4 tips to identify and replace useless PR metrics
Is your measurement in a rut? Rethink what you’re tracking, eliminate ancillary stats, and focus on extracting insight.
If you’ve been measuring PR results for a while, it’s likely your reports contain at least a few meaningless metrics.
Maybe they’re outdated, ancillary or obsolete. Perhaps you’ve been trying to measure activities with data points that don’t really capture what you want them to. In any case, your measurement is getting dragged down by dead weight.
Sound familiar? Here are four approaches to dealing with broken or meaningless metrics:
1. Rethink what you’re measuring.
This approach works particularly well if you have a new boss or CEO. Explain that you’ve decided to measure your performance against actual business objectives, so you’re revamping monthly or quarterly reports to reflect the impact on business goals.
This approach can be tricky if there are people invested in the old data points. Even if it’s useless or antiquated information, some folks might fight to keep the old ways simply due to familiarity. Be prepared for tough conversations to make sure everyone agrees on what metrics are most important.
As for how many items to track, everyone will be happier to see five meaningful metrics—as opposed to 105 numbers no one knows what to do with.
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