Hold on a second, is that a PR agency telling clients and prospective clients not to measure? Doesn't that rather go against the usual grain? Shouldn't I be exhorting you to measure, measure, measure? 

Well look, I'm not telling you not to do the cheap basics. Count and analyse your clippings for sure. Get Moz out and become a master of Google Analytics, by all means. Hold on to Hootsuite and adopt Alexa. But don't fool yourself. 

Here's the crux, just because there are things related to PR that you can easily measure, it doesn't mean you can measure PR without any significant expense or effort. 

You can't. 

The advent of cheap pay per click and SEO, cheap email marketing and cheap social media social has created the illusion that everything is measurable without cost. 

But just because you can tell how many YouTube viewers you've had, it doesn't mean you understand where and how you are positioned in the minds of your audience. 

Just because AdWords tells you how many times someone has clicked on your advert, it doesn't mean you understand why they did it. 

The only real way to understand your audience is to measure and research their opinions. 

You have to define your market, establish a representative sample, question them and act on the results. If you don't, you are only tickling the edges of measurement. It isn't cheap and it isn't easy in niche B2B markets. 

In fact, for some campaigns, where the budget is low, it's probably better not to do it. Just trust an expert instead.

And no, there isn't an app for that.

PS - I know that isn't a terribly cheerful way to leave you first thing in the morning, so here's a picture of the Pumpkins we carved on Halloween! What's could be more chirpy than that?

Pumpkin based action at Stone Junction