VII Regional EACD Lisbon Debate over the topic "Communication Evaluation: what’s beyond AVE" 19th may 2011, presentation by Paula Nobre, ESCS - IPL

1. MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION RESEARCH
IN CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Paula Nobre
Ana Raposo
Escola Superior de Comunicação Social
19 de Maio 2011

2. Analyze some methodologies of measurement and
evaluation that have recently been proposed specially in
academic and research sets.
PURPOSE

3. Public Relations = Corporate Communication
↓
Strategic Management Function
Relationship Management between
organisation - publics
Research and Evaluation are essential to PR activity
PUBLIC RELATIONS

4. • Until the end of last century evaluation was not a
main concern both for profissionals and
academics
• This is not true any more!
• The last 10 years have been proficuous in
evaluation on PR metrics
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND EVALUATION

5. • Importance of Goal Setting and Measurement
• Measuring the Effect on Outcomes is Preferred to Measuring Outputs
• The Effect on Business Results Can and Should Be Measured Where
Possible
• Media Measurement Requires Quantity and Quality
• AVEs are not the Value of Public Relations
• Social Media Can and Should be Measured
• Transparency and Replicability are Paramount to Sound
Measurement
BARCELONA PRINCIPLES

6. Program level
Individual communication programs
Functional level
Evaluation of the overall PR function of a organization
Organizacional level
The contribution that RP makes to the overall efectiveness
Societal level
Evaluations of the contrubution that organization make to the
overall welfare of a society
PR MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION

7. Setting Specific Measurable PR Goals and Objectives
• Measuring PR Outputs
• Measuring PR Outtakes
• Measuring PR Outcomes
• Measuring Business and/or Organizational Outcomes
WHAT WE MEASURE

8. • Measure the economic value of media coverage
• Comparing messages with completly different
contents
• Not possible to measure the value of a negative
new
• Not possible to measure the value of the non-
coverage
• Focus on outpus instead of outcomes
MEDIAL RELATIONS AND AVE

9. • Measuring only outputs on PR Programs is
simplistic and inadequate
• We are not measuring the ability of PR to create
value for the organization
WHAT’S BEYOND AVE?

10. PR makes an organization more effective, when:
• Identifies the most strategic publics as part of
strategic management processes
• Conducts communication programs to develop
and maintain effective long-term relationships
between management and those publics.
RELATIONSHIPS

11. • Long-term relationships can be measured using
six indicators :
– Control Mutuality
– Trust
– Satisfaction
– Commitment
– Exchange Relationship
– Communal Relationships
HOW TO MEASURE RELATIONSHIPS

12. • Positive relationships result in strong reputations
REPUTATION
Corporate reputation is a perceptual representation of a
company’s past actions and future prospects that
describes the firm’s overall appeal to all of its key
constituents when compared with other leading rivals.
(Fombrun, 1996, pp.57)

13. • Reputations can be measured by assessing the
degree of Admiration, Trust, Good Feeling and
Overall Esteem for companies (Reputation
Institute)
• Reputation Quotient –standardized instrument
criated in 1998 by Reputation Institute and Harris
Interactive to measure perceptions of companies
across industries and with multiple stakeholder
segments
HOW TO MEASURE REPUTATION

14. • Online survey to measure the reputation of the
world's largest 2,500+ companies in 40 countries
GLOBAL RepTrak – PULSE REPORTS

15. • The RepTrak™ model not only measures the health
of a company's reputation across stakeholders,
countries and industries, but also examines which of
7 key driver dimensions most influences the
company's reputation:
– Products / Services
– Innovation
– Workplace
– Governance
– Citizenship
– Leadrship
– Performance
GLOBAL RepTrak – PULSE REPORTS

16. • Other tools to measure specific items that
improve reputation process
– Media
– Risk
– Reputation Manual
– Alignment
– Workplace
– Country
TOOLS

17. • Are radically altering the marketplace and the
nature of stakeholder relationships
• Democratization of content
• Shift in the role people play in the process of reading
and disseminating information
• Two way symmetric dialogue – organisation/public
• Interactive nature
SOCIAL MEDIA

18. • What the cyber media is writing about you and
what your constituencies are seeing about you
(and your competition)
• What is the size of the impact you are having
• What your constituencies are saying about you
• What your constituencies think about you
• What action, if any, your constituencies are taking
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW IN CYBERSPACE?

19. • Conversation Index
• Conversations or Threads by Keywords
• Traffic
• Leads or Sales
• Calls to Action
• Engagement
• Autorithy
• Education and Participation
• Registrations, Membership, and Community
Activity
NEW METRICS FOR PR 2.0

20. • Google
• Radian6
• BuzzLogic
• Neilsen BuzzMetrics
• Social Networks and microcommunities
• Blogpulse Conversation by Neilsen BuzzMetrics
• Web & Social Analytics
TOOL EXEMPLES

21. Identification and evaluation of PR value to society
↓
Communication is a key element to overall
evaluation of the organisation performance
↓
Sustentability e CSR
- Certification SA 8000
- Sustainability Reports (Guidelines GRI)
EVALUATION AT SOCIETAL LEVEL

22. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
“Public Relations is about building relationships. In building
relationships we maintain connections between
organizations and the people they need to deal with in
order to function.
Working relationships which have a continuous dialogue
so they can be sustained, observed, nurtured and
adapted depending on the impact each party has on
the other.”
Catherine Arrow, in What is Public Relations,
www.prconversations.com