How do your efforts measure up on KBI: the Kick Butt Index?

Forget engagement, affection, influence, and any other social media or mainstream media scores you’re debating. What we really need for a public relations measurement metric is a Kick Butt Index (KBI).

That idea grew out of a conversation I had with a former client who described his measurement needs as follows:

“I want something so that when the business development guy or the product manager storms into my office and says, “Lockheed just kicked our butt on this one!” I’ll have an answer.”

What does ‘kicked our butt’ really mean?

The crux of his problem—and similar problems for many in PR—is that no one stops the boss and gets him/her to agree up front what “kicked our butt” means. How do you/they really define success? Does it mean more front-page headlines or better message communication? More fans on Facebook, or more retweets?

Just about every organization I deal with has different PR/social media programs, with varying goals and audiences. And within every company, there are probably seven definitions of what “kicking butt” means, depending on if you are in sales, marketing, finance or PR.

Kicking media butt