Don W. Stacks, Ph.D. Professor of Public Relations/Corporate Communication

University of Miami Coral Gables, FL 33124 don.stacks@miami.edu

@donstacks

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What Communication Variables Influence Communication?*

• Five communication variables that influence audiences

• Credibility—believability of company

• Reputation—how a company is perceived historically

• Relationship—perception of a tie between audience and

company

• Trust—an emotional tie to company

• Confidence—a cognitive evaluation that company will do what

it will do

• Serve as mediating factors that influence expectations

*These are what we should be measuring!

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A Model of Expectations

Outcome=B ± [Credibility ± Relationship ± Reputation ± Trust ] ± Confidence + Error

From: Primer of Public Relations Research, Second Edition, by Don W. Stacks. Copyright 2011 by The Guilford Press. All rights reserved.

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Overview of the Public Relations Focus on Measurement

Methods

Expectation Measures–ROE

Behavior/ Financial Indicators

ROI

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Time Development (Evaluation) Refinement (Evaluation) Final Evaluation

Secondary/ Benchmark

Informational/Evaluation

Motivational/Evaluation

Behavioral/ Evaluation

Planned benchmarked evaluations

Adapted from: Primer of Public Relations Research, Second Edition, by Don W. Stacks. Copyright 2011 by The Guilford Press. All rights reserved.

The Research Continuum Three objectives that are measured In any reputational evaluation

and gathered through qualitative and quantitative methods

Baseline

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Prerequisites to PR Measurement

Goals and objectives reflect business goals and objectives

A baseline must be established prior to engaging in a campaign

Benchmarks—expected outcomes during the campaign for information, motivation, and behavioral expectations—must be set

Multiple research methods should be employed

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Communication Lifecycle©*

Build Awareness

Advance Knowledge

Sustain Relevance

Initiate Action

Create Advocacy

*Used with permission of David Michaelson.

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Outputs

What PR produces Releases, brochures, tweets–our

informational objectives Counts

Placed? Recalled? Understood?

Simple metrics

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Outtakes

What our audience thinks/What our 3rd Party Endorsers (influencers) say—our motivational objectives

Scaled measures Attitude Belief Value

We have set standards for metrics Avoid forced choice (must provide for neutrality) Must have multiple “items” in the measure Must be able to demonstrate reliability and validity of the metric

Methods/Metrics employed Stakeholder surveys 3rd Party Endorser message content analysis

○ Tone, share of voice, errors & omission analysis

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Outcomes

What we achieved as behavioral actions—our behavioral objectives

Must be correlated with business outcomes Sales? Attendance? Satisfaction? Elected?

Are predictable through statistical analysis before the end of any PR campaign or program

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Why Standardization?

Standards tell us what and when to measure

Best Practices tell us how to measure Gives us a point to evaluate against—

Comparative Evaluation Gives us Professionalism

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Standards for Public Relations Measurement and Metrics

Most use outtake measures as attitude scales Composed of multiple “items” or statements Usually Likert-type items ○ Simple statement ○ Responded to usually on a continuum

I will purchase ABC SD D ND/SA A SA I think ABC is a good brand SD D ND/SA A SA I hate ABC SD D ND/SA A SA

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Standard PRactice, cont’d.

Can assess reliability (consistency) statistically and logically ○ Are negative and positive items responded

consistently ○ Can run a reliability statistic (usually

Coefficient α) Can establish the metric’s validity in 4 steps

while creating a metric ○ Face validity

Content validity ○ Construct validity

Criterion-related

validity

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Demonstrating Data via Dashboards*

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*Used with permission of Katie Paine

Summary

Standard practice in PR measurement must have A measured baseline (how else to claim success?) Measurable and comparative objective benchmarks

(how else to know if on target and phase?) Must include measurement reliability Must include measurement validity

Doesn’t matter which kind of measure employed, from simple counting to complex attitudinal assessment—this is the standard we must adhere to

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Appendix

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Goals & Objectives

Goal: General outcome expected by campaign end

Objective: Very specific projected outcome Outtake: Response from intended target

Opinion leader Editor

Output: Individual communication element Impact of specific tactics Written, visual, verbal

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Writing Objectives

Objectives are Cause & Effect related Specific to the problem

Types Informational

○ General and specific knowledge

Motivational ○ Attitudinal and belief

oriented Behavioral (most

important!) ○ Actual counts, $$$, and

so forth

Writing Written with both output

and outcome in mind Almost always start with

“to” Must include some

measurable outcome — it must be quantifiable

In a campaign, begin with informational, then motivational, and finally behavioral objectives

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Stating Objectives

Should be in the form: To (verb) target audience (do) by (amount of change) by (target

date for outcome)

Should be results oriented in terms of Information (Knowledge) Motivational (Predispositions toward object) Behavior (Impact on business)

Should specify a single outcome May require multiple objectives Knowledge Predisposition Behavior

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Sample Objectives

To increase the number of senior public relations professionals who know how to write correct objectives from X to XX by December 15. (Information Objective)

To increase the percentage of senior public relations professionals who think measurement is essential to PR practice by 15-20% by July 1. (Motivational Objective)

To increase the number of senior public relations professionals who actually write measurable objectives from 5% to 25% by June 1, 2010. (Behavior Objective)

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Internal Objectives

All campaigns take a strategy and implement it via some form of output

Internal objectives can be best looked at as specific output objectives that will lead to outtake and outcome objectives

Add the “by” or “through” to the objective: To increase the number of senior public

relations professionals who know how to write correct objectives from X to XX through press releases to opinion leaders by December 15.

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Research objectives Each objective will have to paired with a

research objective–how will you evaluate success or failure?

Succession would be: Business Public Relations ○ Goal(s) Goals (I/M/B) ○ Objective (s) Objectives (I/M/B) ○ Outcome Internal objective ○ Evaluation Research objective

(I/M/B)

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Measurement Objectives

Stated as how the data will be collected “To gather employee attitudinal data (what) on

brand trust (outcome) by conducting focus groups (method) after CEO town hall meetings (when)”

“To track brand share of voice (outtake/outcome) through content analysis (method) of X industry bloggers via key message emails (what) from baseline, XX November, 20XX, to 1st benchmark, XX January, 20XX (when).”

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