Yesterday's online PR roundtable at E-consultancy

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have been invited to speak at a roundtable discussion on the topic of Online PR, hosted by E-consultancy. It was a packed event, the biggest roundtable I've seen, that's for sure, and some quality attendees. About 30 in total.

I met marketing and PR managers from some big corporate FMCG, pharmaceutical, technology, and finance brands. The discussion began by focusing on areas such as ROI from online PR, the hot social media used in PR campaigns, tips and tricks to use in practice, the importance of Twitter (and it wasn't me that brought that one up!!), campaign measurement, planning and case studies.

One key issue many companies are saying, and this was the one key issue that the event focused on the most, is that brands want their online PR to be better measured than it is now. More ROI please PR peeps! There seems to be too much focus on the 'press clippings' mentality and not enough sophisticated online PR measurement.

My client Will McInnes suggested to the organisers that I went along, so thanks for that Will, I found it a really high quality discussion.

Comments

[Lucie Follett]

One key issue many companies are saying, and this was the one key issue that the event focused on the most, is that brands want their online PR to be better measured than it is now.... and not enough sophisticated online PR measurement."

Absolutely; couldn't agree more. This is why web analytics is so important - used systematically and rigorously, you can track exactly how successful online campaigns are, both in terms of quantifying 'brand awareness'('buzz') but also online sales, if that is the objective.

We are currently working with a couple of proactive pr co's on not only measuring their clients' online activities using web analytics but also continually refining their online campaigns/site/blog with SEO.
Used together, you can identify very, very quickly what works and what doesn't and act on that quickly.

Unfortunately, from my own experience, to misquote Michael Caine, not a lot of people know that there is actually an established web analytics community 'out there' who are only too happy to work in conjunction with 'conventional' pr co's who are trying to make headway online.

all the best,
Lucie

[Lucie Follett]

One key issue many companies are saying, and this was the one key issue that the event focused on the most, is that brands want their online PR to be better measured than it is now.... and not enough sophisticated online PR measurement."

Absolutely; couldn't agree more. This is why web analytics is so important - used systematically and rigorously, you can track exactly how successful online campaigns are, both in terms of quantifying 'brand awareness'('buzz') but also online sales, if that is the objective.

We are currently working with a couple of proactive pr co's on not only measuring their clients' online activities using web analytics but also continually refining their online campaigns/site/blog with SEO.
Used together, you can identify very, very quickly what works and what doesn't and act on that quickly.

Unfortunately, from my own experience, to misquote Michael Caine, not a lot of people know that there is actually an established web analytics community 'out there' who are only too happy to work in conjunction with 'conventional' pr co's who are trying to make headway online.

all the best,
Lucie

[Aliya Zaidi]

Hi Drew,

Definitely was a good discussion and we came away with some good key learning points.
We've just published the Roundtable Briefing notes here, available as a free download for registered users:

http://tinyurl.com/63rpxr

Regarding measurement, metrics are often an after-thought for brands investing in online PR, and I think this is primarily down to a lack of understanding about exactly what to measure, together with a lack of integration between online and offline PR activity.

This is definitely changing though: establishing industry-wide standards for OPR metrics (through initiatives such as Measurement Camp) will allow for better side-by-side comparison of different campaigns.