The Blogger PR Gap, or what the heck is a Metric?

Thinking back on last year's ShesConnected Conference, it occurred to me that one the most enlightening conversation I had, was behind the scenes during the last minute meet-up we had prior to going up for the Rate Card panel.

The woman that was chairing the panel (Terri McBay, Director of Social Media, OgilvyOne) had a list of questions she was thinking of asking. She used terms like campaign, and R.O.I. (Return On Investment), and she said for her the biggest question was about metrics. "Do you show measurement to justify the compensation you're asking for?"

Metrics? What the heck does that mean? I thought at first she wanted to know if at the end of a giveaway we provided stats to the rep, like how many page views we received, how many entries, etc. However, upon further clarification I discovered that what she wanted to know was did we, at the outset, while setting terms and rates make any guarantees on R.O.I. For example, did we say: "You will pay me $1000, and in return I will get you this number of page views to your website, and this number of new followers on Twitter." Not only was this totally outside anything I had ever considered, I personally couldn't envision ever being able to make those sorts of guarantees.

As relatively new blogger, and I'm guessing I'm not alone here, I thought in terms of "I will write these two posts, and I will publicize them on Facebook and Twitter to my x number of followers." I think this really highlights the total gap between PR and bloggers. They are looking at this whole thing, and thinking of it, in completely different terms.

I think to be able to best work with PR reps on campaigns, we need to understand things from their point of view. We need to understand what they need to make the program work from their end, and the expectations that management and companies are placing upon them.

What do you think? Is there a disconnect between bloggers and PR reps? Or am I the only one that feels a little lost at times? How do we bridge the gap?

I'm pretty excited about some of the panels being offered at this year's ShesConnected Conference. Panels such as:

All of which are designed to help bloggers connect with and understand PR reps, via panels full of top notch experts. Read this quote from the blurb for the final panel I listed above, and then maybe you'll understand why I'm so excited:

Learn the language and the ecosystem of the Public Relations firm from five senior executives representing some of the top agencies in Canada.

Um. Hello? This is just the chance I've been looking for! I am so there!

Are you going? Which panels are you excited about? With over 40 sessions to choose from, I think it's safe to say there's truly something for everyone. (And the more pressing question for me is -- Am I the only one that needs a primer for all these wacky PR terms?)

Disclosure: I attended ShesConnected Conference #SCCTO in 2010 and I’m pleased to share my thoughts on the conference. As part of the Blogger Outreach program with ShesConnected, I received compensation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Image by valsgalore.