Here’s an interesting article by Lesley Shroeder of BizCommunity.com which describes some of the challenges that PR firms have in showing the effectiveness of their work to clients:

“In a two-day workshop members debated technologies and methods for measuring editorial media publicity and looked at best practice models from around the world. The whole question of using advertising value equivalent (AVE) was hotly debated” (from “Does Size Still Matter?“)

I wonder though how much all that really matters any more. Measuring the number of media mentions presumes a certain definition of where to look. The problem is that more and more there’s no identifiable ‘media’ - both positive and especially negative mentions of your clients occur in the wild-west sometimes known as the ‘blogoshpere’.

True story: A certain customer is unhappy with the treatment they got from their car dealership and car maker, and posts the story on their blog. As the story develops, in his frustration he starts naming the car, the dealer, and even the manufacturer’s top marketing person, by name.

Result: if you enter the marketing executive’s name into Google, today, you see this one solitary customer’s tale of woe. What is the cost to the PR firm and more importantly, the client? Think about it.

That’s one I know about first hand. I am sure there are lots and lots more like it, and importantly, the trend is in that direction.

So what is ‘the media’? Where is ‘the media’?

Luckily there is a new generation of software that attacks this problem head on. Read more about tracking tools for Public Relations Professionals.