Taking the Measure of PR

Seeking insight into how to measure the success or failure of public relations programs?  Here are some truisms from the keynote speaker at yesterday's gathering in New York on the subject:

1. "[The] measure of the value created by social media is qualitative, not quantitative." 

2. Quarterly sales results are not a meaningful measure of long-term relationship building. 

3. Business intangibles are where a lot of PR benefit is created. 

4. "Content that moves creates power"--i.e., it needs to be disseminated/distributed/shared. 

5. Share of conversation can be an indicator of sales. 

6. When a conversation has been identified as relevant, marketing managers want to know how people connect to it and how they can keep the conversation going. 

7. "Sometimes it's not about ROI [return on investment]; it's about relevance."

The speaker was Mark W. Schaefer, a marketing consultant and Rutgers University instructor.  The event sponsored by Cision and Vocus, was part of AMEC (International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) Measurement Week.

-- Jeff Bogart  

Financial Media for Sale: Step Right Up!

The sale over the last year and the recently reported shopping by Thomson Reuters of some specialty financial media (peHUB Wire 9/8/14) suggest, arguably, that their owners foresaw--and Thomson Reuters still foresees--slacking sales and lower profit margins, as well as declining financial markets and the economy in the future.  After all, if results can only get better and not worse, why sell? 

So let's speculate, for a moment, about how things might get worse for possible new owners of such media.  New owners will have limited options to make back their purchase price plus a profit--they can, of course, cut costs by firing staff and by eliminating print editions.  Or they can seek to hike revenue by raising the price of their products to subscribers, by raising ad prices; by adding more product extensions such as conferences and webinars; and by changing the substance of those products to attract a wider, more general audience.  The downsides of these strategies include degradation in product quality and declines in the existing audience and advertising bases. 

On the other hand, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, every cloud has a silver lining, each option carries not only risk but opportunity, and, as has been said, "The meek may inherit the earth--but not its mineral rights."  There may indeed be ways to profit from the purchase, such as by adding to the subscriber base and demographics and content of the purchaser's already existing media properties. 

In that case, step right up, ladies and gentlemen.  For Thomson Reuters's media properties PeHUB ("a blog that covers PE and VC news"), Buyouts ("a bi-weekly magazine that covers news and trends in the buyouts market") and VCJ (Venture Capital Journal--"a monthly magazine that covers the venture capital business"), let the sale process begin.

-- Jeff Bogart  

Lessons From This Year's U.S. Open:

1) Due to upsets, the best/most exciting Grand Slam tennis matches often occur in the quarter- and semi-finals. 

2) It's time to add scoreboards for the onsite fans so they can keep count of aces, serving speed, rally lengths, winners/errors, remaining challenges.

3) Focus TV cameras on serve speed more often than now, especially when there is a big-deal server. 

4) Why not give awards to the most entertaining player, the fastest serving player, the most strategic player, and the first-time player deemed most likely to succeed.

5) And last but not least, to offset the advantage gained by super-serving giants whose height and wingspans exceed 6' 5", raise the height of the net and enlarge the side of the court they occupy!    

                                                                                                -- Jeff Bogart