Write a PR plan in eight steps: research, goals, audiences, messages, strategy, tactics, schedule and measurement. Includes a planning table to copy and a check before approval.
PR measurement runs across three eras: clip-book, digital, and now the synthesis-layer era. The six-dimension EPR Measurement Framework for 2026 — Presence, Accuracy, Source quality, Prompt coverage, Sentiment, Competitive share. Updated August 2026.
Cision surveyed nearly 600 PR professionals for its Inside PR 2026 report — the most comprehensive industry benchmark of the year. The data is useful. One metric is completely absent: Citation Share, the measure of whether a brand exists inside AI-generated answers.
The complete 2026 guide to PR measurement: the three-tier framework (outputs, outcomes, business impact), why AVE is dead, and emerging metrics such as Citation Share, LLM perception tracking and narrative intelligence.
The communications industry has a credibility problem with the executives it serves — and it has not been particularly successful at addressing it. Procurement complaints, talent flight, and what honest treatment would look like.
Impressions are no longer a credible consumer PR metric. Four measures replaced them: coverage quality, share of conversation, Share of Model, and contribution to demand. Share of Model (SOM) — the percentage of AI-engine answers in a category that name the brand — is the fastest-rising metric in consumer PR.
86% of PR professionals say measurement matters. 19% use sales metrics. 81% of programs don't connect to revenue. The measurement gap — 17 years after the Barcelona Principles — updated August 2026.
The 2011 frame on how PR firms measure their work — share of voice, sentiment, referral traffic, message pull-through, and the retreat of Advertising Value Equivalents.
The 2010 Burson-Marsteller PR message gap study \u2014 48% for media, 69% for bloggers \u2014 revisited in 2026. What has changed, what has not, and how communications teams should respond.
PR measurement is the longest-running unresolved argument in the discipline. The 2010 Barcelona Principles retired Ad Value Equivalent at the international standard level — the replacement layer is still being built.
