Turn media insight into action

  • Home
  • Expertise
  • About
  • Pricing
  • Blog
  • Contact

Nov 12 2007

Is it time to out the ‘Outs’?

The traditional method of measuring PR (pioneered by Dr Walt Lindenmann) was via the measures of Output, Out-take and Outcome. They have been widely covered in academic journals and used as a method of categorising response measurement. Dr Tom Watson in DummySpit outlines their use in this useful review. But there seems to be a problem as the ‘Outs’ are often misused and I think it is fair to say, poorly understood by practitioners.

So in response a couple of alternatives have been pitched. Dan Bartholomew suggests the Exposure, Influence and Action categories, while Jim Nail suggests Media Influence, Media Audience and Business Influence. They both undoubtedly have their merits and while I think they could be accused of introducing more jargon, discussion on this issue is healthy, particularly if it engages view from the wider PR community rather than from just within the measurement community.

Personally I prefer Dan Bartholomews option but as this is very early days much more information and practical application and testing needs to be done. And of course if a new option is to be adopted it needs to be much better than the existing.

Written by Michael Blowers · Categorized: Uncategorized · Tagged: Dan Bartholomew, Jim Nail, Lindenmann, Out-take, Outcome, Output, Tom Watson

Comments

  1. glenn says

    November 20, 2007 at 10:53 am

    Actually although developed by Dr Lindenmann, the use of the terms “output”, “outtake” and “outcome” are coming from the evaluation field and the logical framework tool. “outtake” are in fact “short-term outcomes” in the evaluation world. Perhaps what is missing is the notion of “impact” which follows “outcome” – this is defined as “Positive and negative, primary and secondary long-term effects produced by an intervention, directly or indirectly, intended or unintended”. Personally, I think we should keep these broad labels as it assists in making comparisons to other fields.
    Glenn

    Reply
  2. http://alanchumley.wordpress.com says

    December 10, 2007 at 2:50 pm

    Kudos to Don. Semantics really, because it’s a rose by any other name. Both taxonomies do the same thing. The value of Don’s is that it’s likely easier for those who don’t do measurement for a living to grasp. I’d point out, though, that the jump from exposure to influence is much bigger than the jump from influence to action. I think ‘understanding’ should be in between exposure and influence.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Thanks, please prove you are not a robot * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

Updates by Email

Please complete this form to sign-up to receive my blog posts by email. You can unsubscribe at any time and your email address will not be used for any other purpose.

About

Media analyst with a half an eye on what's coming down the road. Often caught out but always fascinated by the possibilities. Read More…

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @michaelblowers

Tweets by @MediaEvaluatio1

Categories

  • #PRstack
  • AMEC
  • CIPR
  • Events
  • Future PR/Comms
  • Google Analytics
  • Google Cloud Natural Language
  • Influencer metrics
  • Integrated Evaluation Framework
  • Lead generation
  • Media Analysis
  • Media Evaluation
  • Media Research
  • PESO model
  • PR Awards
  • PR Evaluation
  • PR Measurement
  • PR Tools
  • Public Relations
  • Sentiment measurement
  • SMART Objectives
  • Social media listening
  • Uncategorized

Archives

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Expertise
  • About
  • Pricing
  • Awards
  • In-house
  • PR Agencies
  • Contact
  • Cookies, etc

Copyright © 2023 · Altitude Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Necessary
Always Enabled