Journal Review 17: New Media, New Influencers and New Implication for PR

by: Azran Haji Awang

Marketers and public relations professionals today are confronted with an astounding array of new communications channels. Internet-based social media tools like blogs, podcasts, and online video and social networks are giving voice to the opinions of millions of consumers. While mainstream media continues to play a vital role in the dissemination of information, even these traditional channels are increasingly being influenced by online conversations. The “new influencers” are beginning to tear at the fabric of marketing as it has existed for 100 years, giving rise to a new style of marketing that is characterized by conversation and community.

Marketers are responding to these forces with a mixture of excitement, fear and fascination. They’re alarmed at the prospect of ceding control of their messages to a community of unknowns. Yet at the same time they’re excited about the prospect of leveraging these same tools to speak directly to their constituents without the involvement of media intermediaries.

The Society for New Communications Research set out to conduct an examination of how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals are addressing those changes by adopting social media. The goals were to discover how organizations:

              I.        Define new influencers

            II.        Communicate and create relationships with them

           III.        Use social media to create influence and,

          IV.        Measure the effects of these efforts

Another goal of the study was to use these discoveries to offer a set of recommendations to professional communicators.

Conclusion of the Study

Based on these findings, the researchers arrived at the following top-line conclusions:

              I.        Social media is rapidly becoming a core channel for disseminating information. Fifty-seven percent of this group of early social media adopters reported that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities, while 27% reported that social media is a core element of their communications strategy.

            II.        Blogs, online video and social networks are currently the most popular social media tools, but PR and corporate communications professionals are using a wide variety of means to reach audiences, depending on their unique situations.

           III.        Currently, the top criteria for determining the relevance and potential influence of a blogger or podcaster are: Quality of content, relevance of content to the company or brand and search engine rank. However, new metrics are emerging and these criteria could quickly change.

          IV.        The top criteria for evaluating a person’s influence in online communities and social networks are participation level, frequency of activity and prominence in the market or community.

           V.        About half of the communicators are formally measuring the effects of their social media initiatives. Their key goals are to enhance relationships with key audiences, improve the reputation of their businesses, and drive customer awareness of their online activities and to solicit customer comments and feedback.

In short, social media are clearly changing the way we think about media and influence, but even as more companies adopt social media, they are still struggling to find effective metrics for deciding who the most influential players are. These findings reflect an ongoing debate over the applicability of conventional metrics to new media, and the lack of clearly defined best practices for measuring social media. The question of metrics will probably remain fluid until the industry settles on some broadly agreed-upon standards. It is our hope that this study helps to move this debate and discussion forward as we work together as an industry to determine the most relevant criteria for determining influence and measuring success in this new media sphere.

source:  sncr