The Pr Toolkit – Measurement And Evaluation

In this episode of Elevate PR’s IGTV PR Toolkit, Elevate’s Emma Kelly sat down with Dr Martina Byrne, Chief Executive of the Public Relations Institute of Ireland, and the Public Relations Consultants’ Association, to discuss PR measurement and evaluation.

Emma and Martina talked about tips and trends, setting KPIs and what success looks like. Here are the main points from their conversation.

Column Inches
Martina believes the most important thing about PR measurement is recognising that it is not just about column inches and likes. PR plays a key role in organisations and for brands because we PR professionals understand the audience, how to reach them, where to reach them, how to construct the message, and how to tell the story. The choice of channel is important, as are the tools of the trade, but ultimately it is about reaching the objectives.

Covid Impact
Covid has resulted in a lot of short-term thinking and quick tactical wins to get instant results, which can be easy to measure as they happen, but how do they impact the outcomes that the business needs to see?

Tips & Trends
Decide from the outset what you want to measure, what you need to measure, and how you are going to measure it. Measurement and evaluation should be looked at and examined throughout a campaign and not just at the end, to allow for tweaks to strategy.

Emma and Martina finished up talking about the Barcelona Principles, which are the international standard for PR and communications measurement. They focus on outcomes, not just outputs, to help the industry adopt a better standard of measurement and evaluation.

Martina talked about ‘vanity metrics’ and stressed that it’s not all about numbers. She concluded by saying the big story of the next decade in PR will be the use of data, the ability to analyse it and tell a story from the analysis.

You can watch the full conversation over on IGTV channel here, and if you would like to talk to us about a PR campaign for your brand or organisation, reach out to claire@elevate.ie or emma@elevate.ie.