Polls Show that Office Holders, Candidates Need PR Boost

The most recent ABC News/Washington Post poll and NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll show all-time lows in public approval for both the administration and Congress after this summer’s debt ceiling crisis and S&P credit downgrade. Obama’s approval now rests between 43 and 44 percent, according to the two polls, while the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that Congressional approval has fallen to just 13 percent.

The ABC News/Washington Post poll also slams congressional Republicans, finding that only 28 percent of the country approves of the job that they’re doing. The poll did not measure the approval rating of congressional Democrats.

So, are Obama’s reelection hopes in jeopardy? It’s possible; however, there is no clear frontrunner in the GOP Presidential Primary. According to the ABC News/Washington Post poll, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is leading with 27 percent of registered Republican voters behind him. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is close behind with 22 percent and potential candidate Sarah Palin rounds out the top three with 14 percent support.

If Palin stays out, the Republican Party may split between the hard-line conservatives and tea party activists who will likely support Perry and the moderate conservatives and independents who will unite behind Romney. To complicate the mix even more, the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Obama up five points on Perry while he trails Romney by one point.

Regardless, all this data is premature at this point since there is still over a year until the general election and various Republican debates to come. Whatever happens, look for office holders and candidates to vie for public relations points within the next months because - let’s be honest - most of them need it.

The Four PR Measurement Priorities Everyone can Seem to Agree on

We all know that PR is a diverse and complex industry complete with different job titles and descriptions and with all the confusion, there seems to be some consensus on the four measuring priorities of the public relations industry. In an effort to move the industry forward, a global conference led by AMEC was held in Lisbon, Portugal to discuss the future of measurement in PR. A result of this successful convention is the creation of the Measurement Agenda 2020 composed of 200 delegates from five organizations: Public Relations Society of America, ICCO, Institute for Public Relations, AMEC and the Council of PR Firms. Additionally the Measurement Agenda 2020, is a by-product of the Barcelona Principles of Measurement, an achievement of the previous years conference.

The Global Director of Research & Measurement, Dr. David Rockland, present in the Barcelona Principles and Lisbon Measurement Agenda sessions states, "In Barcelona we created immutable principles about how you evaluate PR. Now, in Lisbon, we have set a course for the future and where this field needs to head in the next several years."

The 200 delegates decided amongst 12 measurement priorities to focus on in the upcoming years of growth and development for the industry. Without further a due here are the top four priorities:

1. How to measure the return on investment (ROI) of public relations
2. Create and adopt global standards for social media measurement
3. Measurement of PR campaigns and programmes needs to become an intrinsic part of the PR toolkit
4. Institute a client education program such that clients insist on measurement of outputs, outcomes and business results from PR programs