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During his career, he has supervised the conducting of more than 1,500 public
relations, public affairs, marketing, and advertising research projects, most of
them for large corporations, financial service organizations, trade associations,
government agencies, utilities, education and health groups and charitable
organizations. He also has had an extensive amount of experience in designing
and carrying out research projects aimed at measuring and evaluating the
effectiveness of public relations programs and activities. In 1999, he served as
the first chairman of the Institute for Public Relations’ newly created Commission
on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation.
A sociologist with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Dr. Lindenmann has lectured
extensively and has conducted seminars and/or workshops on public relations
research, measurement and evaluation not only in the United States, but also in
Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Italy, the
Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Singapore, and Spain.
His telephone and fax number is: (434) 589-5822. His e-mail address
is:lindenmann@cstone.net.
There has been a good deal of attention in recent years on how important it is to
measure and evaluate the effectiveness of public relations programs and activities.
Dozens of articles, booklets and reports have been published and distributed giving
advice and counsel on how PR practitioners might more effectively build research,
measurement and evaluation tools and techniques into their work.
All of these articles and booklets are welcome, since any steps that are taken by any
group at all to call attention to the need to be accountable for the work we do in
public relations have to be applauded.
As we focus on these new materials that are being distributed in the field, it is
important, I feel, to put this entire area of public relations measurement and
evaluation into proper historical perspective. It seems that some in our industry are
almost assuming that up until the mid to late 1990s little of any significance
pertaining to PR measurement and evaluation had taken place. That is not at all true.
that booklet also have been sold and distributed both in Europe and in the
U.S.
• In the Spring of 1998, a comprehensive review of all of the materials that
had been published and distributed going back dozens of years in time was
prepared by Dr. Linda Childers Hon, an assistant professor of public relations
at the University of Florida, and published as an article, “Demonstrating
Effectiveness in Public Relations,” that appeared in the Journal of Public
Relations Research.
• In January, 1999, the U.S.-based Institute for Public Relations, which had
been examining various aspects of the public relations measurement and
evaluation process for more than two years through several different task
forces, announced the formation of a permanent U.S. Commission on Public
Relations Measurement and Evaluation. The aim of the new Commission was
to become “the inclusive, authoritative arbiter of accepted standards for
research and measurement relating specifically to public relations, as well as
for research and measurement in related communications disciplines that may
apply, or be linked in some way, to public relations programs and activities.
• In February, 1999, the newly-formed U.S. Commission on Public Relations
Measurement and Evaluation held its first meeting at the University of Florida
in Gainesville. The Commission included representatives of the following four
industry segments: corporations and the non-profit sector (AT&T … Bell South
… the Council on Foundations … General Motors … ITT Industries … and Texas
Instruments) … research suppliers (Delahaye … MediaLink … Research
Strategies … Yankelovich) … PR agencies (Golin/Harris … Jackson, Jackson &
Wagner … Ketchum … Porter Novelli) … and academia (Glen Broom, San
Diego State … James E. Grunig, University of Maryland … Linda Hon,
University of Florida … Donald K. Wright, University of South Alabama.)
• In May, 1999, a consortium of British organizations -- the Londonbased PR
Week, the Public Relations Consultants Association, and the British-based
Institute of Public Relations -- published a 100- page resource book, “The
Public Relations Research and Evaluation Toolkit: How To Measure The
Effectiveness of PR.”
• Also in May, 1999, the U.S.-based IPR Commission on Public Relations
Measurement and Evaluation published a supplement to its 1997 Guidelines
and Standards booklet. The supplement was entitled, “Guidelines For Setting
Measurable Public Relations Objectives.”
• By the start of the 21st Century, the U.S.-based IPR Commission on Public
Relations Measurement and Evaluation had greatly expanded its list of
background papers and resource tools. Included among the many papers that
can now be downloaded from its website (www.instituteforpr.org) are these:
Guidelines for Measuring Relationships in Public Relations … Selling Public
Relations Research Internally … Toward An Understanding of How News
Coverage and Advertising Impact Consumer Perceptions, Attitudes and
Behavior …A Primer on Internet Audience Measurement … Measuring Success:
Both Externally and Internally … How To Measure Your Results In A Crisis …
Bibliography of PR Measurement. The Commission also has developed an
easy-to follow PR Measurement Tree, which can be downloaded from the
website and used as a training tool when it comes to better understanding
appropriate PR measurement and evaluation methodologies and techniques.
This is only a partial summary of some of the major events that have taken place or
articles and booklets that have been published during the past 60 years.
There are literally hundreds of citations pertaining to PR measurement and
evaluation that now appear in the public relations literature.
What is important to keep in mind is that measurement and evaluation in the public
relations field is not a brand new issue or topic that has suddenly emerged just in the
past few years. It is an issue and topic that has been widely discussed, actually
carried out, and grown and evolved over a 60-year period of time.
It would seem to me that for those of us in the public relations field, it is high time
that we stop shouting over and over again, “let’s do something about evaluating
PR effectiveness” or “let’s invent the one simple tool that has never been invented
before” to measure and evaluate PR effectiveness.
New ideas and thoughts relating to this sub-specialty are, of course, always welcome
and appreciated -- and needed. But the time has come to stop “reinventing the
wheel,” to take a serious look at what already exists and has already been
accomplished, and build from there.
From my perspective, the biggest problem in the PR field is NOT that adequate PR
measurement and evaluation tools and techniques do not exist and that they need to
be invented. There are many different methodological tools and techniques available
that are already being utilized in the field.
In my view, the three major issues that we, in the public relations field need to
address pertaining to PR measurement and evaluation are these: