Measuring Public Relationships

Measuring Public Relationships

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Measuring Public Relationships

KDPaine & Parners

Berlin, New Hampshire

The Data-Driven Communicator’s

Guide to Success

Katie Delahaye Paine

William T. Paarlberg, editor

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First published in 2007 by

KDPaine & Partners, LLC

177 Main Street

Berlin, NH 03570 USA

Copyright © 2007 Katie Delahaye Paine.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or trans￾mitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from KDPaine & Partners, LLC. Reviewers

may quote brief passages.

ISBN 978-0-9789899-0-3

Cover and text design by Phillip Augusta

Typeset in Palatino

[printer info]

Printed in the United States of America

12 11 10 09 08 07 6 5 4 3 2 1

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of

the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of

Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48–1992 (R1997).

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Contents

Illustrations vii

Foreword ix

Preface xiii

1. An Introduction to Measurement 1

2. Measurement Tools and What They Cost 27

3. Measuring Relationships with the Media 41

4. Measuring Relationships with

Analysts and Influencers 59

5. Comparing Media Relations

to Other Marketing Disciplines 67

6. Measuring Trust and Mistrust 79

7. Measuring the Impact of Events and

Sponsorships on Your Public Relationships 89

8. Measuring Relationships with

Your Local Community 99

9. Measuring Internal Communications 107

10. Measuring Blogs and Social Media Relationships 119

11. Measuring Relationships in a Crisis 135

12. Measuring Relationships Developed

Through Speaking Engagements 147

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vi | Contents

13. Measuring Relationships with Your

Membership Organization or Association 153

14. Measuring Relationships with Sales People,

Channel Partners, and Franchisees 161

15. Measuring Relationships with the

Investment Community 169

16. Putting It All Together in a Dashboard 175

Epilogue: Whither Measurement? 185

Glossary 189

Appendix 1: The Grunig Relationship Survey 197

Appendix 2: Measurement Resources 201

Index 203

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vi | Contents

Figures

1. Media analysis is one way to demonstrate

what works and what doesn’t. 9

2. Use charts like this to demonstrate

what works and what doesn’t. 11

3. It’s important that you define benchmarks

appropriate to your company’s goals. 21

4. Charts of criteria of success. 46

5. Using cost per message communicated to compare

the effectiveness of different tactics. 53

6. Graph of the dramatic change in tone of

New Hampshire’s coverage from 1992 to 2000. 64

7. Endorsement of New Hampshire as a desirable

place increases, 1995 to 2000. 65

8. “First in the Nation” key message is communicated

more frequently in 2000 than 1996. 65

9. Percent attendee response to: “After the event,

did you feel more or less likely to visit the

showroom of the sponsor?” 95

10. Comparing events with projected ROI. 96

Illustrations

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viii | Illustrations

11. Volume of coverage over time for three crises. 139

12. Volume of coverage over time for three crises. 140

Tables

1. Laying out your goals, actions, and metrics

will help you define your measurement criteria. 20

2. You must select measurement tools that can

best measure your goals. 29

3. Choose the survey tools that best fit your program. 31

4. Media content analysis: manual or automated? 34

5. Media Categories to Consider for Analysis 44

6. Commonly tracked issues 45

7. Community influencers 101

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viii | Illustrations

Foreword

In Measuring Public Relationships: The Data-driven Communicator’s

Guide to Success, Katie Delahaye Paine has written a book that

represents the University of Measurement. We opened the book

with great expectations, having known and admired Katie over

the years. We closed it understanding a great deal more about

both the theory and the nitty-gritty of measurement than when

we began.

The book provides a useful appendix of resources that

include books and websites, such as that of the Institute

for Public Relations Research, dealing with measurement.

However, this book alone offers all that most practitioners

of public relations will need to satisfy their clients and their

own curiosity. It is both current and replete with examples

from Katie’s rich experience.

Along the way, Katie writes with confidence and trans￾parency. As a result, she helps create the very kind of

relationship with readers that she urges them to measure

with their publics—a relationship born of trust. For just one

example: How many professional communicators—especially

those earning a living doing research—remind you that less

can be more when conducting a survey? As Katie puts it,

“You can probably get most of the information you need

from talking to 250 people … [s]o don’t get talked into sur￾MPR.1stPages 9 9/21/07, 1:57 PM

x | Foreword Foreword | xi

veying thousands if you don’t really need to.” Good advice,

but rare in a world where commercial firms may charge by

the numbers.

Katie also provides cogent and concise explanations of

the often arcane world of measurement and evaluation. In

the above example, she explains that it’s possible to survey

a mere 500 people and get a representative sample of the

whole population of the United States. Thus the book speaks

to novices and veterans of the world of measurement.

Throughout, Katie emphasizes the importance of mea￾suring relationships. In this way alone, she sets her book

apart from many others—those that focus on media hits,

for example, or strategic messaging. She clearly differenti￾ates among measuring outputs, outtakes, and outcomes. She

proceeds from one strategic public to another, not assuming

that one system of measurement fits all. So she describes

how to measure relationships with the community, opinion

leaders, employees, members, investors, partners, the media,

and sales reps. She teases out what is unique about evaluat￾ing relationships in times of crisis and through blogs. She

tells how to plan and budget. She does all this through both

words and figures, exactly as a competent research report

would be prepared.

In Measuring Public Relationships, Katie Paine walks the

walk that so many of her colleagues merely talk about. The

typical book on research, like too many researchers, over￾promises and under-delivers. Readers, anxious to know more

and to do better, approach these books with optimism but

leave in frustration at the level of the text or its inadequate

explication. At the very least, their minds feel chloroformed

by the language.

By contrast, here we have a book that is a lively, engag￾ing, accessible, wise, and candid reflection of all Katie has

done and learned. Her legacy in this book of accumulated

wisdom is guaranteed. It is such a remarkable compendium

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x | Foreword Foreword | xi

that it almost makes us wish we hadn’t retired, so we could

assign it as required reading in every single class.

Larissa A. Grunig

James E. Grunig

Professors Emeriti

Department of Communication

University of Maryland

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Preface

We talk about the quality of product and service. What about the

quality of our relationships, and the quality of our communica￾tions and the quality of our promises to each other?

— Max De Pree

Once upon a time not very long ago, there was a state university

in a small town in New England. Both the university and the

town needed new soccer fields. One of the university’s alumni,

a successful local entrepreneur, stepped forward and offered to

donate $6 million so the university could build them. A site was

selected, town officials were notified, and the university assumed

it would soon be hosting soccer tournaments.

Now the university was a venerable institution, and it took

care to maintain its reputation of quality and prestige by com￾municating about itself to the world. But it failed to understand

that some very important changes had been occurring in the

town. For much of the university’s history, most of the people

who lived in the town year round either worked for the uni￾versity, or had family or friends involved there. Over recent

decades, however, rising real estate prices and property taxes

had forced much of the faculty and staff out of town. Their

houses were bought up by retirees and commuters who had

no particular connection with the university. So the town’s

permanent residents, who had once formed a sympathetic

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xiv | Preface Preface | xv

constituency, gradually changed into an inactive, disengaged

public. The university’s reputation with this new public was

still fine, but the strength of its connection with them was now

different—unmeasured and untested.

Several years before the soccer fields were planned, the uni￾versity had embarked on a different large construction project,

a 6,000-seat sports and entertainment arena. The university,

a tax-exempt and local zoning-exempt state entity, chose to

simply notify the townspeople of their plans. It completely

failed to anticipate that the town’s permanent residents might

object to potential parking problems or the absence of any local

tax benefits. As a result, many townspeople felt railroaded by

the university and their town officials, and, after a conten￾tious political campaign, replaced the town leadership. Over

the course of that campaign a powerful grassroots organization

developed, joined together by an influential email list 2,000

names strong.

Let’s skip ahead a couple of years to the soccer fields pro￾posal. The university, despite its strong public relations depart￾ment, had been making no effort to understand the concerns

of its constituencies. It was unaware that a good part of the

town’s permanent residents had become well-organized and

were potentially quite hostile. When the university announced

their new construction project, the reaction was swift, noisy,

and disastrous. The citizens’ group and other opponents got

the attention of the statewide media, and used email and their

listserve to ensure that every university trustee and every politi￾cian heard their complaints.

Less than two months after being announced, the proposed

soccer fields were cancelled, the $6-million gift was rejected, and

the university president stepped down. It was a stiff price to pay

for misunderstanding one’s publics. What went wrong?

Some argue that the university should have just paid more

attention to its PR. And it should have. But the missing concept

here is more complex than communications, or even reputation.

What the university failed to understand or evaluate was the

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