Business owners and senior staff are told to measure the return on every investment they make, which is sage advice, but when it comes to PR (public relations) it has traditionally been difficult to measure. Sure, there’s the obvious measures like a spike in sales after you appear on Sunrise speaking about your new product, but what about the longer-term PR activities? Whether you spend money on a PR agency, engage a freelance PR consultant or do your PR yourself, there are some key measures you should be studying. 
What do people actually think?
Social media has opened up the possibilities when it comes to this question. Instead of spending time and money on market research panels and surveys, business owners can now simply ask their customers and clients to share their thoughts. Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are perfect for asking specific questions to find out opinions, do quick surveys and measure sentiment through online searches and social media listening.
Measure metrics
Again, looking at social media, if you note your starting follower numbers on your favourite platforms it is easy to measure the rate of your community’s growth on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. You can also look at the level of engagement through the number of social media text shares, retweets and conversations. Your email newsletter program and website analytics will also help you measure subscriber numbers and engagement.
How influential are you?
Looking beyond the numbers, a great way to measure your PR success is to consider your influence. Have more people enquired about working with you? Are your product sales outperforming your competitor’s? Has the media been contacting you for expert comment more frequently? Are there more conversations happening around your brand? Do you have more guest blogging, article writing and speaking opportunities than ever? Your answers to these questions are measures of your influence and are, therefore, an excellent way to establish the growth of your brand. What measures to you use to determine the success of your PR activity?
