Institute for Public Relations

Speaking at the 3rd IPRA International Public Relations Congress & Latin American Meeting in Lima Peru, IPR Measurement Commission chair David Geddes provided an in-depth international framework for public relations measurement today and tomorrow.  His topic included a framework for standards setting, predictive analytics, using measurement to build organizational value and illustrative case studies. To view video of Dr. Geddes’ presentation: Framing PR Measurement: Beginning with Theory Translating PR Measurement Standards to Practice Defining Engagement and Influence Applying Predictive Analytics Building Organizational Value

Speaking at the 3rd IPRA International Public Relations Congress & Latin American Meeting in Lima, Peru, IPR CEO Frank Ovaitt presented a keynote presentation on the process for reaching consensus on public relations research and measurement standards. “Clients are demanding that public relations practitioners develop and apply best practices, common definitions and standards to their research and measurement.  If we don’t do this ourselves, those clients and their purchasing departments will do it for us.  Thus, the Institute for Public Relations has recruited a broad-based Coalition for Public Relations Research Standards to create a total platform to facilitate comparative evaluation of ...

June 2012 – More and more organizations need to measure their media coverage globally, but how can they do this cost effectively? This paper takes a very granular approach to helping the reader define business goals and objectives; determine suitable measures; analyze media content needs; evaluate dashboard systems; determine language and analysis processes; develop measurement scorecards; select provider services; sell the solutions internally; and, evaluate their success. Clear pros and cons to every option are provided, enabling the reader to balance the three competing essentials: quality, speed and cost.

June 2012 – Organizations engage in traditional media relations for many reasons and their objectives for analyzing the media coverage may be similarly varied. Media coverage can serve as a proxy for public perception and is relatively inexpensive and accessible. Public relations professionals apply media analysis to help demonstrate the value of PR, provide insights to make better decisions, improve performance, understand issues and anticipate change. The IPR Measurement Commission proposes the following standards for consideration. The overall recommendation seeks to ensure that measures used in analysis are well-formulated and implemented by (i) gaining agreement from the start among all relevant ...

This statement of ethical standards and guidelines for public relations research was developed by a team of the Institute for Public Relations Measurement Commission headed by Shannon Bowen, Ph.D, John Gilfeather and Brad Rawlins, Ph.D. This statement was approved by the IPR Measurement Commission on March 7, 2012. This is a discussion document that will be further developed in the near future as proposed interim standards for ethics in research and measurement.

September 2011- Dr. David Michaelson and Dr. Don Stacks, Research Fellows at the Institute for Public Relations, co-wrote the paper, “Standardization in Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation”. This article was published in the 2011 Spring edition of the Public Relations Journal. As the public relations profession continues to focus more and more on outcomes associated with campaigns or public relations initiatives the question of standards has shifted to the forefront of discussions among and between professionals, academics, and research providers. Making this shift even more important to establishing impact on business goals and objectives is the fact that standardized measures for ...

April 2007 – Building upon a foundation established in “Exploring the Link between Volume of Media Coverage and Business Outcomes,” this paper looks at the effect of competitive share of media coverage volume on business results. Through four case studies on a non-profit hospital, a pharmaceutical brand, a B2B service and a package goods manufacturer, the authors make the case for using competitive media analysis to see stronger correlations to results.

April 2007 – Most PR people envision the blogosphere as yet another new medium to address, a new way to scream more loudly at their stakeholders. In fact, PR people need to completely rethink their approach from pitching to engaging in “Naked Conversations.” People now have access to so much content, and have so many ways to gather news and information, that the likelihood of your corporate message penetrating through the clutter is virtually nil. Instead, if you engage the audience in a conversation and learn what the social community is looking for, ...

2007 – A number of tools and methodologies have been developed in recent years to measure the impact of public relations programs through media coverage, key audience perceptions and increasingly, return on investment. However, measurement for some specific elements of the PR mix such as speaking opportunities remain more elusive. Yet in this era of increasing accountability, it is important to assess the return on the resources invested and to learn how to gain the best results. This paper provides recommendations on assessing the effectiveness of speaking opportunities. Speaking opportunities are often sought ...

2006 – This paper suggests a strong relationship between coverage volume and business outcomes, with three case studies looking at volume alone, tonality-refined volume, and message-refined volume.