Metric Silos - a desolate place to be

I have been reflecting on the Google Analytics Individual Qualification I did a few weeks ago. In particular, what benefit this might be to a PR person. 

We are surrounded by analytics tools and one of the many challenges is finding the right one for the job. 

If there is one thing I hate in PR it is silos. What I mean is separate media groups, separate networks and measurement tools and crucially, separate metrics. They require some comparative measure of return to justify overall resourcing. 

These silos run counter to the way the public sees the media; in the round - as one. At the same time these silos also run counter to the way business manage them. 

How do you decide how much time to ascribe to Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter when there is little commonality behind the metrics? 

The way these networks have developed leaves me with little doubt that a common currency does not exist.  Sure there is page views, users, sessions (GA), tweet impressions and weekly reach (FB Insights).

The more I ponder this issue, the more limitations I find. I am so sure social media is supposed to make like easier; this does not seem to be happening.

In the next post I'll explore if there is any chance that Google Analytics can be gamed to produce some form of comparative data. 

Thank you for reading this and I'd love it if you could add a comment or share this. 

In preparing material for the talk on 'How to Measure: Beyond the AVE' for the CIPR I have been collecting information from mainly online sources. It has been a few months since I have done a talk on this subject and I have been amazed that none of the key pointers I have used are more than a year old. It only goes to show quite how fast-moving an area this is.

The main thrust of the talk is to discredit AVE and highlight the alternatives. The thing I need to try push home to people is that the alternatives to AVE are not as easy to do. AVEs are simple, easy to convey and are often portrayed as a proxy for ROI. It is the lazy person’s PR measurement.

Brian Solis at the recent Dell B2B Huddle in London warns on the problems of using others case studies as templates for your own measurement. People who are doing this for the first time are spending a lot of time (and money) finding what works, which metrics correlate and how effort transfers into measurable outcomes. As such this work is valuable and as a result it is understandable that people keep it to themselves.

There is also the issue that, as Philip Sheldrake points out, organisations are unique, as is their vision, strategies, and therefor so will be the correct measurement. Often this stuff does not travel well – we have got to bear that in mind.

I am looking forward to the talk and in particular to the Q&As as it’s bound to get some opposing views! I will put the slides up on Slideshare in the coming days.