You may have heard the business maxim that Turnover is vanity, but profit is ‘sanity’.
In other words, don’t lose track of what really matters for your business.
The same can be said in public relations, especially media relations.
When I started out in public relations, I was taught that what mattered was getting media coverage for clients.
Not true
Years later, when I joined the CIPR and started to upgrade my practice through its CPD programme I discovered that wasn’t true. Worse, it wasn’t true when I was told it.
The reason it’s not true is because simply getting your company into the media doesn’t in itself prove that the activity has helped you achieve your business goals/objectives.
As I explained in this earlier post, the public relations industry recognised this in 2010 and created the Stockholm Accords which said that instead public relations activities should be clearly linked to contributing to the goals of the client and to the things they measure to determine if they’re succeeding in meeting those goals.
With the Barcelona Principles which followed, the industry created the global gold standard for creating relevant metrics of whether the public relations activities have contributed to those organisation goals.
Outputs, Out-takes, Outcomes & Impacts
Within the measurement framework created by AMEC as part of that, the total Reach of your media relations is designated an Output – what we put out that is received by target audiences. What matters is what comes as a result of it – the Out-takes (what audiences do with and take out of the communication) and the Outcomes – the effects the communication has on target audiences – and the Impacts (results caused, in full or in part, by the communication).
Put simply. if your public relations reaches a million people but very few do what you want as a result, it’s not been successful.
But if 100,000 are reached and at least your target number of your desired audience take the wished action, then it is.
Contact me to find out how the right Public Relations can help you achieve your goals.