PRos in Training

This is a guest post from Dr. Tiffany Derville, Assistant Professor of Public Relations at the University of Oregon. I think this is her first blog post. I’m thrilled to be the venue. Tiffany can be reached at derville (at) uoregon (dot) com.

Tiffany is responding to Kami Huyse’s conversation prompt and my tag.

*****

DISCUSS: Do you think measurement of social media is important, and why?

Measurement of every public relations activity is important to discover its effectiveness.

RESOURCES: What are your favorite resources for social media measurement? Do you recommend any methodologies? For those of you that have them, can you point to posts about measurement you have written in the past?

As Kelli mentioned, Google Blog Search and Google Analytics are helpful for conducting a content analysis of the number of people mentioning you, the context of their discussions, and the amount of traffic your blog receives.

Traditional qualitative methodologies, such as interviews, focus groups, and content analysis of your stakeholders’ comments, can provide feedback about what works and what needs to change.

You might be surprised what you discover. In a study I recently completed, I found that an advocacy organization’s abundant use of online resources made many of the organization’s members feel excluded. Several members did not know that one of the main reasons for the organization’s heavy use of online media was to attract the next generation of members. Traditional research helps you see blind spots in your communications program. In this case, the organization needed to explain to its senior members why it was investing in online resources.

Surveys are also important because a randomized sample with a statistically significant number of people allows you to generalize your results.

Moreover, quantitative and qualitative research methods can be conducted online – provided that your stakeholders are Internet users. We have tools like SurveyMonkey for quantitative research and chat rooms for qualitative research.

EXAMPLES: Do you have any examples of measurement you have used in a social media campaign? Did these campaigns have any positive business outcomes (ROI) and/or relationships)?

Not yet, but I hope to have some examples by the end of 2008.

Here are some things we know about information sharing, which social media accomplishes:

- Openness contributes to trust (Dimmick, Bell, Burgiss, & Ragsdale, 2000; J. E. Grunig & Huang, 2000)
- Openness contributes to satisfying relationships (Ledingham & Bruning, 1998)

Kelli and I are on Windy Hovey’s thesis committee at the University of Oregon. Windy will use interviews and a focus group to study the effectiveness of an advocacy organization’s use of social media. Stay tuned for her results next summer!