www.measuring_pr_and_other_issues_campaigning_online.com

Public Relations prides itself in being innovative and diverse, an industry capable of using all available platforms to achieve its goals. In the past these platforms have consisted of advertising, marketing, events and internal comms to name a few. Since the rise of the internet however PR practitioners have a new opportunity to communicate to the masses, often in the forms of campaigns. Not only is the internet a great communications tool, it is the answer to one of PR's age old questions.... How can we measure PR? Campaigns no longer have to be measured with press clippings or news reports but instead we can see exactly how much online traffic our campaigns are attracting. Steve Rubel's argues that page rank is currently the best measure of a websites influence for public relations purposes in his blog on micro persuasion.

Firstly a couple of my favourite online campaigns, as a dog owner and food lover what could be funnier than letting a dog pick out my food for the day? The online campaign by Burger King called "Quick Pick" allows you to enter the site via facebook and predict which snacks a puppy will pick for the day, if you guess correctly a host of prizes could be yours. Confused? Check out the video below and see Rebel the puppy in action.

Another campaign that caught my eye is by mobile phone provider Samsung.  Following the successful campaign of viral video online advertising and marketing “Hardest Hockey Shot Ever”, Samsung launched viral videos online promoting Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games Campaign “Discover Your Every WOW Moment”. As a basketball player and skier i love the video below which was  produced for Samsung’s Mobile Explorer viral video marketing initiative and succeeded in going viral with nearly 400,00 views on youtube. 

So online campaigns are great? They communicate with the masses and create a huge following. Too good to be true? Of course. Their are still many issues with online campaigning, as discussed it is a great PR tool for measurement but how many of those youtube hits are promoting the brand of Samsung or even the Vancouver games? Is it just a funny video people come across when browsing? And in which case can we as PROs justify it a success? An isssue discussed by many academics such as Thomson in his paper "electronic notes". In addition, companies such as Amazon thrive on having the reputation of a successfully functioning and reliable site. As we can see from last weeks Disney example however this can be easier said than done. A PR campaign could loose all credibility due to a systems error. Finally is the issue of interaction, PR and advertising is moving more into a two way communication model where the producer no longer relays the message to a muted consumer, instead the consumer has been given a voice and this is often an online voice. If people dislike your idea or campaign they have a platform to tell the word and create their own following, for example Rimmel Model Georgia May Jagger was virally ridiculed for a gap in between her teeth with the facebook page "Get the london look...na your alright sort your teeth out" receiving over 230,000 likes.  Although viral campaigns can be a great asset, we as PROs must perform our own issues management because with great rise in importance the rise in room for error also increases.