EducationPR

The communications staff at Missouri University of Science and Technology use a del.icio.us account to track their online news stories and blog posts. Like EducationPR, they use Google Alerts and Technorati to find the stories in the first place. They they select the ones they think are the most important or most closely tied to key messages to post on del.icio.us.

Andrew Careaga at Higher Ed Marketing says using del.icio.us “… makes it easier for us to keep track of media coverage, but we’ve also discovered a side benefit: del.icio.us gives us yet another tool for measuring and analyzing our media relations activities in the sphere of online social media.”

Getting coverage in traditional media ranks near the bottom of the list for 300 communicators responding to a recent survey sponsored by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), according to a December 6 release.

Fifty-seven percent of 300 respondents in a recent SNCR survey said that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities as more customers and influencers use them. Twenty-seven percent of respondents reported that social media is a core element of their communications strategy. Only 3 percent stated that social media have little or no value to their communications initiatives. Respondents believe that social media is most effective for the following sectors: arts, entertainment and recreation; communications; computer hardware; and education.

These are among the initial findings of a study, “New Media, New Influencers and Implications for the PR Profession,” presented at the Society for New Communications Research Symposium in Boston.

Nearly 300 public relations, corporate and marketing communications professionals experienced in social media participated in the survey, which focused on how influence patterns are changing and how communications professionals address those changes.

According to the SNCR release, survey respondents said the most effective tools for their social media initiatives are blogs, online video, and social networks. The top three criteria for determining the relevance and potential influence of a blogger or podcaster are quality of content on the blog or podcast, relevance of content to the company or brand, and search engine rankings.

According to SNCR, fifty-one percent of respondents formally measure the effects of their social media initiatives. The metrics they value most are enhancement of relationships with key audiences, enhancement of reputation, customer awareness of program, and comments and posts relevant to the organization or products. Close to the bottom of the list was traditional media coverage.

SNCR reports that detailed study results will be published in the upcoming issue of the Journal of New Communications Research.

“I’m quite happy to keep forking out my association memberships if I can see that at the very least those associations are furthering understanding of the profession and setting and maintaining sufficiently high standards so the public doesn’t get ripped off and that when I go to a party I don’t get called a spin doctor or – worse – ‘perpetrator of the black arts’. Because that’s not what I do,” writes Catherine Arrow in PR Conversations.

In the post “Where Next for Professional Organizations” she writes, “As a member, I want to see those assocations visible and working everywhere – not just in mainstream, but in Facebook too, or where I can Stumbleupon them by chance as I link in to another group. I don’t want to have to wait six months to find out how much a conference is going to cost me next June nor do I want an old-school hard copy magazine with information that is weeks out of date, when in my network I can have accurate, albeit competing information to hand in seconds.”

“Like everyone else,” she continues, “professional associations must surely realise that their business model has changed and that they must work out how to fit/create/devise their new one – fast. I just hope that in our sector, the associations will use the kind of swift response mechanisms most practitioners are used to using in order to facilitate change.Otherwise, why should I click the ‘renew’ button next time around?”

(via Tough Sledding)