Last week PRWeek held their latest PR and The Media conference and one of the hot topics up for discussion was the monitoring and evaluation of new media and whether or not it is possible to truly evaluate what is being said about a brand.
This made me think as to when does a lot of information become too much information?
This made me think as to when does a lot of information become too much information?
In this media controlled environment in which we operate can we truly monitor and evaluate every website, blog, podcast, newspaper, television programme etc that mentions a client's brand? With the number of blogs in existence now reaching the 70 million mark is it worth our while to spend a large proportion of a budget on monitoring and evaluating? According to Lorna Perrin, head of comms at fashion label French Connection the money is better spent on market research (Magee, Kate, 9th March 2007, "Information Overload" PRWeek) and I think I agree. If the initial research is conducted to a high standard and accurately reflects the target market then the campaign, in theory, should be a success.
I am aware that ignoring monitoring and evaluation is completely ridiculous but it is my opinion that it is time to focus on the important media rather than every random 'new media' that raises its head.
Let me know what you think.
Debz
4 comments:
Hi Debz!
Evaluation has always been one of the hottest topics in Public Relations' field.
As the field is being transformed over the last decades, and the issue of professionalization is always in the limelight, the demand for accountability becomes stronger, and evaluation's role becomes more and more important.
The field itself has always been so diverse that was making the evaluation a difficult and debatable process.
And the more the technology develops, the more complicated that process becomes. It's true that in our days we are overloaded with information in various ways, as new channels pop up everyday.
In such conditions, I share the same question with you, about how all this information will be analysed and evaluated. It's obvious that, even there are some ways to monitor the new media, it's impossible to measure the impact of all of them.
Some of the participants of that Conference were of the opinion that in the era of new media, evaluations seems to be useless. I don't agree with that option. Public Relations have always struggled to gain a professional status, and ignoring evaluation is retrogression.
I feel that measuring the most significant media, through which large audiences are targeted, would be an effective solution. As evaluation cannot be ignored, there should be a focus on the activities that have the biggest impact.
But don't forget, that technology grows so fast, that it may soon, to our surprise, offers us new models of evaluation for the new media!!!
I agree that the research before the campaign will play a significant part in the success of the campaign but theory and practice don’t always follow, so a comprehensive evaluation of traditional and new media will always be necessary I think. Perhaps one of the big advantages of including new media in the evaluation of campaigns is that to a certain degree, new media has more power over traditional media. For example, I buy a newspaper once a week, The Sunday Times but I get my news fix online from a variety of sources. If you’re using a mix of new and traditional media in your campaign which nowadays is probably expected for reaching target audiences, then it’s obviously going to be necessary to evaluate your online strategy. I don’t suppose there is a one size fits all solution as clearly different types of media will be appropriate for different campaigns and the methods of evaluation will depend on this. I noticed that this year, the CIPR has an award category for “The Best Use of New Media”, so this might be indicative of the way things are heading, and lucky us – we know all about it thanks to our clever choice of module!
Hello Banana fiend
I think the the two seperated issues you mention are part of the same thing, which is, as we know all to well, professionalisation :)
The fact is, neither market research or high quality evaluation takes place enough as it is. Your'e right that it is pretty much impossible to evaluate all sectors of the environment, though it is possible to decipher between those areas that matter more than others.
For me, the lack of blanket acceptance of evaluation as a mandatory part of PR smacks of a desire not to have one's expertise put to the test. It's seems a case of 'Accountability? No thanks!'
Moreover, if that is not the case, then occupational laziness or disaffection with mundane number crunching and information gathering is probably at the root of it, which is even worse for PR as 'profession'.
Evalution is in many ways a major departure from what is still perceived as the glitzy world of PR. It is also liable to throw up more questions for many practitioners and clients than it answers.
For me, this recent argument sounds a bit familiar in theme. A case of any excuse will do.
John
Hello!
I couldn’t agree more with what you said about the importance of research on the success of a PR campaign.
In fact, grounding PR strategies on solid research is the only way for designing and implementing efficient and effective campaigns that meet their objectives.
However, for this to happen research should be an ongoing process pertaining every stage of the PR strategy. In this framework, monitoring and evaluation become important prerequisites for legitimising research value and securing that the campaign is on the right track.
Of course, a PR professional, as you correctly said, cannot control all of this information that is out there. What he can do, though, is incorporate these new types of communication into PR programmes. Target and address messages to audiences that matter the most on a one-to one basis, monitor and research websites that are most relevant to their clients or corporations industry.
In other words, view the advent of these Internet-based communications strategically. Closing our eyes to what technological advances have to offer to the practice of public relations can only make things worse.
Just a thought…
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