Survey Data: More PR Pros Are Sharing Reports Across Departments

Nearly Two-Thirds of PR Pros Struggle to Connect Metrics to Business Outcomes but 56% Say Metrics Will Outperform Last Year’s

One of the biggest challenges PR pros continue to face in 2022 is connecting metrics to business outcomes to show the impact of their work, according to Muck Rack’s second annual State of PR Measurement Survey. However, PR teams report sharing updates across more departments compared to last year, including executive (6% increase) and marketing (5% increase) teams, indicating earned media and PR may be becoming even more essential to business and marketing outcomes.

The report, which was released today by Public Relations Management (PRM) platform Muck Rack, surveyed PR pros to get a pulse on what metrics matter most, reporting preferences, and the biggest challenges and priorities in 2022.

PR Success Measurement

It’s critical to track, measure and report the results of media relations to prove the team’s value to stakeholders. In 2022, the average PR pro used more than five success metrics, with 96% using coverage/stories placed, followed by audience reach (56%), social media shares/mentions (52%), social media engagement (51%), and website traffic (48%).

Message pull-through and share of voice in media coverage is also becoming an important success metric, with 10% more PR pros stating they will measure message pull-through and 7% more stating they will measure share of voice, social shares/mentions and pitches sent in 2023.

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Reporting Preferences

With more PR pros sharing updates across departments, how updates are shared matters. Email remains the most popular method for distributing updates (87%), but chat platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams) are becoming more popular, increasing by 4% compared to last year.

Industry Momentum

More than a quarter of PR pros work with 11 or more clients and over half say this year’s metrics will outperform last year’s.

“PR is critical to any successful business, but the lack of quantifiable metrics has always been a barrier. That is why it’s so exciting to see increased awareness of PR efforts across departments. It means we’re succeeding in what we set out to do at Muck Rack: enabling PR professionals to prove the value of earned media,” said cofounder and CEO Greg Galant.

Muck Rack surveyed 805 PR pros globally from October 11 to October 22, 2022. Download the full survey results and sign-up for a free virtual discussion diving into the data with Muck Rack’s cofounder and CEO, Greg Galant, along with industry experts Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of Spin Sucks, Johna Burke, global managing director at AMEC, and Christopher Penn, cofounder and chief data scientist at Trust Insights on December 12, at 11:30 AM ET at muckrack.com.

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