Universal Information Services

PR people know how to grab the attention of a reader. Measuring PR outcomes can get muddied with all the link bait circulating as blog/tweet headlines. With that said, if you try to keep up on the communication industry you can end up becoming numb to the river of copy that gets written about trends. Let’s go through just a few current public relations clichés and catch phrases. A starter list:
• How PR can add value
• How to max out your social media
• Operate like an entrepreneur
• Turn your great idea into action
• Speed and flexibility are key
• Thinking globally is key
• Think like a CEO in your PR office
• Asking the hard questions pays off
• How to kick-start innovation

Want to collect a few of your own? All you need to do is sign up for a few PR/communication twitter or blog feeds and the urgent advice and punchy verbs will run all day.

I have no doubt that people who write the short articles and blog posts about PR believe what they’ve written. And it’s always good to see and read what practitioners are doing. As a long-time communications professional myself, when you take a few steps back to try and look at all of what is being said the overarching themes are how to be more effective and successful in proving your worth. PR measurement is important.

Here at Universal Information Services we have overarching themes, too. Our hashtags #samerules #newtools actually address the issues of effectiveness and proving worth. When a PR person measures the reach of a press event, understands how widely a message was distributed, or judges the tone of a media mention they are doing timeless and important work. Universal has partnered with clients for decades to do just that, manage their anticipated outcomes for them. While we are extremely proud of the high technology we use, it’s all done in service of a classic communications goal – did the message you sent out reach the audience it needed to? Were your outcomes achieved? Did you meet your objectives?

Whatever kind of public relations plan gets put together, and whether it uses traditional or non-traditional media or both, the smart practitioner knows that measurement has to be included. An excellent media measurement and analysis model can make comprehensive and comprehendible. That’s where the rubber hits the road. Be sure your PR measurement options are truly measuring the outcomes you want, or let us know how we can help.

Tim Kaldahl provides customized, managed news monitoring and PR measurement solutions for subscribers at Universal Information Services. Since no client is exactly alike, Tim works to design a managed approach that delivers the insight and outcomes our clients expect. Tim worked as a PR practitioner for 20 year before joining Universal.