Data analysis is the future of public relations. Photo credit: justgrimes
More than a few public relations experts argue that data is the future of PR. Measuring the impact of PR initiatives can improve strategies and calculate PR’s contributions to the organization. Aggressively utilizing data and measurement to quantify impact and success is the vital catalyst to elevate PR.
In the past, PR measurement was confined to clip counts and circulation. Now, PR can monitor media mentions, determine how positive or negative the coverage was, ascertain levels of engagement, and correlate the coverage to business objectives like sales.
Derek Lyons at Shift Communications compares the projected development of PR measurement to the evolution of sports statistics.
A Baseball Analogy
In “Moneyball,” a book and movie based on a true story of baseball’s Oakland A’s, general manager Billy Beane rebuilds his team on a limited budget with the help of a number-crunching, Yale-educated economist Peter Brand. Facing resistance from fans and the team’s staff, Beane ignores scouting reports and selects players based on statistics, specifically on-base percentage.
Despite early set-backs, the numbers-based approach proves successful for the A’s. Teams across major league baseball eventually adopt Oakland’s empirical analyses, known as sabermetrics. Most all sports are now entering what’s been called the Moneyball II era with new statistics and ever-increasing reliance on numbers.
PR and marketing are following similar paths, Lyons believes. In an evolution that mirrors sports, PR and marketing are moving from basic data to more sophisticated measurement of social engagement, multi-funnel traffic patterns and other factors.
Just as the sports establishment scorned statistics-based decisions and derided general managers who made personnel decisions based on data, old school marketing managers initially balked at but have started to embrace data-based decision-making.
Similarly, Lyons predicts PR will soon follow sports franchises and their marketing colleagues into a new phase of Moneyball where analytics and measurement becomes more important, more powerful and more valued. PR pros will soon realize that the traditional metrics no longer are enough. Going forward, measurement experts will correlate PR campaigns to their effect on sales, client retention, product innovation and other key business metrics.
In this new measurement era, PR practitioners will need to become skilled in statistics and the best PR pros will put data analytics to strategic use.
Dawn of a Golden Age
While some believe PR currently suffers an identity crisis, the ability to gather and apply data may have brought PR to the edge of a golden age, in the opinion of media expert Jonathan Bean, COO of Mynewsdesk. PR can turn to science and substance to thrive, he contends. The key is to exploit the data, analytics and tech tools now available.
“With the proliferation of new PR technology tools, today’s communications professional has never been in a better place to use data and technology to anchor, execute and evaluate both PR strategy and tactics,” Bean asserts.
The Barcelona principles and the AMEC Valid Metrics Framework helped bring substance to PR, but the profession must do more, Bean argues.
Connecting the impact of PR on corporate or brand objectives including sales, reputation and customer loyalty constitutes the next level of PR measurement. Armed with data and analytics, PR can revamp its image as a soft, expendable staff department and re-establish itself as a vital and irreplaceable contributor to corporate success.
Bottom Line: Measurement and greater use of data open new opportunities for PR. To take advantage of the substantial amounts of data now available, PR pros must become more analytical and learn how to correlate the success of their efforts to key business metrics.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
