Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles

The folks at the European Measurement Summit have agreed on 7 principles of PR measurement:

1.Goal setting and measurement are fundamental to doing PR

2.Goals should be as quantitative as possible and address who what when and how much the PR program is intended to affect

3.Measurement should include representative traditional and social media as well as target audience changes in awareness comprehension attitude and behavior as applicable.

4.Aves are not the value of public relations

5.Social Media Can and Should be measured

6.Measuring Outcomes is preferred to measuring media results

7.Business results and outcomes should be measured whenever possible

(Measurement maven KD Paine provides the sub bullets to each of the 7 principles above here)

Pretty obvious stuff, one might say.  However, given that the Global Alliance, the ICCO, PRSA, AMEC and the IPR’s Measurement Commission are voting (along with 200 measurementarati attendees) and agreeing, that’s progress.



Measurement Standards 2 Emerge from “Commitment Conference” (again?)

(Hat tip to Jack O’Dwyer’s June 2 newsletter article from which pieces of this post were culled)

Communications and measurement industry heavyweights will using next weeks’ European Measurement Summit in Barcelona (June 16-18), as a back drop against which to talk about “establishing standard metrics and measurement techniques for adoption throughout the industry” in what is apparently being called the “Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles.”

Apparently, this will be the first time that the leaders of the global (I’m not sure they all truly are global) professional bodies–AMEC, Global Alliance, ICCO, IPR’s Measurement Commission, and the PRSA–will share the stage.

I’d like to be a fly on that conference room wall but I’ll settle for cat-like state of readiness on the live tweetstream hashtag.  HINT.

Looking forward to reading what comes out of those sessions.

I’ve always thought we need to be really careful with what, precisely, we mean by standards.

Standard metrics? in some cases, sure, but doesn’t that depend on objectives?

Standard methods? I thought we had those.  Content analysis for media content.  Surveying / polling for, well, you get the idea…and so on.

Standard set of best practices and guiding principles? OK, but I thought we already had those, too.  Didn’t the IPR Measurement Commission and PRSA do that last year?

Could this be measurement’s watershed moment?  Fingers and toes.

In any event, a dialogue like this, at a conference like this, among those organization can, I hope, only be the start of a good thing in the long run.



European Measurement Summit Looks Strong

The second annual European Measurement Summit organized jointly by AMEC (The International Association for Measurement & Evaluation of Communications) & the Institute for PR (and it’s thought leading measurement commission of which I am disciple and booster) is gearing up.  It’s in Barcelona this year; June 16-18.  (Wish I was attending but I’m looking forward to following the twit stream via hastag). 

If it’s anything like the quality of the U.S. Measurement Summit in New Hampshire (looking at the lineup of speakers there’s every indication that it will be) it’s a must attend for the measurement-curious through to the measurement thought leaders and all points between.