Katie Paine Talks Measurement with Florida Communicators

by Julia Sotelo, Client Services Representative & Pilar Portela-Webb, Media Relations Supervisor, Business Wire Florida

Business Wire Florida held “Measurement, Engagement & Influence with Katie Paine- Moving from Theoretical to Tactical,” a memorable breakfast discussion for South Florida Professionals on March 6^th. The event featured measurement guru Katie Paine. The event was held at Nova Southeastern University’s main Ft. Lauderdale-Davie campus. The panel was moderated by Laura Sturaitis, Executive VP Media Services & Product Strategy for Business Wire.

L-R: BW Florida Regional Manager Janice Essick, VP of Web Communications Ibrey Woodall, EVP of Product Strategy & Media Services Laura Sturaitis, speaker Katie Paine and Media Relations Supervisor Pilar Portela

Katie Paine shared her 25 years of measurement expertise and offered valuable information on evaluating the success of communications initiatives. In general Katie taught us that what matters isn’t new. For example: Conversations with stakeholders, relationships, and reputation and behavior.

Some things don’t change:

• What matters has been measured before
• In a crisis, success is still how fast it goes away
• Your influencers haven’t changed, they just have different titles

She advised to get past measuring followers and story hits and to look at SEO and Page Rank; Influence; Engagement; Relationships; Advocacy; Sentiment and ROI.

Here are Katie’s 7 steps to Measure What Matters:

1. Define Results
2. Understand your audience and what motivates them
3. Define Investment
4. Determine what you are benchmarking against
5. Define metrics (what you want to become)
6. Pick a tool and undertake research
7. Analyze results and glean insight, take action and measure again

Among her insights was the importance of involving all departments – PR, marketing, web, sales, SEO – in the strategic planning of communications decisions- “break down the silos.” This is directly in line with what we encourage our clients to do. Of particular importance is connecting web analytics in crafting your release and communications efforts. Katie also talked about the “Kick Butt Index.” How does management define ‘kicking butt?’ Know their definition and set up your communications metrics accordingly. Learn more at Katie’s The Measurement Standard or Business Wire’s Press Release Measurement.

For more upcoming local Business Wire events or to see what’s coming up in our award-winning webinar series, visit our events page or follow Business Wire events on Twitter, hashtag #bwchat.