If it’s not Measured, It’s not Managed!

As online business becomes a component of our everyday reality, it is increasingly important to evaluate the success of an organisations Internet presence. Today, there are a number of management tools that have been developed that are essential to Public Relations professionals to identify and calculate the effectiveness of a company’s online presence in comparison to its competitors. 

Analytics Tracking Tool 

Web analytics is the tool responsible for the measurement and collection of website data. By tracking the volume of traffic to your site, PR practitioners can evaluate their company’s performance and level of interest. This tool is also useful in seeing changes in the number of visitors to a company website after launching a campaign or implementing an advertising strategy. The other measurement attainable through this tool is to track the length of time individuals typically spend once accessing the website. This is crucial as encouraging individuals to enter a web page means nothing if the website itself is boring and uninteresting. This could result in the public navigating away from the site.

Content Distribution Tool

A content distribution tool is valuable for managing the substance of a PR campaign and presents opportunities to submit work via one online service and have the same content published on other social media networks. This is advantageous to PR practitioners as combined content enhances the appearance of an organisations services, products and brand image.

Email Management Software System 

This tool helps organisations to manage large quantities of emails efficiently which in turn can be an effective reputation enhancer and a simple method to answer complex enquires. Email management software is important to implement in order to track customer enquiries and make consumers aware that your organisation is professional and responds promptly. 

Online Mediums V’s Traditional Print Media...

Professor of communications James Curran says “The first change is in terms of competition. Newspapers historically do not have to compete with broadcast and magazine news because other media do not balance timeliness with depth the way daily papers do. Online, however, everyone is publishing 24 hours a day, so the local paper now has to directly compete with the local ABC affiliate and whoever else.”

Another favourable aspect of publishing media online is that it is cost effective and can reach people on an international level unlike print media who struggle with geographical limitations. However the graph below presents interesting findings that demonstrate there are still huge markets to target with print media. I recommend reading discussions regarding this matter on the Facebook group ‘Online Media VS Traditional Print Media'. On this site people of all ages and backgrounds have debated and expressed interesting opinions on this topic. Why not join the group and have your say today!

Social Media and PR - Everyone’s a Potential Publisher

The digital revolution has significantly changed how businesses interact with their stakeholders and consequences the PR industry has faced as a result of this development. For PR practitioners and Internet marketers, social media has been extremely successful in driving potential customers to their online sights, and is still considered one of the biggest innovations since the 90’s Dot Com Boom. It is not only younger generations developing reliance’s on social media but business such as Coca-Cola using networks to communicate and reach audiences to gain effective publicity. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content."

Social media is changing the way business is run. PR has adapted and evolved to these huge modifications in today’s Internet age however the biggest fundamental for any organisation is to make profitable use of these networks. Popular social mediums include YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Myspace. Practitioners have made adaptations by immersing their company in the culture of the social web and building connections to enhance their online profile. The video below additionally highlights the importance of networks and key attributes of social media that could enhance in the PR industry.

In April 2010 CIPR President Jay O'Connor announced: “A core theme in our three-year strategic plan is social media and the impact on the public relations profession. Rob joined the CIPR board to lead our efforts in this area, feeding into our policy, research and training. As part of this, Rob has set up the Social Media Panel - a group of some of the UK's foremost social media contributors, who will debate and input, ensuring our guidance reflects the very best thinking and practice. Things are moving quickly. Reaching out to practitioners who can offer their insight so that we can guide our members and the profession appropriately is key.”

In August 2010 Coca- Cola were awarded ‘No. 1 Social Media Company in Japan among Consumers’. Coca-Cola is the leading beverage company and one of the largest advertisers in the world. This multinational corporation has committed to using social media strategies and dedicated a generous proportion of their budget for advertising to the rising trend. As well as an impressive Facebook page, blog and Twitter account, Coca-Cola has recently launched a new website titled Coke Zone that offers product buyers exclusive rewards. With this, Coca-Cola has wisely integrated both online and offline communication strategies.

Ethical implications to Social Media

Social media is not too dissimilar to that of print in the sense that you still need to target a particular audience and build interest although online media is moving at a far quicker pace. Here are a couple of statistics to put this into perspective:

To reach 50 million viewers.....

Radio took 38 years

Television took 13 years

The Internet took 4 years

The Apple i pod took 3 years 

BUT Facebook gathered 100 million viewers in just 9months!!

Social media has no time restrictions and allows breaking news to spread worldwide in a matter of seconds from millions of different sources. The Internet has enabled everyone to become a potential publisher but does this limit the accuracy of information read online? However as social media requires participation and communication, it can lead to huge ethical issues regarding both privacy and security of individuals conversing online.The video below demonstrates how social media can consequently have a negative effect.