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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Numbers speak louder than words. It's a simple fact that has changed the way public relations practitioners focus their objectives and strategy.

While PR has traditionally been known for generating awareness, it is now a means of directly connecting with customers and generating revenue.

In order to maximize on this, PR can no longer be an afterthought and should be strategically planned in the early stages of your overall brand communications program to drive traffic, leads and conversions.

However, you have to prove the value of PR first, and to do this, you need to gather data on all of your efforts and demonstrate how your initiatives directly correlate with reaching your audience and guiding them along each step of the buyer's journey.

Social Activity

With social media, it is helpful to not just track the growth of your social following, but also report on engagement metrics.

Likes, shares and followers are good ways to track the quality of the content you are promoting and how engaged your customers are with your brand.

Most importantly, though, you should keep track of social media referrals to your website to make a strong case for the direct connection the social promotion of your PR content has on your business.

Website Traffic

Social media isn’t the only place where your PR efforts can have an impact on website traffic. You can monitor how many unique visitors and page views your website receives from press releases, media pitches and content syndication by using techniques like trackable links.

If you dive even deeper, you can analyze how qualified these leads are by reporting on how much a specific lead engages with your content. Knowing which promotion channels, media outlets and influencers are bringing in the most qualified leads will help you optimize future outreach.

Conversion Rates

Connecting how a customer is responding to your PR’s calls-to-action can make a strong case for the importance of your work. Measure the rate at which you are getting someone to fill out a form, make a purchase, download a document, etc. to provide insight into your PR initiatives’ effectiveness at driving revenue.

Measuring and reporting the outcomes of your PR efforts can help you gain more influence on your organization’s strategy and the future role your PR initiatives play in it.

Learn more about connecting PR to driving demand and revenue during PR Newswire's upcoming webinar Why Metrics Are the Key to Getting a Seat at the Revenue Table on December 3 at 1 PM ET.

Ken Wincko, PR Newswire's Senior Vice President of Marketing, will be joined by Sharam Foulagdar-Mercer, CEO of AirPR, and David Rockland, Partner/CEO of Ketchum, for a discussion on:

Laying the groundwork for discussions on PR's direct impact on revenue
How reporting can make the case for PR's ability to drive leads, conversions and revenue

Register here, then tune in on December 3 to learn how to get a seat at the revenue table so that PR moves towards the top of your strategy discussion.

Author Danielle Ferris is happiest on the beach, an avid spinner, and marketing coordinator at PR Newswire.

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Monday, November 16, 2015

[New Post] Influencer Insights: Media Moves and Intel for the Week of November 16

Influencer Insights: Media Moves and Intel for the Week of November 16

Kevin Frey

To keep up with today's media landscape, public relations professionals need to know not only who is going where, but also how to communicate more effectively with those journalists, bloggers and influencers making moves.

This week's Influencer Insights include five of the most significant newsroom changes selected by PR Newswire's Audience Research team, plus Beyond Bylines' review of five top food blogs.

Want even more media moves? Check out the latest issue of the PR Newswire Media Moves newsletter or follow @PRNMedia for daily updates.

1. CQ/Roll Call: Managing Director Paul McHale is now the president in charge of all operations @cqrollcall. The Economist Group, the parent company of CQ/Roll Call, had installed Paul as the interim managing director last January. Paul had been overseeing and managing the new CQ Weekly and also the new apps for Roll Call and CQ.com since then. His new position will be to manage and make decisions on all of the products in their line that cover government and political news.

2. ESPN: Jim Brady (@jimbrady) has joined @espn as the new public editor. The role of public editor at ESPN is an ombudsman role that includes analyzing ESPN's own news stories, critiquing them for content and influence, and answering the public's questions on ESPN's role in stories. Jim is a former WashingtonPost.com sports editor who will also be penning columns and producing podcasts.

3. Boston Business Journal: Albany Business Review Publisher Carolyn M. Jones is transferring to Beantown to be the new publisher at @BosBizJournal. Carolyn has been the publisher of the Albany Business Review for the past 17 years. She is moving into Gale Murray's former chair at BBJ. Gale has taken a senior management position with their parent company — American City Business Journals.

4. McClatchy – Washington Bureau: Former Charlotte Observer Managing Editor Cheryl Carpenter is the new bureau chief at @McClatchyDC. Cheryl is replacing Jim Asher who is moving after five years. Cheryl brings a wealth of experience with her to DC from her time at the Observer where she had worked as a business editor, state editor and front page editor before eventually becoming their managing editor.

5. New York Times – Washington Bureau: Matt Apuzzo (@mattapuzzo) has been named an investigative reporter covering stories on national security for @nytpolitics. Matt joined New York Times almost 2 years ago from the Associated Press after 11 years there. He has been covering the Justice Department, but will now be tackling national security and criminal justice stories.

Influencer Intel of the Week: With Thanksgiving around the corner, it’s important to remember food bloggers in your holiday media outreach. Read more about Smitten Kitchen, Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef, The Brown-Eyed Baker and other top cooking influencers in this installment of Beyond Bylines' Blog Profiles.

Media monitoring goes beyond listening for brand mentions. Download Identifying Opportunities and Issues: Keys to Monitoring Traditional and Social Media and learn how to uncover the intel you need to build relationships with the right influencers.

Kevin Frey is a senior audience researcher for the Mid-Atlantic region. Each week, PR Newswire's Audience Research team makes thousands of updates to the media database underpinning our Agility workflow platform. Request a demo to learn more about Agility's media targeting, monitoring and distribution options.