PR Measurement Best Practices with Mark Weiner

A discussion with Mark Weiner, CEO of PRIME Research in North America, about why PRSA formed the Measurement Working Group, measuring social media engagement and the pros and cons of advertising value equivalency (AVEs).
Weiner will present a session at the 2009 PRSA International Conference entitled “Proving the Value of Public Relations” on Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 4:45 pm, and was a member of the PRSA Measurement Working Group with David Rockland of Ketchum, Pauline Draper-Watts of the IPR Measurement Commission Chair, Katie Paine of KD Paine & Partners and Don Wright of Boston University.
Prior to PRIME, Mark Weiner was the Global Director and Senior Vice President of Ketchum Research where he led an international team of analysts. Before joining Ketchum, he Weiner was the CEO and president of Delahaye, a corporate communications and public relations research and consulting firm founded by Katie Paine, who has also appeared on this podcast, and who provided research support for this episode.
On the Record…Online is the official podcast of the 2009 PRSA International Conference. Register to attend here.
1:01 - @ericschwartzman gives Mark Weiner’s background, a brief introduction to the PRSA Measurement Working Group and an overview of what Mark will cover in this podcast.
4:35 – How Mark Weiner will the help PR practitioners overcome the challenge of communicating the value of public relations at the 2009 PRSA International Conference.
5:50 – Mark Weiner on his participation in the PRSA Measurement Working Group, which brought together thought leaders to explore how public relations impacts business, and which published a “Business Outcomes” deck to help practitioners communicate the value of public relations to clients and managers.
7:05 – Why PRSA created a Measurement Working Group and a clarification for anyone who heard about this effort first on episode 484 of “For Immediate Release” The Hobson & Holtz Report.”
9:12 – PRSA’s intention of providing a solutions agnostic approach and the Measurement Working Group’s pooling of measurement intelligence.
11:14 – Based on his experiences traveling the globe consulting on public relations measurement, Weiner explains the common misconceptions about PR measurement outside the US.
12:32 – The purpose of public relations search and evaluation in business and translating public relations performance through data.
13:33 -- Whether or not communicating through numbers is more objective than communicating through language, as per 2009 PRSA International Conference keynote speaker Todd Buchholz’s appearance on this podcast.
14:29 – Minimizing misinformation through transparency.
15:23 – The percentage of PRSA Silver Anvil Award applications that are eliminated each year because of they lack measurement data and use purposely vague language.
18:06 – The pros and cons of using advertising value equivalency to communicate the value of public relations to managers and clients.
19:37 – The most meaningful measures of public relations value.
21:20 – Advertising value not as a dollar value, but as a measure of relative value.
22:12 – 2009 PRSA International Conference Keynoter Bob Garfield’s dire prediction on the future of ad-support media and building the business case for social media engagement.
24:20 – The importance of measurement standards, and how measurement standards for social media engagement will evolve.
26:57 – Overcoming the challenges associated with interpreting the sentiment of an avalanche of user generated content in real time.
30:59 -- End

Eric Schwartzman (@ericschwartzman) is a new media and social media communications consultant, the creator of the top-rated New Media and Social Media Boot Camp, which has been attended by more than a thousand public relations and marketing executives from the private, public, government and nonprofit sectors. In addition to advising clients on best practices for online newsroom design, deployment and management, Schwartzman offers a portfolio of social media training courses to accelerate the acquisition of social media communication skills, as well as social media strategy and campaign support. Schwartzman is also the founder of online newsroom software as a service provider iPressroom.