You don’t need to have spent time on our awards page, attended one of Smoking Gun’s much-lauded training sessions or conferencesto know that we have a bit of a thing for evidence. Hence the whole company name being linked to super sleuth Sherlock Holmes and our obsession with living in the land of intelligent measurement.
Everyone here at Bridge Street feels the same, too. We’re tired of the old ways of PR measurement and evaluation, sick to the back teeth of AVE-based claims, and have already shown the industry there are better ways of judging the true worth, reach, and overall success of a public relations push. Our team also loves sharing the wealth, and with this in mind it seemed only right to point readers in the direction of some free tools that will allow you to assess whether time, effort and money are being spent as efficiently as possible. Prepare the download toolbar.
Facebook Insights 
It’s amazing how many people still don’t realise that Facey-b offers a lot of statistical feedback on your business Page performance. Insights can tell you everything from the number of individual views you have received to the exact (inter)actions that have taken place, unique video plays to total reach. Information that will undoubtedly prove invaluable. Moreover, they can help answer why reach is dipping, what is driving or losing followers, where those followers are coming from, and so much more.
Followerwonk 
Admittedly, it’s a silly name, but Followerwonk is serious business. Connect a profile and it will feedback an in depth investigation into the strength of your Twitter followers- how many times they have tweeted, their own follower figures, influencer level, where they live- so in depth it’s (almost) scary. It will also let you search every Twitter account for the same information, and prepares graphs on your new followers and engagement levels. Free for one user, if you want to connect more accounts there is a fee.
The Moz Blog 
The blog itself is useful, penned as it is by some of the best minds in SEO, but the WHAT? toolbar extension for Google Chrome is a real gift from the gods of digital PR and online marketing. With this you can see the strength of the online coverage you have gained, assess blogger impact, and get a better understanding of whether all the work has really paid off. The paid version is even better, offering options to export into a CSV spreadsheet, detailing spam ratings and more
Google Forms 
Eugh. Forms. The very word is about as inspiring as filling out a really long, really boring form. That is apart from when the form is created with this free Google application. Put simply, you can make professional looking surveys and the like as easily as creating a standard document, making amassing and actioning customer feedback a breeze. The point being you can get a low cost snapshot of whether a campaign worked to alter opinion, cement reputation or sway purchasing decision; all priceless information
AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework 
How’s that for a mouthful? AMEC is the international association for the measurement and evaluation of communication, and recently unveiled IEF. This online tool can guide people through the right processes for aligning objectives, developing strategic plans, setting targets and finally measuring the impact of all that effort in an effective way. Better yet, it presents all this in such a simple way even a newborn baby could glean vital information from the results. Well, almost. The only caveat is you must have the data to begin with.