Should User Experience Be a PR function? Should Measurement?

I was listening to a podcast from the Measure Mob the other day, and it made me think about what pieces of social media are owned by PR. More specifically, I mean which pieces we are willing to take ownership of.

The Measure Men offered an example about how marketing folks focus a great deal on how they are driving traffic to the website, but they don’t seem to care about bounce rates or conversions. In other words, they’re only focused on what they think is their job: driving the traffic. The user experience once they get there doesn’t seem to matter to them.

But it’s not just marketing. I think a great many of us are guilty of focusing on our own little silo without thinking about the larger picture. You may drive engagement with your online community, but are your efforts somehow driving increased traffic to your customer services department? Shouldn’t you care about that?

It seems as though it’s the same with social media measurement and PR measurement. Where do you draw the line? We care about impressions and the reach of our messages, but shouldn’t we also care about things like sales and cost savings? At what point does measurement cross the line of “that’s not my job”?

Honestly, I don’t have a perfect answer. Not yet. We’re all still trying to figure out this social media stuff, but this ties back to the idea that your whole business has to be social, not just marketing or PR.

As we begin to measure PR in social media, it’s imperative that we consider the whole picture. Don’t just stop with finding the bits and pieces that fall directly under your umbrella. Everything is so connected online, and you should use those connections to increasingly show your value and improve your own work.

If you help run a Facebook community, think about the larger implications. Are you helping drive traffic to the website? Is the user experience making them bounce? What can you do to ensure the whole experience is of the same quality?

If you help to empower brand advocates to be ambassadors, don’t just focus on the obvious results. You’re helping to drive more positive conversations and correct misinformation, but have you also helped out the customer services folks? Are they providing a totally different experience? How can you change it?

Measure more than you think you’re responsible for. You can use it to prove how you can bring value to more pieces of the business.

Do you find yourself saying or thinking, “that’s not my job”? What do you do or what barriers do you face in these situations?