Measuring Micro PR

One of the first questions we get asked by clients when discussing a digital persuasion campaign (blogs, message boards, influencers, etc.) is aobut measurement. As it should be. To this point, I joined a few Voce colleagues yesterday in a meeting with Intelliseek. If you arent' familiar with this firm - check them out. They have a terrific model for measuring the reach and influence of online campaigns. In fact they have a product called BlogPulse that measures and analyzes buzz in more than one million blogs. My colleague Mike Manuel has discussed this topic and also wrote an article on measurement for the GlobalPRBlogWeek. This is something the PR community better take seriously. Without a measurement component to accompany our work, this type of outreach will soon fade from our communications tool-kit. The folks at Intelliseek had some great stories of how customers and prospects are reacting to their measurement tool. It seems that many brands would rather not listen to blogs and message boards versus soliciting feedback via traditional channels such as call centers and comment forms. I'm preaching to the choir when I say that this is a big mistake. Blogs, message boards and chat rooms are loaded with valuable insight on companies, products and executives if folks know how to find it.