If Australian PR Directors and Managers are a reflection of their US PR professional counterparts then the odds are that there is still a glaring lack of measurement or evaluation techniques being used by the PR Departments of Australian organisations.
That’s because a survey published yesterday in PR News based on questions put to nearly 800 US communications and PR professionals suggests that around 70 percent are not doing any serious measurement or evaluation of their PR activities.
The overall survey was about social media and digital measurement within public relations. However, what really surprised me was the answer to a more general question about attitudes towards, and the use of, PR measurement and evaluation techniques viz:
Q: Has media measurement become more sophisticated in your organisation in the last year?
And this was the analysis of the answers given!
30% – Yes, robust system that includes digital measurement
22% - Just starting to think about it
17% – We would like to be more sophisticated, but we don’t know where to start
11% - No, still counting print impressions
10% - It’s a 2011 goal
10% - Other
Source: PR News and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, based on 762 survey respondents (above figures rounded).
I’m really surprised by these results – especially the fact that not only 70 percent are not doing any serious measurement, but that close to 40 percent (or nearly 60% of these) are just starting to think about measurement and evaluation of their PR or don’t know where to start!
If that’s the use of measurement among US PR professionals then it suggests to me that the Australian figures would be even lower.
I have to admit that measurement (or lack of it) in PR has been a real bugbear of mine. Sure some aspects of it can get really complicated. But equally a lot of it can be really simple. In the last decade I’ve written several articles in PR Influences (see Measurement, evaluation and monitoring) trying to explain the basic fundamentals of measurement and evaluation in public relations.
It seems to me that some of reasons why Australian organisations choose not to employ public relations measurement and evaluation techniques include:
1. Much of what Australian PR Departments do has become process driven, functional or reactive. That results in a pre-occupation on doing tasks, and sending out media releases which results in a focus on ‘outputs’ rather than outcomes (although even outputs can be measured!)
2. Australian PR has become synonymous with media relations and publicity and too much of this is still evaluated on the volume of press clippings (although there’s some easily applied techniques that will provide more meaningful insights).
3. Even when it comes to media there’s often too much of a self-focus, inward-looking, emphasis on how much coverage ‘we’ are getting; rather than comparing against competitors. (In my view one of the most useful of the ‘simple’ media evaluation techniques is share of discussion).
4. Not enough emphasis is placed on ‘outcomes’ ie what change in attitude or behaviour has happened as a result of our communication?
5. Lastly, whether it’s the internal PR Department’s budget, or the budget for the PR agency, my experience is that in Australia there’s seldom an automatic budget allocation for measurement or evaluation. That means measurement doesn’t get any real thought or consideration and is put in the ‘too hard’ basket or as in the PR News/ Waggener Edstrom Worldwide survey – ‘its something we’ll think about for next year!’.
Having said all that I know from first-hand experience that some Australian organisations do make serious efforts to be accountable and apply measurement and evaluation techniques to their PR efforts.
But I think they are the exception rather than the rule. And I suspect the percentage would be even lower than the 30 percent of US PR professionals that claim in this survey to conduct a ‘robust’ measurement to support their PR initiatives.
However given my attitude towards evaluation I’m happy to be proven wrong and be told that there’s dozen’s of Australian PR Directors and Managers busily engaged in measurement and evaluation – and proving to their bosses the value PR is bringing to their organisation. That would be encouraging news!
Note: Unfortunately access to the full results of the survey, jointly run by PR News, and specialist public relations and digital communications agency Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, is restricted to subscribers of PR News so I can’t comment any more on the results than I have –or give you access.
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