Evaluation von Social Media: Interview mit Jen McClure

By: KK / 21.01.09

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) hat vor Kurzem ein Whitepaper zum Thema ROI von Online-Pressemitteilungen herausgegeben. communicationcontrolling.de hat mit Jen McClure, der Vorsitzenden des Branchenverbandes über die Herausforderungen, aber auch der Notwendigkeit der Evaluation der neuen Kommunikationskanäle und Social Media gesprochen.

communicationcontrolling.de: Ms. McClure, the Society for New Communications Research is a global non-profit think tank dedicated to the advanced study of the latest developments in new media and communications. Can you just give us a short overview about your work, your goals and your current projects?

Jen McClure: The Society was formed three years ago as a volunteer-driven, nonprofit research and education foundation to address a need for more advanced, independent research on the impact of new media and communications tools, technologies and trends on media and business models, the professional communications profession, as well as their larger impact on culture and society.

Our organization is dedicated to creating a bridge between the academic and theoretical pursuit of these topics and the pragmatic implementation of new media and communications tools and methodologies. The Society's Fellows include a leading group of futurists, scholars, business leaders, professional communicators, members of the media and technologists from around the globe – all collaborating together on research initiatives, educational offerings and the establishment of best practices. In the last three years, more than 50 communications experts have gone through our fellowship program. We are now in the process of evaluating the applications for our 2009 Fellows and look forward to welcoming them soon.

This year SNCR's research and education agenda will focus on: social media metrics and measurement (best practices and standards); adoption of Web 2.0 tools and technologies by small businesses; enterprise organizations, non-profit organizations and the higher education sector; new developments in mobile media; new business models for news organizations; shifts in business and economic behavior resulting from new communication technologies and the growing impact of social media and connective technologies on business and the economy.

Part of our mission as a non-profit is to ensure access to our research, education and best practices resources free of charge. For example, those interested in our work can access many of our research studies and publications here and our best practices tip sheets here. We also publish New Communications Review, which is a rich resource for news, articles, case studies and insights from our Fellows. And there are opportunities for participation by communications professionals worldwide. We encourage submissions to the review and to our twice-annual Journal of New Communications Research from communications experts from around the world

communicationcontrolling.de: SNCR recently published the whitepaper “The ROI of Online Press Releases”. What was your ambition to deal with the topic? Are there any plans for research on similar subjects in the near future?

Jen McClure: We were very pleased to be able to conduct this exploration of how the press release is evolving as a core communications tool in this age of online communications. The study was led by two SNCR Fellows: Shel Holtz, a renowned communications professional, and Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu, a professor of public relations at Clemson University, and was sponsored by our Vendor Council member Vocus. This is a good example of how we bring together the academy, the communications profession, and the technology innovators for collaborative projects.

The purpose of this research study was to identify and analyze current patterns in the uses of online press releases. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to identify: goals of online press releases; target audiences of online press releases; criteria for evaluating the success of online press releases; as well as tactics, opportunities and challenges of using online press releases.

One of the discoveries we made through this research and many of our other studies that we have conducted is that there seems to be an inconsistency between what organizations set as goals and what they actually measure. This may be indicative of the maturity level of the communications industry in terms of their understanding of how to best deploy and measure these new and evolving communications tools and methodologies.

For example, as the press release evolves from being a tool used by the PR function to communicate with the press to one used by marketers and PR professionals alike to reach a wider variety of audiences for a multitude of purposes ranging from media relations to SEO, our metrics and measurements must also evolve.

communicationcontrolling.de: Evaluation and research have long been the "poor cousins" in the branch. What is your impression has the topic become more relevant, especially taken into account the latest developments in new media? Do you have a special working group dealing with the evaluation topic of new media and communications?

Jen McClure: Our discovery of this disconnect or inconsistency between what organizations set as goals and what they actually measure led us to decide to focus on new communications and social media metrics and measurement as one of the primary areas for our research, education, and best practices initiatives this year.

Our work will include in-depth quantitative and qualitative research by our Fellows in this area. This will result in in-depth research reports, case studies, journal articles, best practices tip sheets, and presentations of our findings through educational offerings at conferences and via online delivery.

We are developing partnerships with other leading industry organizations for this work and are seeking the support of the media measurement vendor community to ensure that this is a comprehensive industry-wide program that gains wide acceptance.

communicationcontrolling.de: Why do you think evaluation and establishing standardized methods of measurement are so important, also in the context of new media? Do you think it could offer a valuable contribution to the acceptance of new media in corporate communications, too?

Jen McClure: As we continue to see growing widespread adoption of new communications and social media tools and technologies, and as we begin to see a convergence of the communications functions, it is crucial that we establish best practices and standards for metrics and measurement of our initiatives.

For example, if the goal of a campaign is to "get closer to your customers," as we hear so often with social media initiatives, then why is the primary metric click-throughs from the blog to the corporate website? What does it really mean to "get closer to your customers?" Is there a bottom-line impact or metric that aligns with this goal?  What is the true definition of this elusive buzz word "engagement," which seems to mean something very different to advertising professionals, marketing professionals and PR professionals - yet any one of those functions may be the drivers of a social media initiative.  If a term like engagement has a different meaning to each communications function, then it becomes completely meaningless. Yet, we as communications professionals seem to maintain that "engagement" is core to the success of social media initiatives. If that's the case, then let's work together to figure out what that really means.

We've seen a similar evolution in the media industry as media consumption habits have changed so drastically over the past few years. Traditional television and radio ratings systems are less relevant as more people watch TV online or listen to online radio. And, let's not even go into the print media industry!  That is best saved for an entirely different interview!

As we see spending on traditional forms of media and communications initiatives continue to decline, we will continue to see a corresponding increase in social media and new communications initiatives, which are less cost-intensive, but which require a great deal of human resource commitment.

We're undeniably now in a new era of communications that demands a complete overhaul of the way we look at investment, ROI, metrics and measurement. It is therefore absolutely crucial that we update our approach to address this new world of communications.

communicationcontrolling.de: Do you have an overview from your members and associate organisations or businesses about the status of evaluation of new media in practice? From your experience and insight, which future developments in the field will occur?

Jen McClure: We continue to see adoption of social media tools and technologies by all sectors, including large and small businesses, higher education, government organizations and NGOs. Our Senior Fellow and Research Chair, Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, has led the first benchmarking studies of social media adoption in the business and high ed sectors, which illustrate these trends. [Those studies can be accessed here]

We anticipate that adoption of social media tools and technologies by all of these sectors and by the general public will continue to grow. Online communities will become particularly important in the coming year and beyond, as we see more virtual organizations and less business travel by companies trying to reduce costs to overcome economic difficulties. We also believe we will continue to see a growing trend toward online education for many of the same reasons. We also foresee that mobile media and mobile communications will continue to gain importance, that web globalization will also gain in importance. We'll continue to see debates relating to online privacy issues - and obviously this has some important relevance to the issue of online metrics and measurement as it relates to the collection of data on users/viewers/audience.

We will also continue to see a convergence of the communications functions within organizations and a breaking down of the traditional departmental or functional silos in order to use new these new social media tools, technologies and approaches successfully.  More money will be allocated to human resources to manage programs than to traditional media buys, and of course, the need to evolve our approach to metrics and measurement to address these changes will become crucial, as we need to continue to get better at measuring the success and ROI of all these initiatives.

communicationcontrolling.de: Thank you for the interview!

About Jen McClure

Jen McClure is the founder, executive director, and president of the Society for New Communications Research. She is a renowned expert in new media and communications with a career that spans nearly 25 years, and includes experience in all facets of professional communications, including journalism, market and media research, media relations, public relations, strategic communications, print and online publishing and broadcast media. Ms. McClure earned her masters degree at Stanford University, holds a graduate certificate in History, Politics and Society from Oxford University, and is a 1985 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in the Silicon Valley area of CA with her husband and son.

About SNCR

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) is a global non-profit foundation dedicated to advanced research and education on the latest developments in new media and communications, and their effect on traditional media and business models, communications, culture and society. SNCR is dedicated to creating a bridge between the academic and theoretical pursuit of these topics and the pragmatic implementation of new media and communications tools and methodologies. The Society's Fellows include a leading group of futurists, scholars, business leaders, professional communicators, members of the media and technologists from around the globe – all collaborating together on research initiatives, educational offerings and the establishment of best practices.

As a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization, SNCR relies on the support of its members and donors. For more information about how to support and participate in SNCR's work, visit www.sncr.org/get-involved/

In Verbindung stehende News: Neues Whitepaper: ROI von Online-Pressemitteilungen  - 11.11.08

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