Share This Too: More Social Media Solutions for PR Professionals

Chapter 30

Metrics that Matter

Richard Bagnall

Social media measurement should not be an afterthought left solely to software platforms auto-generating fancy graphs and charts. Done properly it should be tailored to your organization's objectives, with emphasis on what has changed as a result of your work.

Output, outtake and outcomes. Three words that most PR practitioners should be familiar with but to which may not have given much thought. Yet in the understanding of these three simple words lie the challenges and the opportunities that the PR industry faces when looking to measure its effect successfully and credibly in both traditional and social media measurement.

Let's begin with looking at each of them in turn. AMEC, the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications, which does so much to promote education and better understanding in communications measurement, has created an online glossary of terms used in PR and social media measurement. AMEC defines each of these terms as:

AMEC's standard definitions of output, outtake and outcome

Output

“The material and activity that the PR professional generates such as a press release, email, events etc. as well as the ensuing media coverage that is generated. Outputs will also include proactive communication by an organisation on its owned media channels and properties.”

Outtake

“What an audience now understands having been exposed to content about an organisation or a brand. Outtake occurs ...