Barcelona Principles Critique
Perhaps it's because of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie coming out "Dead Men Tell No Tales," or maybe it's just because when I think of Spain I think of sailing, but when I first encountered the Barcelona Principles, I kept on wanting to give examples of each principle and how it relates to sailing a ship. Your decisions on what you do as a public relations practitioner or as captain, will determine whether the ship sinks, sputters around in circles, or sails. The experts at the 2nd European Summit on Measurement presented the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles in June 2010. These seven principles are meant to serve as a set of navigation tools for us captains to be able to measure the impact of media on public relations.
What I liked most about these principles was its attention to measurement of outcomes, business results, the media, social media, and transparency all held together with goal-setting. Whether it's done on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, every public relations practitioner should evaluate what the organization's goals are and identify the awareness, attitude, and comprehension of stakeholders, and what the effects are on the business on all fronts. In addition, by setting goals, it will allow the practitioner to show their worth when the c-suite executives want tangible evidence of the department's accomplishments (Harrison). Once the analysis is gathered, the PR practitioner should come up with a plan of: here's where we are, here's where I want our business to be, and here's how we're going to get there. Of course, it may not be that simple, and you may have multiple goals, for example with reputation management, relationship management, and task management. Just as if we were sailing a ship, we wouldn't set out before taking into account sailing conditions of our current and destination ports. We also need to consider the wellness of our crew, the soundness of the ship, and our relationships with the government and the public. It's also important to note that conditions may change along the way, so you may need to re-evaluate and make changes as you go. A social media campaign may be floundering, or the desired effect on internal and external stakeholders may not be going according to plan - it's okay to stop and re-chart the course, and plug any holes that may cause your ship to sink.
Throughout my career I've either used all of these principles without even thinking about it, or have seen it in action by a superior. I'd say that these are all common-sense principles, or strategies that you learn as you go. Without setting any goals, what would the PR department do? If we never measure the outcomes of our businesses we will never be able to improve. If we never measure the impact of marketing and sales techniques throughout the year, then we'd be shooting messages blind. Some products and services are seasonal, or require an event to take place that will prompt a need for the public to go out and buy a product. If we are strategic about when we market our products and services, we are sure to see a greater return on investment. At my current place of employment, this was one my primary responsibilities. Once a month I'd meet with the entire communications department and lay out for them what products did well this time last year, and what did not. I would also provide reasoning and rationale as to why we saw either a spike or drop in sales. The marketing team would come up with a plan on how to market those products, and would stop marketing the items that were not selling at the given point in time and realign their focus to the new sales goals.
There are also countless companies that will measure our impact with the media and serve as a clipping service for both the news media and social media. By tracking the stories published about the company via newspaper, magazine, journal, social media or even...message in a bottle... PR practitioners can keep track of stories that are related to the company and measure what the general atmosphere is for their industry or company. If the media spins a story in a negative way, the company can quickly respond and correct the situation. For example, my association caught a story that was framing our industry in a poor light. The PR director acted quickly and crafted a message with the CEO to set the record straight. This story was published across many mediums and shared via social media where it had a positive impact.
Another one of my primary responsibilities at my association was social media. Often times, my posts would be an experiment to see what made our audience want to engage with us, and which platforms were best for specific groups of stakeholders. This is something that constantly had to be analyzed, and while we came down to a decent formula for what kinds of posts we were doing and how many per week had to go out, an issue or another event could come up that required a timely response and our plan would have to be flexible. Occasionally, we'd have to stop posts from going out to respond to another situation that was more pressing than a how to blog post on how to pack a moving box.
The last principle that says "Measurement and evaluation should be transparent, consistent and valid" is absolutely correct. If we cannot replicate our methods of measurement for future use, then something is wrong. None of these principles are a trade secret, and the different departments within communications need to work together to achieve their set goals - just as a crew on a ship need to work in tandem to ensure that the ship doesn't sink.
References
Harrington, K. (2016, November 1). 7 ways the revised Barcelona Principles can fix PR's past mistakes. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/21683.aspx
Harrison, K. (n.d.). Setting goals and objectives makes your PR planning more effective. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/prplans_set_goals.asp
What are the Barcelona Principles?
In 2015, the Barcelona Principles were revisited by the experts and went through some fine tuning. I have to agree with the changes that were made as they are now more clear and give a bigger picture of what they represent. Measuring relationships may seem way more complicated than measuring leagues sailed, especially when you consider the measurement criteria of: reach, conversation rates, and coverage, as well as varying goals which include: brand identity, brand recognition, and brand equity. There is no wonder why we need some method to measure our impact.
What I liked most about these principles was its attention to measurement of outcomes, business results, the media, social media, and transparency all held together with goal-setting. Whether it's done on a monthly, quarterly or yearly basis, every public relations practitioner should evaluate what the organization's goals are and identify the awareness, attitude, and comprehension of stakeholders, and what the effects are on the business on all fronts. In addition, by setting goals, it will allow the practitioner to show their worth when the c-suite executives want tangible evidence of the department's accomplishments (Harrison). Once the analysis is gathered, the PR practitioner should come up with a plan of: here's where we are, here's where I want our business to be, and here's how we're going to get there. Of course, it may not be that simple, and you may have multiple goals, for example with reputation management, relationship management, and task management. Just as if we were sailing a ship, we wouldn't set out before taking into account sailing conditions of our current and destination ports. We also need to consider the wellness of our crew, the soundness of the ship, and our relationships with the government and the public. It's also important to note that conditions may change along the way, so you may need to re-evaluate and make changes as you go. A social media campaign may be floundering, or the desired effect on internal and external stakeholders may not be going according to plan - it's okay to stop and re-chart the course, and plug any holes that may cause your ship to sink.
The Principles in Action
Throughout my career I've either used all of these principles without even thinking about it, or have seen it in action by a superior. I'd say that these are all common-sense principles, or strategies that you learn as you go. Without setting any goals, what would the PR department do? If we never measure the outcomes of our businesses we will never be able to improve. If we never measure the impact of marketing and sales techniques throughout the year, then we'd be shooting messages blind. Some products and services are seasonal, or require an event to take place that will prompt a need for the public to go out and buy a product. If we are strategic about when we market our products and services, we are sure to see a greater return on investment. At my current place of employment, this was one my primary responsibilities. Once a month I'd meet with the entire communications department and lay out for them what products did well this time last year, and what did not. I would also provide reasoning and rationale as to why we saw either a spike or drop in sales. The marketing team would come up with a plan on how to market those products, and would stop marketing the items that were not selling at the given point in time and realign their focus to the new sales goals.
There are also countless companies that will measure our impact with the media and serve as a clipping service for both the news media and social media. By tracking the stories published about the company via newspaper, magazine, journal, social media or even...message in a bottle... PR practitioners can keep track of stories that are related to the company and measure what the general atmosphere is for their industry or company. If the media spins a story in a negative way, the company can quickly respond and correct the situation. For example, my association caught a story that was framing our industry in a poor light. The PR director acted quickly and crafted a message with the CEO to set the record straight. This story was published across many mediums and shared via social media where it had a positive impact.
Another one of my primary responsibilities at my association was social media. Often times, my posts would be an experiment to see what made our audience want to engage with us, and which platforms were best for specific groups of stakeholders. This is something that constantly had to be analyzed, and while we came down to a decent formula for what kinds of posts we were doing and how many per week had to go out, an issue or another event could come up that required a timely response and our plan would have to be flexible. Occasionally, we'd have to stop posts from going out to respond to another situation that was more pressing than a how to blog post on how to pack a moving box.The last principle that says "Measurement and evaluation should be transparent, consistent and valid" is absolutely correct. If we cannot replicate our methods of measurement for future use, then something is wrong. None of these principles are a trade secret, and the different departments within communications need to work together to achieve their set goals - just as a crew on a ship need to work in tandem to ensure that the ship doesn't sink.
References
Harrington, K. (2016, November 1). 7 ways the revised Barcelona Principles can fix PR's past mistakes. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/21683.aspx
Harrison, K. (n.d.). Setting goals and objectives makes your PR planning more effective. Retrieved May 18, 2017, from http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/prplans_set_goals.asp
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