Hi folks,
thanks for reading PR Chatter it is much appreciated. I have decided to consolidate my PR blogs...you can now catch up on my latest thoughts on PR, social media, web 2.0 and the digital world at
www.socialwebthing.com
20 November, 2009
05 November, 2009
Auditors in PR measurement madness
I was pretty horrified to read on the front cover of PR Week that there are plans afoot to start measuring local government communications by the number of press releases distributed.
Whilst I fully accept the Audit Commission and National Audit Office have a job to do, to see where public money is being spent – press release distribution is not one of the benchmarks we should be using.
As Alex Aitken, Director of Comms at Westminster City Council said ‘there is a stunning naivety in attempting to judge comms by this yardstick’.
This saga once again shows that the PR industry needs to come up with standard KPIs that can be shown to auditors and senior management. Aitken suggests using the resident informed rating, but also evaluating campaigns and their impact.
There is a lot more to PR than just press releases – we as PROs talk a good game, now we need to start measuring it.
Whilst I fully accept the Audit Commission and National Audit Office have a job to do, to see where public money is being spent – press release distribution is not one of the benchmarks we should be using.
As Alex Aitken, Director of Comms at Westminster City Council said ‘there is a stunning naivety in attempting to judge comms by this yardstick’.
This saga once again shows that the PR industry needs to come up with standard KPIs that can be shown to auditors and senior management. Aitken suggests using the resident informed rating, but also evaluating campaigns and their impact.
There is a lot more to PR than just press releases – we as PROs talk a good game, now we need to start measuring it.
27 October, 2009
Sidewiki strife
On Friday my digital copy of PR Week ran an interesting article on Google’s latest offering – the Sidewiki. This new feature allows anyone who has the Google toolbar to write comments that will be viewed next to a companies website when it is googled.
It is hoped that this facility will contribute useful information to the internet, however it is sure to provide PROs with a few headaches. My greatest concern is that it is so open to abuse – whilst, I would never condone astroturfing, a robust system of moderation and complaints procedure is needed. There are so many emotive, grey areas out there that I see this being troublesome as opposed to useful.
The best piece of advice for organisations seems to be claim your site in the Google Webmaster Tools ASAP - this allows you to get ahead of the game and post a special entry above all others on the Sidewiki.
Whilst some PROs may be predicting a doomsday scenario for reputation management, we should take heart from Wikipedia – even though there are some instances of vandalism and articles that are not up to scratch, on the whole I’m impressed with the speed, quality and accuracy of the content.
Hopefully Sidewiki can be more like Wikipedia than a messageboard.
It is hoped that this facility will contribute useful information to the internet, however it is sure to provide PROs with a few headaches. My greatest concern is that it is so open to abuse – whilst, I would never condone astroturfing, a robust system of moderation and complaints procedure is needed. There are so many emotive, grey areas out there that I see this being troublesome as opposed to useful.
The best piece of advice for organisations seems to be claim your site in the Google Webmaster Tools ASAP - this allows you to get ahead of the game and post a special entry above all others on the Sidewiki.
Whilst some PROs may be predicting a doomsday scenario for reputation management, we should take heart from Wikipedia – even though there are some instances of vandalism and articles that are not up to scratch, on the whole I’m impressed with the speed, quality and accuracy of the content.
Hopefully Sidewiki can be more like Wikipedia than a messageboard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
