Metrics - Every PR agency ought to gather, analyze and react to them. Studying your numbers provides direction towards the next optimal strategy. One thing to constantly keep in my, though, is avoiding the "quantity obsession" trap. Quality generally matters more.

Let us explain.

Google's head of insights and analytics, Janneke van Geuns, contends communicators must ignore meaningless metrics and instead invest efforts in the ones specifically pertaining to their organization's goals.

Avoid trying to find the needle in the haystack. Two effective ways to determine useful from useless metrics include the following:

Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) - quantifiable measures that distinguish an objective's degree of success - upfront. Specific goal markers act as the first differentiators of primary data, secondary and tertiary data.
Using Google Analytics: The newest feature of the online metrics-tracking service includes Google Data Studio: A tool that converts data into legible and sharable dashboards for you and your team.

You might be asking yourself, "With all this talk of focusing on relevant metrics and unnecessary ones, what are some examples of both?"

It depends. Van Geuns argues the question is a matter of if the metric provides vital information on a strategy's business-related contributions. If awareness on, say, an organization's social media platforms, is a KPI, then you study data pertaining to reach and efficiency.

Following that same line of thought, when asked about identifying the most important metric that wins the hearts of your senior executive(s), she believes knowing the results your C-Suite concerns itself with the most determines the most important metric. Is the results sales? Check out your profit margins. You already know where we're going with this.

All in all, knowing your goals and knowing what you're looking for guides you to the numbers that ultimately matter and those that make up background noise.

If you would like to learn how the Burnette Agency can help grow your brand awareness and social media presence please email us at info@theburnetteagency.com or call 404-850-2081.