Measure, Measure and then Measure Some More...Most of the Time

            One thing that you always must do as a PR person is measure. If you do not measure a campaign to see if an objective was reached than what was the point in doing the campaign?  A blog site that is run by public relations and marketing firm called SHIFT Communications posted about what not to measure in PR  in this post attached here, and I thought the article was interesting because aren’t we as PR technicians supposed to measure any and everything all the time?

            SHIFT Communications gave three instances where it is ill-advised to measure PR metrics; the first one being do not measure things you or your company has no control over. This makes sense because why invest money and time into something a campaign cannot remedy or change anyway?

             Second thing SHIFT advised not to do is measure things which you do not intend to act upon. This surprised me because I did not even think about this happening. We measure all of our campaigns and it tells us something important. You could measure the most important feedback in the world but if no action is taken everything was for naught. Plan to act on what is measured and make more objectives; don’t just let it sit on the desk.

            Lastly, do not measure something that doesn’t mean anything. Well everything means something right? SHIFT went further to say do not measure metrics that are misleading, un-impactful or passive. I must say I am a little confused by this because doesn’t everyone’s feedback make something impactful and then in turn you measure that feedback?

Misleading statistics of course try to steer clear of, but I think the level of impact is a grey area and therefore should be measured anyway and explored to see if it is impactful or not. If anyone has anything to say about this last one let me know because I do not think I fully understand its meaning.