Measurement: Communication Dashboards

published 2006

As PR budgets get tighter there is increasing emphasis on ensuring that PR programs deliver a good ROI (Return on Investment)

Over the past 15 years the predominant measurement of pr programs has centred on simple media metrics like advertising value equivalent (AVE), albeit with some debate about their legitimacy, and qualitative and quantitative media analysis usually performed by external suppliers.

In recent years there has been more of an emphasis on Do-it-Yourself media evaluation ‘Dashboards’, often known as Communications Dashboards.

While in Australia to date we have been limited for choice, internationally dashboards are relatively commonplace.

 What is a Measurement Dashboard?

 We all know our car’s dashboard.  It displays only the most important and relevant performance indicators from the hundreds of things that are going on under the bonnet.  A communication or PR measurement dashboard is just the same, consolidating the myriad of critical information available, and displaying it in a simpler form.

In past seven or eight years Communication/PR Dashboards have become more prominent as the emphasis on measurement has increased.

What Does the Dashboard Measure?

The key areas that a communication dashboard can measure are:

• Key media targeted
• Favourability
• Issues
• Messages
• Share of visibility against competitors
• Share of voice on an issue
• Negative spokespeople
• Tone of article
• Positive spokespeople
• Journalist favourability

Information from the communication department can also be married with sales material to make the dashboard a particularly powerful tool and to demonstrate the value of the PR or communication function.

How customisable are they?

Dashboards are extremely customisable.  Their DIY attributes allow pr professionals to identify and employ the metrics that are most meaningful to their organisation. 

What is the leading DIY Dashboard?

One of the most well known international dashboards is that of KDPaine and Partners who design and implement the Do-It-Yourself Dashboard for communications and PR practitioners

What are some of the traps in using a Dashboard?

 Sitting on the Data

As with any research project, the data collected is the beginning not the end.  It is up to you to go back to your goals and come up with insight that can help you adjust or refine your campaigns.  Looking at your “outputs” is only a very small part of the equation.  Ensuring that you examine the results is the significant part, allowing you to put the results into action.

 Measuring the wrong thing

Albert Einstein once said “not everything that counts can be counted and you can’t count everything that counts”.  Ensure that the dashboard is part of a measurement program, not the only thing, and ensure that you are measuring the right things from the beginning.

 Future Dashboards

As the media industry changes so will the information being displayed and measured by the dashboards.  In future, it is highly likely that ‘Social Media” such as blogs, wikis and online communities all have measurements within the dashboard and will be integrated into existing communication measurements.

Note:  The author of this article is a senior Sydney-based independent corporate PR consultant who works with Australian PR Managers to help them evaluate and measure the effectiveness of PR programs. He also undertakes PR audits of PR Department structures and programs. In addition he provides specialist corporate PR and communications advice. He blogs regularly on PR and communications topics similar to those in this article.

See comment on the implications for Australian PR Directors and Managers of a 2010 US survey on PR measurement