Scott Malish addresses one of the issues we’ve been discussing a lot lately in FirstWord Digital: how to most accurately measure the ROI of our online PR campaigns.

PR pros must live and breathe social media and think up new, unique ways to use it for clients. But at the same time, it is also up to us to be able to measure the impact those social media channels are having for clients.  And to go even further, it is time for the industry to push clients for their business data - whether it’s sales, web traffic, whatever - so that PR can measure the effectiveness of their work against it.  This will not only help improve levels of client service substantially, it will hold PR accountable. And by doing so, we will have the opportunity to become true business partners and not just a “nice to have” extension of marketing.

Especially in the online brands sphere, it is becoming more and more necessary to work with our clients’ back-end Web developers for access to traffic data and detailed analytics. As public relations professionals, it’s also our duty to educate our clients about the fact that ROI consists of more than just numbers. The wise Paull Young pointed me toward this article, which maintains that outcomes (the degree of success of your campaign) are more important than outputs (how many eyeballs saw it).

Hits, subscribers, friends and tags…measure dissemination, not change in opinion, impact or action. They measure outputs, not outcomes.

In an ideal world, we’d be able to judge our PR successes solely and subjectively on the positive influence it had on its audience. Yet pragmatic publicists know that for the vast majority of clients, numbers are still king. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work as hard as we can to change those attitudes.

—Alyssa

We talk a decent amount about measuring social media ROI here at M Booth, but still feel as if the industry has not come up with a definitive answer.  Although we do know that the definition is one that is steering away from metrics and more toward engagement, there’s still no clear strategy.  This article from MarketingProfs.com takes a look at what social media superstars like Gary Vaynerchuk have to say about the issue.

-Maria

rodrakic:

In the absence of any accepted metrics, businesses still need to be able to determine whether or not a social media program is moving the needle, moving product or otherwise making an impact. This largely depends on the company’s social media objectives. Because these dramatically differ based on the organization, it’s impossible to agree upon standards. That doesn’t mean we can’t measure ROI at the company level, though.