Posted by Milos Sugovic
Here’s a brilliant idea: I’ll put up a sign for one day near the Empire State Building. The sign will say “Check Out Peppercom’s Blog!” Since on any given day about 13,000 people visit the building, and each person has an upper bound of about 150 people in their social circle who they’ll talk to about my sign, that means I can expect 1.95 million impressions in one day! Astounding, isn’t it? Especially if you’re one of those that looks at a glass half empty and says it’s a river dam, then the math definitely makes sense.
The PR industry’s struggle for credible measures has paradoxically reduced its credibility. And it’s because of measures like impressions that are comprised of circulation numbers and a mysterious multiplier. It’s not so much that circulation numbers are misleading, it’s the multiplier - a number used to inflate audience exposure by a factor ranging from as low as 2.5 to 8.0 – that grossly exaggerates and distorts already questionable figures.