Measuring Communities

In Katie Paine's book, Measuring what Matters, she talks about measuring the relationship with communities. She says there are seven steps; however, there are actually only six steps.

1. Agree upon solid, measurable goals tied to bottom line
2. Define your public 
3. Who or what are your benchmarks?
4. Set audience priorities
5. Choose measurement tools
6. Analyze data

A cliche, but very true saying in customer service is, "The customer is always right." I've had to repeat that to myself multiple times when I was a waitress a few summers back. No matter how cliche and old that saying is, PR practitioners should always focus on their customer. 

The target audience is the most important when measuring communities because without the audience, it would be difficult to measure the community. You should always determine your most important audience. Once you determined who you are going to measure, it is important to determine how you are going to measure the audience and determine the measure of a successful relationship. Paine states, "It could be as simple as the number of desirable vs. undesirable stories about your organization that show up in the local paper, or the degree to which you are perceived to be the employer of choice in town." This statement show that there are multiple possibilities of measurement. 

Once you get the organization on board and impacted by the results of the measurement, gain participation in priority-setting. This is important when working with your target audience because their opinions are important to determining what to do next. Also, if you listen to the audience's opinions, they will feel like their voices have been heard. They will be more willing to cooperate and help in the future. 

Listening to your audience is one of the keys to success. It is important to know how they feel, what they think and understand what they want. By making your audience a priority, you will be able to be a more successful company.