Tell Me Something I Haven't Already Heard

Can we give this shirt to Katie Paine?

Hello friends,

I had the unfortunate opportunity to read Chapter 14 of Katie Paine's Measure What Matters. Seven hours on a bus was boring enough, but this chapter about measuring what matters in higher education about bored me to tears. Katie Paine is queen bee in her field, but her book is like a broken record; she said the same thing over and over again!

As if we haven't heard about the steps of measurement in every chapter, she has the nerve to tell us about them again. This chapter presents five steps for getting an A in measurement.

Step 1: Identify and prioritize your audience.
Step 2: Define your objectives and get everyone on the same page.
Step 3: Establish a benchmark
Step 4: Pick a measurement tool and collect data.
Step 5: Analyze the data, glean insight, make changes, and measure again.

All I can say about this chapter is "Duh!" My poor classmates could recite these steps for every situation in their sleep. Katie Paine has literally beat the concept into my brain, therefore I do not need to read it any more. I know that when we graduate and find jobs, these five steps will be a part of our every day lives.All I can say is thank goodness it's over!

Until next time,

Katie

Cut the BS!

Hello friends,


It's another week which means another couple chapters and several pages worth of notes. It's amazing how much you can type in an hour of class. We are still reading Katie Paine's Measure What Matters. This week we talked about how to measure a crisis. Everyone always hopes that nothing bad will ever happen to their company, but it is so important to be prepared for anything.

A crisis can happen at any time, but you can take steps to avoid one. If a company is smart, it will monitor what its key publics are saying and respond to any potential threats before a situation gets worse. This does not work for every scenario, therefore you have to be able to measure a crisis when you're under pressure. A company needs to be able to determine what is being said about them, what people believe about them, and what people will do as a result.

My favorite part of chapter eleven revolved around the response to a crisis. Katie Paine says BS is more damaging than lies. I could not agree more. During a time of crisis, it is so important to gain the trust of your key publics. If you throw a bunch of BS at them, you can kiss any chance of building trust goodbye. People put greater value on the character of an organization, and the way a crisis is handled says a great deal about the values of an organization. Paine says that you have to be willing to say the things that no one wants to hear. This can be the hardest thing to do, especially if the situation is the direct affect of your own screw up. You are better off telling the truth from the get go. So cut the BS and just be honest.

For those who may read this post and don't understand, BS is short for "bullshit." I didn't want to use profanity throughout the entire post.

Until next time,

Katie

Employees Matter

Hello friends,  

Happy Monday! We are getting closer to Thanksgiving break. I don't know about anyone else, but I am definitely ready for a little break from school. My social media class is still trudging through Katie Paine's book Measure What Matters. We are getting towards the end, but this book has been very informative.

This past week we talked about employees and measuring what they think. A company's employees are one of its most important assets. Katie Paine says that employee moral and sentiment are closely tied to sales and profit. It is so important to have effective employee communications. You have to ask which messages are getting through to employees, how those messages are coming across and what media are they coming from.

In chapter ten, Paine discusses six steps to measuring employees. I'm not going to talk about all of them, but I will talk about the first step because I feel like its very important. The first step to measuring your employees is understanding the environment and figuring out where they get their information. An organization can conduct a benchmark study to determine this information. Surveys can be used to determine how company messages are getting through to employees. Paine also emphasizes that you have to figure out what is important to employees. If you know what is important to them, you can tailor your message so that they are more receptive. It is also very important to understand what employees think about the organization they work for.

I really enjoyed this chapter. Most of the time you only read about how to measure your target audience and how to better communicate with them. People some times forget how important employees are to a company. Without employees, a business can not survive. It is crucial to understand your employees and what is important to them. Happy and informed employees translates to effective and productive employees.

Until next time,

Katie

Familiar Territory

Hello friends,


We are getting towards the end of the semester and I have still managed to continue reading for my classes. My social media class is still reading Measure What Matters by Katie Delahaye Paine. This week we discussed seven steps to perfect measurement.

Step seven was, "Turn data into action: analyze data, draw actionable conclusions and make recommendations." One of the most important questions to answer when trying to measure the effectiveness of social media is, what is the return on investment (ROI)? As a business major I was like, "Yes!" "Some familiar territory."  Katie Paine breaks ROI down so most people can understand. "R" stands for the return you expect and "I" stands for the investment you have made. There is more to determining a companies ROI than crunching numbers and costs.

In the book, Katie Paine explains five ways to determine the return.

1. Sales or Revenue: The most obvious definition of the term ROI. If you increased sales or made money, you have a positive return on investment.

2. Cost savings: Many companies are moving towards a social media strategy for recruitment, marketing or customer services. This process can drastically cut down on costs.

3. Paid versus Earned Search Rankings: Companies can either spend significant funds on services to ensure that a companies name or brand shows up high in the search results, or they can earn high rankings through hard work. A company that has an active social media campaign can cut out paid search ads and still receive high rankings in search.

4. Cost Avoidance: All companies have the potential for crisis. Good relationships can help mitigate the extent or duration of a crisis.
      example from Katie Paine: Compare the money spent on legal fees for a crisis that was mitigated with the help of an active social media presence to one handled without the benefit of social media.

5. Social Capital: If a social media campaign is generating favorable comments, engaging employees or customers in the business of the organization, and presenting information quickly and accurately, then it is contributing to the social capital of an organization.

I really enjoyed this section of the chapter because I understand ROI and the the importance it serves for a business. You have to understand what worked and what didn't work in order to improve and function more efficiently.

Until next time,

Katie

Myth Busters

Hello friends,

My social media class has now moved on to the most important book of the semester. Everything we have read up until this point has stressed the importance of social media and how to successfully utilize the tools. "Measure What Matters" by Katie Delahaye Paine teaches us how to measure the effectiveness of social media. What we learn from this book will help us to determine if any of the social media tools and tricks we use actually worked for a particular project.

Katie Paine hits home her point of the importance of measuring your social media efforts in the first  two chapters. Chapter one highlights reasons why companies shy away from measurement. She claims that most of the so-called reasons people give stem from common myths about measurement. So Paine precedes to debunkify some of these myths. I'm only going to talk about a few of them for my readers sake.

Myth #1: Measurement = Punishment
Professionals associate measurement as a way to check on what they are doing and potentially pick out their flaws. I think that this is ridiculous. God forbid you are accountable for your work. Isn't that what having a job is all about? People are also afraid that measurement will conclude with bad news, resulting in cancelling projects that aren't working.

Truth: If something isn't working, you shouldn't continue to pump time and money into it. Measurement can help prevent the waste of money and resources for a business.

Myth # 3: Measurement is too expensive
This may be one of the biggest reasons why people ignore measurement.

Truth: Paine says you cannot afford not to implement (duh!) If you don't measure what you have done, how do you know what is working, what is not and what needs to be changed.Your company could be spending the budget ineffectively, but measurement allows for increased efficiency.

Myth #5: Measurement is something you do when a program is over.
Many people make the mistake of thinking you can only gauge the effectiveness of a program after it is complete. Therefore, measurement is deemed unnecessary.

Truth: Silly people, measurement should be implemented at the very beginning of a program. Checkpoints should be in place throughout the life of a program to measure what has worked up until that point. If you only measure the effectiveness at the end of a program, you eliminate any opportunity to make changes to improve the outcome.

I really like this book so far. We have only read two chapters, but I think that the information provided is probably the most useful to my career after college. Hopefully I will retain what I learn from this book and use it in the future.

   

Until next time,

Katie