We've spoken about PR measurement and how it's always been PR's biggest challenge. We've also delved into Inbound PR and how the concept provides a framework to really measure outcomes not just outputs.
But we haven't really dug into how you should plan your PR campaigns and programmes with metrics in mind.
So today I want to introduce you to AMEC's new integrated evaluation framework which enables professionals to use the Barcelona Principles 2.0 to plan and tie PR activities back to organisational performance.
The framework was launched in June and its interactive version is pretty cool. Most importantly, it's very intuitive and simple to use so that any new practitioner (or even a student) can follow the steps to plan, execute, measure and report on a fully integrated communications campaign.
The Planning Stage
The framework spans through each PESO channel and looks at the following points to get you to start planning your PR programme (note, the order is important):
- Objectives - what you want to achieve
- Inputs - what you need in preparation for communication
- Activity - things you do to plan and produce your communication
- Outputs - what you put out that is received by target audiences
- Out-takes - what your audiences do with and take out of your communication
- Outcomes - effect that your communication has on audiences
- Impact - the results that are caused, in full or in part, by your communication
Now, some of those terms might be confusing, so AMEC helps us here too with a great taxonomy table that provides more information about those points, including key steps, metrics, milestones, examples and methods of evaluation for each.
How the Tool Works
I am a huge fan of interactive tools and gamification which is one of the things that I love the most about this tool.
It also makes it super easy for you because it gets you to start with the first most important step (objectives) and then logically guides you to the next until you come to step 7.
For each step, you fill out the respective information you need that you've already gathered in your planning stage. For example, Activity and Outputs ask you for details on each PESO channel as you can see below.
And at the end once you've filled out everything, this is what you get - a full view of your entire campaign, everything you did and everything you achieved, downloadable as PDF and super easy to share and show to your boss (or whoever):
This is amazing! I am so impressed with this tool. We really needed something integrated, interactive, something fun and simple to use, something that visualises everything in one single place, something that gets you to focus on the right steps and metrics (you see, there are no AVEs here!).
More Resources
One of my other favourite parts of the new resource and website for the AMEC framework are the resources suggestions here. It's basically a list that spans across traditional media, social/digital media, paid media, market research, business insights and data visualisation and misc which basically gives you a bunch of websites and other great tools that enable you to track various metrics and data. There are some pretty good analytics suggestions included.
For me, the new AMEC framework is more than just a measurement tool, it's a planning and execution tool that makes you decide on the appropriate metrics before you even start doing any PR work and only based on that to choose the appropriate activities, outputs, out-takes etc. It's a strategic tool to improving and measuring organisational performance.
What do you think about the new measurement framework?
