Social networking is here to stay. We’re not saying that because we have a penchant for all things Facebook; it really is. The recently held 3rd PR Measurement Summit in Dubai proved the point, with a whole session dedicated to discussing the measurement of social networking and online PR for public affairs and government organizations. And while it wasn’t created with marketers in mind, that’s one direction social media has steadily moved towards.
With the public relations industry taking a liking to social media – and doing it well – measurement should be front-of-mind for those clients venturing on to Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere. And every other social networking sites, for that matter. At a time when budgets are tight and ROI is more vital than ever, even social networking hasn’t escaped the measurement rule of thumb.
“Social media turns measurement on its head,” said Alexander McNabb, group director at Spot On PR, at the measurement summit. “You used to do stuff then measure its impact. Now, with social media, measurement comes first.” And luckily, says McNabb, it’s simple: The medium is very measurable.
“With Twitter, for instance, we use a tool called Tweet Burner, which measures the click-through rate when you share a link,” he later explains to Communicate. “It shows how many people went to the link you shared, when they went, and other details.” He also cites tools like blogger site meters, which tells, you how many visitors came to a blog, from what country, what operating system they’re using, and whether they’ve left a comment, among other information. McNabb says that in terms of measuring the way people behave online and interact with the content you’re providing, social networking is almost “infinitely measurable”.

EASY ACCESS. Mohammed Elzubeir, managing director at Mediastow, a Dubai-based media research specialist company, says that with social networks like Twitter, the entry barrier for consumers to voice their opinion in a public way has become extremely low, changing the ways clients need to reach their audiences. Consequently, measurement is of prime importance.
“We look at who’s saying what, what kind of authority they have,” says Elzubeir. “That’s measured by how many followers they have, how many retweets [forwarding of a Twitter post] they get, and it gives us a weight to see if this person’s opinion has more weight than another person. It’s the same for blogs: who’s saying what, how many links to the blog there are, how many comments or discussions. All that helps us weigh how relevant the blog is. Based on that, our client can respond appropriately.”
There are various tools available to public relations agencies to monitor and measure conversations online, and track what’s being said online about brands, organizations and issues. These include Radian6, which is considered a highly effective social media measurement tool by experts. It works by tracking any mentions of brands on any form of online social network and subsequently notifying the company. Reuven Proenca, senior account manager and a specialist in digital PR at PR agency Weber Shandwick, says such programs can monitor all forms of social networking PR. But clients are not always easily convinced.
Dubai-based media-monitoring firm Media Watch has recently added a new service to the melee of social media monitoring tools. Social­Eyez uses automated search, monitoring and archival, as well as human analysis. It can also monitor Arab-language content, including slang and dialectical discussion.
“The challenge lies in justifying the significant investment involved in using a professional monitoring and evaluation service,” says Proenca. “The fact remains that online media is often seen as an add-on to print and broadcast media, and as a result many brands do not see the value in deploying a paid-for service in the region. So we’ve had to adapt to the situation, and at present we rely on a system based on manual search, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative evaluation of online conversations.”

TIMING IS EVERYTHING. McNabb says that one of social media’s biggest challenges when used as a public relations tool is that it takes time. “Conversations take time,” he says. “Are you spending more of your time on social media? Some companies would see that as a problem, but I’d see that as a sign of successful entry. Is social media promoting a conversation? Are you seeing people comment in a positive fashion? Are you a valued member of the social media community? While there are very precise tools to measure some parts of social media, measuring if you are a valued member of the community is slightly imprecise.”
McNabb acknowledges that clients don’t generally venture into social media with the sole goal of becoming a valued member of the community, but he says that it should be one of the objectives. He cites Wild Peeta, a Dubai-based fusion shawarma restaurant, (see “Facehooked,” page 24, Communicate, Sep. 2009) as an example of a company that extensively used social media in setting up their restaurant.
Elzubeir says that in the regional market it is still difficult to turn on to social media for public relations purposes. “There are a lot of old-school marketing people who are still not convinced. Others are more conservative and want to see how it plays out,” he explains. “They think it’s a fad, but I think it’s a trend; it might not still be Twitter in the future, but the trend of consumers being able to publicly voice their opinions so easily is not going away. It’s a marketer’s dream to be able to tap into people’s minds.”

EFFECTIVE MEASURES. And for those who have finally been persuaded to use social networks for PR purposes, Elzubeir explains it is not difficult to convince them of the effective measurability of the medium.
“To measure social media is a lot easier than print,” he says. “Fortunately for us, so far, people tend to divulge a lot of information about themselves. That may change in the future, but right now people are more than happy to tell us their gender, name, and where they are. That kind of information helps us a lot. With traditional media, we don’t get as much access. So social media is a realistic gauge of how things are going.”
With social media replacing other forms of marketing, McNabb says there are some educational challenges that need to be addressed. First and foremost, the fact that social media needs to be an integral part of a company’s marketing budget. “You’re spending more time in direct contact with customers, so you can’t do that and maintain your current advertising and promotions,” explains McNabb. “You have to move your budget around to take care of this new way of reaching customers.”
Proenca says that communicating online is now as important as communicating via traditional media and that, by default, measuring online media is of prime importance. But while the Internet is now used by marketers and PR consultants to achieve brand recognition and to nurture brand awareness, Proenca says we should remember that it wasn’t designed for that purpose.
“It was meant to be a tool for sharing and collaborating, and that’s the guiding principle that all its users, whether individuals or brands, have to follow. Once that is understood, everything else falls into place.”
By accepting this principle for using social networks for public relations, and therefore by using the medium effectively, marketers will have its highly effective measurability to back them up.