe that measuring PR activities in a short run is almost impossible. But what are the rest of the world’s PR specialists doing? The answer is simple, OKR drafting for PR dep.- the measuring method closest to the expectation of Chiefs or Marketing managers.

In order to measure our activities under such a method, the recommendation is to categorize PR activities. Therefore, we will be elaborating upon 7 sections over the course of this article: Media Relations, Social Media Activities, Internal and External Communications, Crisis Management, Event Management and Reporting.

What should not be forgotten here is the plan’s Objectives. The ultimate goal of each PR team is to empower the company’s reputation by adhering to transparency through presenting Reason to Believes in line with strategic upstream documents. In other words, every PR specialists’ duty is to publicly announce reports and activities that facilitate the company’s journey through this well-known circle: “Awareness, Knowledge, Interest, Preference, Action”, specifically by focusing on the third step and building trust among consumers as well as all internal and external stakeholders. But as each period needs different OKR with unique targets, the existing article will not go into further details, as this factor differs in each company.

The key point is that the Targets play the role of a What in our path in OKR documentation and needs to be clear, tangible, and aggressive at the same time; what is tend to be focused on results not doing specific activities. Hereby, we reach the Key Results to our documents; measurable indexes portraying the How over the course of actions taken. In general, Key Results are more focused upon the results gained, rather than the completion of a specific action. Also, while writing Key Results we need to review 3 main questions: 1- Is this activity aligned with our overall objectives 2- Where does this activity add value to our business and 3- how are the outcomes to be measured?

Let’s get back to our categorization and start with Media Relations. Naturally, negotiations are not a zero-sum subject measurable with numbers. For example, let’s imagine that government authorities would ask diplomats to present the situation through numbers in the middle of 5+1 negotiations. What in my opinion is doable until a final agreement is reached, is to manage regular meetings explaining the latest updates to chief authorities, clearly not quantitative criteria. However, now that the agreement has been achieved and the first coverage of such engagement (namely JCPOA) is born, is there any guarantee for future success in the next interactions? Media Relations has almost the same story. Building in-depth relations with media is so crucial and important, also gaining media coverage is a huge achievement, but can we guarantee that our befriended media will publish our news willingly from tomorrow?!

Let’s put this to the side. One of many interesting results in the eyes of upstream managers in evaluating PR activities is the number of achieved coverages in T1 media and the volume of our relations with top journalists. Moreover, a PR specialist can transform the depth of such qualitative relations into quantitative metrics. Such grading initiative will give valuable clues in a long run for the future reports. The number of estimated viewers which can be extracted from “unique monthly users” of targeted media is another way in measuring Media Relations.

For E-commerce companies, being active on social media platforms, such as twitter is even a more vital factor. Therefore, multiplicity of tweets about us from media outlets, the way we are getting mentioned across social media and the extend of the company’s relations with influencers needs not to be forgotten. We can reach measurable, yet logical metrics for our key result list, including twitter growth chart, the growth trend of our PR posts’ engagement in comparison with each other or regular posts, and also the tonality of received feedback toward the company. The OKR’s Baseline and Target items will be defined accordingly.

From the perspective of Internal Communications, the most important goal of a PR specialist is to make sure that all staff are well aware of the corporate messaging, as well as integrity between departments. This is why publishing periodic internal reports (weekly or monthly) is very effective. Through such channels, each team will get familiar with issues that manages inside the departments, the efforts of employees in large scale departments will be embolden, the company can send its messages through to all forces in an integrated way and also the corporate targets, strategies and reason of macro decisions will be communicated clearer.

In addition, a PR Man needs to echo all departments’ activities, so that a positive competitive atmosphere raises in the heart of the company in terms of efficiency and being data driven. Personal branding of employees and managers are known as another example of this internal ambition. The key result of such initiatives in OKR can be gaining raise in the numbers of “request for cooperation” sent to company’s chief managers in professional communities or social media, or even accelerate the hiring process across departments the PR team has recently elaborated upon. Subsequently, employee satisfaction levels from transparency in announcing the company’s decisions is measurable through internal surveys.

Public Affairs is another aspect we are obliged to define a KR for. The magnitude of our relations with government authorities along with cooperation with major companies or universities toward defining mutual objectives is included. In the meanwhile, what is different in case by case scenarios in companies is external relations management strategy. For instance, in many companies it is the PA Manager who is the company’s face in external negotiations, but in another group, the PR Manager takes responsibility in Public affairs, integrating the company’s external affairs policies, helping the company’s managers as the faces of the entity.

The entities’ crisis management through crisis kit design, assignment of secondary roles for chief managers, and preparedness for facing different crisis scenarios are another leg of upstream managers’ expectations from the PR group- one of the most vital measurable targets must be considered even if no expectation is in place. Activities like Media Relations workshops, crisis mode simulation, spokesperson assignment, and holding educational courses for the nominees are some efforts companies usually require to efficiently manage crisis scenarios and reach peace. Such a preparation would further help and support PR efforts toward establishing a vital opportunity to change the course of the circumstances via networking through building relations with media in a crisis mode and receiving further media and journalist inquiries in this period regarding the company’s statement.

In conclusion, if a follower of Professor Kotler – the world’s patron of marketing – we are to follow the PENCILS theory. Accordingly, holding or sponsoring event, as well as participating in events, while documenting and publishing an annual report of the entity’s performance, defining, execution, and broadcasting messages of the brand’s identity, all must be included within the monthly and annual plans of the PR department. For instance, the company’s visual identity documents, such as the corporate video, leaflet, and presentation must always comply with the strategy, roadmap, and general policies of the company and be updated. ?In addition, ensuring all company assets and points of contact are compliant in tonality and messaging with those of upstream documents, falls under the negotiable responsibilities of the PR department.?

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