How to measure the impact of communication

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About the author

Kevin is a co-founder of PR Academy and editor/co-author of Exploring Internal Communication published by Routledge. Kevin leads the CIPR Internal Communication Diploma course. PhD, MBA, BA Hons, PGCE, FCIPR, CMgr, MCMI.

PR Academy’s measurement guide sets out to simplify what can often seem to be an overwhelmingly difficult challenge for practitioners – measuring communication effectiveness.

Let’s be clear.

Measurement is not easy.

We’ve been struggling to get to grips with it for many years. But it is doable if you follow some core principles, especially those established by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC).

Their recently updated Barcelona Principles 3.0 are the bedrock for PR Academy’s guide which focuses on linking measurement to robust research and planning.

The associations between research, planning and measurement are obvious enough.

However, in practice, they can get lost in the quest for just getting on with comms – sometimes any comms just to create some noise. Having a range of well-informed communication objectives at the start of a campaign makes measurement more straightforward and less subjective.

For example, it’s pointless running a health awareness campaign without any objectives and then saying that one thousand views of a video is good.

One thousand views have to be set in the context of what could be achievable with the resources available. For some campaigns, one thousand views might actually be a very poor result.

PR Academy’s guide has a set of five fundamental levels for measurement:

  1. Content consumption
  2. Understanding
  3. Attitudes
  4. Behaviours
  5. Organisational objectives

 

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It provides a summary of the methods that can be used for measurement within each level.

There is often a general impression that it is not possible to track the way that public relations and communication management activities impact behaviour and organisational objectives. Although to do so is not necessarily easy, it is possible and the guide outlines some of the processes that can be used.

Measuring internal communication and relationship management

The guide also includes sections on internal communication measurement and relationship management measurement. General frameworks on measurement cannot easily be applied to internal communication and so a dedicated approach is included in the guide to help communication managers to measure the right things for good and ethical practice.

General frameworks also tend to focus on channels within a PESO (Paid-Earned-Shared-Owned) model for communication. This omits the importance of relationships in public relations and so a summary of Hon and Grunig’s valuable academic work in this space is also included in the guide.

Download: Guide to PR and Communication Measurement

The guide will help you to:

  • Understand different research methods
  • Make measurement an integral part of your strategy
  • Prove the value of the great work that you do
Guide to PR and Communication Measurement

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