Public Relations companies are no strangers to the idea of market research. Most agencies make regular use of opinion polls as one of the tools for engaging with the media. Some also use original research to develop targeted messaging with audiences, or utilise research to shape thought leadership programmes. There are limits, however, to what research PR agencies conduct largely because of the investment levels required to conduct original research. Online access panels have certainly reduced data collection costs for typical nationally representative consumer surveys, but as soon as you focus on more difficult demographics, or difficult-to-reach business audiences, the costs of research increase significantly.
But there is one other area where researchers can make a valuable contribution to the regular activity of public relations agencies, and their clients – media analysis and monitoring.
The need to monitor consumers in the social media generation
Traditionally, one of the key measures of the success of PR activities was to monitor media coverage – principally in the press. In the internet age, however, the practice of measuring column inches and reviewing press cuttings has evolved. Most publications have a presence on the internet, and arguably social media and blogs have transformed the rules of media influence. Journalists, of course, still are an essential conduit, but the internet has introduced complexity and interaction which has set entirely new challenges, and opportunities for public relations practitioners. Bloggers and prosumers are not passive recipients of brand messaging, and this level of self-autonomy, in some ways, has blunted the ability of brand communicators to “control” consumers.
Of course, brands can engage with these new self assured consumers, through social networks or companies own online communities and overtime influence them. But the process is perhaps more complicated than it used to be, and understanding consumer behaviour, needs and interaction with complex media channels more difficult than it used to be, but arguably more critical.
This raises the need for new levels of intelligence about media consumption. What media do consumers engage with? Do they blog? What media and sources of information most influence them? Some of these questions will depend on conducting original research – ideally through a tracker survey of media consumption.
But Public Relations companies can also tap into audience behaviour in other ways, which does not involve conducting surveys, collecting new or original data. In many circumstances, there is a wealth of relevant data already available in the public domain - much of which can be found from sources or online data tools. These tools are growing all the time to reflect the changing landscape of social media. Just as tools were developed to monitor Face Book or individual blogs, Twitter emerged on the scene, and there are now tools to monitor Twitter (monitter.com, is a recent example). Doubtless there will be new entrants in time, and new tools to monitor them.
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