Katie Paine has a great post entitled: Measuring Engagement is just another term for Measuring Relationships. If you don’t know about Katie Paine, her blog is worth checking out. She is one of the authorities on measurement and there is a wealth of information on her blog.

Measurement has always been a challenge in the world of PR. Back in the day, it was all about newspaper and magazine “clips” and the quantity. And a lot of PR professionals were forced to use clips to show success because that was the standard. At AHA, we have always approached measurement a little differently, and have been fortunate enough to have clients who listened to our rationale for why we did it our way.

There is so much more to consider in coverage – tone, style, bias…the list goes on and on. And now, comments on the article or blog post. What it comes down to is understanding the deeper connection that the person following your organization on Facebook or Twitter or reading your blog brings to it. How many people are reading your blog, how many comments do you get, what type of comments are left, and what is the long-term connection between your organization or brand and the person?

Looking at how many visitors to your site, how long they stay, where they click, where they exit is a good start, but you need to go deeper. The more social media becomes an everyday part of the communicator’s tool belt, the more I think that it is important to analyze the information provided. There is a great deal of insight available to us, but we need to understand how to look at the stats and understand what they REALLY mean.