Digital Media, Online PR, Social Networks: is measurement just a giant red herring?

I’ve been a busy bee recently: up in the smoke 8 working days out of 10.

Highlights? Loads of them, but particularly the FreshNetworks gig on Tuesday looking at Social Networks with a specific focus on monetisation, and last night’s inspiring Digital Britain Unconference (organised by @billt and @kcorrick) in London. And, as an aside, if anyone still wonders about the magic of Twitter, just the very fact that a diverse group of 80 to 100 people turned up to the ICA to provide a response to Lord Carter’s Digital Britain 2012 says it all. Similar important events are happening across the country, all mobilised through Twitter, blogs and networks and organised in just 2-3 weeks.

Forgive the nascent nature of my ramblings but I’ve got a collision of thoughts stacking at the moment. I’ve got to get them down, and would love any feedback and opinions that might help me make some logical sense of it.

PR and measurement

• PR: PR has long struggled to justify its existence through our clients’ evergreen, and justifiable challenge to demonstrate the value in pounds and pence.
• Equivalent Advertising Spend: Yes there are many ways – Equivalent Advertising Spend, share of voice, circulation – but they are all flawed for one reason or another.
• Influence of PR: PR impacts (or perhaps ‘influences’ – tricky word I know) behaviour online and offline, over a period of time – and this human behaviour cannot be measured. Also sustained PR can positively impacts the way people feel about a company – again, how do you measure that, particularly if money isn’t plentiful to carry out before and after attitudinal surveys.
• Brand Effect: That bluebottle-sized fly in the ointment called ‘Brand Effect’ is notoriously hard to track, measure or quantify.
• PR Measurement: Recently I have often heard my peers and colleagues waking up to online (at last!) and greeting it with the grateful and hopeful cry ‘And it’s measurable!’

Is it? I personally find this justifying statement worrying. Yes it is certainly more measurable, particularly if realistic metrics are built into campaigns from the start. However these can run the risk of turning people off, making the conversation unnatural and doing quite the opposite of the end goal.

Social Networks and monetisation

• Similarly, there is a huge amount of talk about monetisation of Social Networks – Facebook, Twitter – at the moment. Can they be? Should they be? After all companies have to see a bottom line return on investment, don’t they?
• As Joanne Jacobs was saying on Tuesday, Social Networks perhaps should not be seen as purely a vehicle to see a return on investment, and if they cover their costs that’s fine. People go shop later, online or offline – and if the network just serves to build that feel good factor (that many hard nosed marketers call ‘fluffy’) that’s significantly fine too.
  
  

Digital Britain Unconference

And then on to last night’s Unconference. Without sounding too much like I’m on a soap box at the moment perhaps monetisation, value, ROI of everything that needs to happen in the run up to 2012 should all be seen in a different light. Dare I think that perhaps ‘Brand Effect’ thinking should be woven in? Yes, infrastructure, education, technology etc etc all costs hard cash and those providers naturally want to see a return, particularly when all our pockets are not particularly deep at the moment. However, look at the steaming pile of compost we’re in now due the hard-nosed greed of the banking sector. Surely inspiring Digital Britain to become Digital Britons (as one of the attendees shouted) is key to this. And by communicating the benefits using everyday language and real world on the ground examples could be key to driving this revolution. Perhaps bottom line measurement should be seen for what they are: a diversion that steers us away from what really matters.

Am I barking up a tree, going down a blind alley? Any thoughts that you could add to this would be very gratefully received!