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Social media has become a prevalent part of public relations practice. Research and observation suggest young public relations practitioners are often the ones to perform social media tasks. Guided by literature on public relations roles, millennials, and pigeon-holing, this qualitative study explored whether new professionals are in fact relegated to being social media practitioners. Analysis revealed several factors, including agency billing rates, mentorship, and personal attributes, which impact the tasks new professionals are assigned....
Key Findings
- Several participants admitted that they used social media for one-way message dissemination, although they recognized that this might not be the best use of such platforms.
- Although many participants spent more time on social media than they did on traditional tasks, very few of them did social media exclusively.
- Many participants attributed their social media use to agency billing rates, rather than specialized expertise. Senior practitioners have higher billing rates that do not fit into the client budgets allocated for social media.
- Several young practitioners discussed the role of mentorship in their professional development. Those with strong mentors and advocates shared more diverse professional experience.
The largest and most global examination to date into the state of public relations profiles a profession being reshaped by forces as current as digital networks and as timeless as generational divides.... Respondents identify the impact of digital networks and massively available real-time information as the fundamental forces transforming the practice of contemporary public relations. The new realities and consequences of the digital revolution underlie the four most important issues identified by nearly two thirds of global respondents to the online survey. In order: managing the volume and velocity of information (23.0 percent); the role of social media (15.3 percent; improving measurement (12.2 percent); and dealing with fast-moving crises (11.9 percent).... The headline here is that current leaders may be reading too many of their own press clips. The most striking divides in the survey are the gaps between older and more experienced professionals and younger practitioners. Practitioners take a dimmer view of leadership performance within the PR function, the type and quality of leadership development, and the relative importance of the top issues facing the profession, and it was common for practitioners to rate the performance of the senior PR leader lower than they rated the CEO’s understanding of the role of communications.... [This is a MUST-READ for PR and communication professionals ~ Jeff]
In PR, we often encourage our clients to conduct research as a way to contribute to the industry news cycle when there is no news coming out of the company. March‘s clients have seen a lot of success with this strategy and, across every industry, many companies will dedicate large portions of their annual marketing budgets to this type of content development. However, while companies typically want this research to come out in their favor – for example, framing their core competency as a must-have to remain competitive – research will fall flat if it isn’t conducted in a vendor-neutral manner and presented fairly. Last month, Facebook released some research findings in a report titled, “The Power of Like 2: How Social Marketing Works,” which claims that Facebook advertising works! This was released just weeks after investors expressed anxiety that advertising revenue won’t keep up with Facebook’s user base, and seems to be a direct counter argument to investors in an attempt to dissolve these doubts and keep stock prices high. However, there are some major holes in the logic of this report, casting doubts on whether Facebook advertising actually is effective after all.... [For Facebook, a case of lies, damn lies, bad PR - JD]
It’s tough to talk news media and politics without taking shots at Fox News. And to some extent, these reputations are well-earned. At the end of the day, much of the media is at least slightly partisan. So I would think that inArticle, a powerful news visualizer from NYU grad student Jeremy Scott Diamond, would be all about spotting bias. After all, it analyzes several takes on the same story at the word level. It guages sentiment (positivity and negativity), counts meaningful words and compares stories side by side. But using inArticle for a few minutes, I’m just shocked by how efficiently it can cut to the gist of any story.... [A very cool new news analysis tool! Give it a try - JD]
How would you respond if someone asked you to identify the most important shift in PR now and in the next year? One thing is certain. You wouldn’t say “Google is becoming irrelevant.” Yet that’s precisely what’s happening as social media continues its avalanche of impact on PR and all business. Dan Verhaege’s post Social Search to Gain 70% of Search by 2013; Google Becoming Irrelevant says it best...
The public relations industry is the birthplace of nutrition-free filler that grows up to become pseudonews. Sometimes, it can be a terrifying thing to behold in its rawest form. This is PR Dummies. The dumbth of PR, every week. This week: surveys are a classic way to drum up fake news coverage. Surveys can be dumb. But they can't be super, super, super dumb. This one is.... [Classic PR Fail and stupid PR trick - JD]
Monitoring social data can be complex.Here are 5 tips on where to focus the analysis of social media for business insight... There are lots of great posts and articles on Big Data and and the impact of social media. Many discuss the value to be had from social media whilst others provide commentary on how difficult it can be to get true social business intelligence. But how do you actually wade through masses and masses of conversations to produce insight that is actionable and moves the social strategy further towards business goal attainment?...
...However, the coolest and most valuable analysis comes from determining the nuances of an issue and not just the numbers. This is what I call “the art of analysis.” In my opinion, the best results are derived from multiple data sources. When overlaid on top of one another patterns begin to emerge and real insights can be gleaned....
Last year at the PRSA International Conference in Orlando, I loudly voiced my rant against AVEs during Shonali Burke’s session on “A Field Guide to Measuring the Business of PR.” Katie Paine, PR industry’s reputable measurement guru who has been tirelessly fighting against the AVEs, also was present in the room. If you haven’t been following Katie’s efforts to change the PR industry’s perception of AVEs, read her blog here. I wish we started a signature campaign to “STOP AVEs” right then, but it’s not too late....
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You have big ideas of where to take your business next. But how do you know if your new plan or product is any good? And how do you prove it to your stakeholders and investors?
Validated, third-party research is the answer....
Compared with the rest of Europe, UK PR agencies are least happy with their media monitoring, and are keen to find a comprehensive way to measure social media claims latest research... Social media monitoring is no easy task. The technological and logistical challenges are significant. Kantar Media company Press Index has just published a survey on social media and media monitoring practices in public relations agencies across Europe, and it paints a mixed picture. Clemence de Termont heads up Press Index in the UK. She believes that the results suggests PR agencies may be spending too much time on this task and need to review whether they are getting the most out of their current media monitoring solutions. UK PR agencies are the least confident about monitoring tools. As de Termont explains: “Most of those surveyed believe they have the necessary tools to effectively monitor the media, but In the UK only 53 per cent of respondents share such confidence, reflecting a more advanced and demanding market."... [Interesting look at social media monitoring challenges ~ Jeff]
For the price of your email address, the guys over at Social Habit will give you the new Edison Research/Arbitron survey on social media. It's well worth it. Below are a few highlights: People are liking brands more... (33% of users of social networking sites follow brands. That's up from 25% last year, and 16% the year before. This year, 36% of social network users said "none" when asked which social network most influenced their purchase behavior. That's way down from last year's 68%.) ...but almost nobody remembers one they like. (When asked "Think about the companies, brands, products, and services you enjoy following on social network sites. What is the first ONE that comes to mind?" only 332 out of 2,020 people polled responded, and the most frequent company mentioned was Nike, with just 9 mentions.)... [Great post loaded with research insight for PR & marketing - JD]
I have a blog post published May 29th at CommPro.BIZ, “Seeing Is Believing — Why PR People Should Take Infographics More Seriously.” I make two related arguments. I contest that PR people generally have fallen behind other marketing and analytical disciplines in their understanding and use of big data, both for understanding challenges and for constructing effective advocacy. At the same time, though in a radically different realm, PR fails to take seriously the use of infographics in responsible, effective, and ethical ways. On the one hand, the data (numbers) scare us off, and on the other hand we don’t take visualization (pictures) seriously. All this while Microsoft (see Microsoft’s SharePoint Insight), IBM Enterprise Marketing, and Booz Allen are developing products and services based on both big data and visualization....
Many brands see social media as just another megaphone to blast their marketing campaigns and news releases at their customers and prospects. Then they give up because no one seems to care. Why do they fail? These jabberjaws never stopped to listen.
In contrast, the social media strategies we’ve highlighted in The Guide to Social Monitoring are built on a foundation of attentive listening. These companies know that every social media activity — and indeed every business activity — will be far more effective if you’ve cultivated a deep understanding of the relevant social media conversations....
[This Radian6 guide to social media monitoring is a superb resource for PR, social media and marketing pros - JD]
At the other end of the credibility scale from Encyclopedia Britannica is Wikipedia.org, which apparently has never had editors but rather administrators with enough latitude on their own for personal bias, anger, ignorance and lack of knowledge to influence decisions over what appears and what does not. Worse yet, the administrators for Wikipedia.org have no journalistic or editorial training! But, they are the decision-makers for information that goes online that we – you and I – are supposed to assume is accurate. Are we being conned?... [Cautionary post about trusting Wikipedia - JD]
5 Essential Twitter Search Operators To Find The Most Relevant Tweets... To start digging into the never-ending stream of data that Twitter has to offer, start by familiarizing yourself with Twitter’s advanced search page. You can use the simple search form on Twitter.com to do a rudimentary search, but the advanced search is where all the juicy information hides. Here are five operators you can use in your search to really get at the heart of what people are saying about your product, your company, or your competitors. [REALLY useful for PR twits - JD]
One of the first resources we created when starting Rabbit in early 2010 was a list of 20 free social media evaluation tools. Not measurement, evaluation. Tools that will give you some form of meaningful data that you can use in reports. And ones that don’t cost anything. Fast forward almost two years and a lot of that list is out of date, with many of the originals no longer being around or having ‘upgraded’ to full paid for services. As a result, it’s time for a refresh. This is by no means an extensive list, there are other tools around in addition to these, but even a few of them together will provide you with meaningful intelligence. The 20 are as follows... [Thanks to Dirk Singer for this excellent resource - JD]
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Research indicates juniors get social media role because of lower billing rates for social media functions. Iandicates PR agencies aand organizations haven't bought into the value of social media.