The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles

After a brief break to collect my thoughts, I am back with a focus on evaluation and measurement. At a conference on measurement held in Barcelona in June, an important development was recorded: the creation of the ‘Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles’. The Summit was organized by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) and over 200 delegates from around 33 countries voted on what is to be considered new standards in communication measurement. Participants at the conference included important PR and measurement organizations such as AMEC, IPR, The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), and The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA).

The finalized version of these principles has now been published. The seven Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles are:

1. Importance of Goal Setting and Measurement
2. Measuring the Effect on Outcomes is Preferred to Measuring Output
3. The Effect on Business Results Can and Should Be Measured Where Possible
4. Media Measurement Requires Quantity and Quality
5. AVEs are not the Value of Public Relations
6. Social Media Can and Should be Measured
7. Transparency and Replicability are Paramount to Sound Measurement

The full description (pdf) of each of these principles and the thought process behind them can be seen on the  AMEC website.

Social media trends live!

If you want to have a look at how exponentially social media is growing as we speak, here is a link to a live counter. Forward this to anyone who still questions the importance of social media in communication, particularly in business.

Some facts brought to you by Gary Hayes.

• 20 hours of video uploaded every minute onto YouTube (source YouTube blog Aug 09)
• Facebook 600k new members per day, and photos, videos per month, 700mill & 4 mill respectively (source Inside Facebook Feb 09)
• Twitter 18 million new users per year & 4 million tweets sent daily (source TechCrunch Apr 09)
• iPolicy UK – SMS messaging has a bright future (Aug 09)
• 900 000 blogs posts put up every day (source Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008)
• YouTube daily, 96 million videos watched, $1mill bandwidth costs (source Comscore Jul 06 !)
• UPDATE: YouTube 1Billion watched per day SMH (2009)- counter updated!
• Second Life 250k virtual goods made daily, text messages 1250 per second (source Linden Lab release Sep 09)
• Money – $5.5 billion on virtual goods (casual & game worlds) even Facebooks gifts make $70 million annually (source Viximo Aug 09)
• Flickr has 73 million visitors a month who upload 700 million photos (source Yahoo Mar 09)
• Mobile social network subscribers – 92.5 million at the end of 2008, by end of 2013 rising to between 641.6-873.1 million or 132 mill annually (source Informa PDF)
• SMS – Over 2.3 trillion messages will be sent across major markets worldwide in 2008 (sourceEverysingleoneofus sms statistics)

Social media – controversial privacy issues in the US

Finally the issue of government invasion of privacy linked to social media is being addressed. The Justice Department and other U.S. agencies are bein sued by the Electronic Frontier Foundation over their policies for using social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in investigations, data collection and surveillance.

The EFF is a civil rights group which filed a complaint in San Francisco claiming that the government has used social-networking sites in conducting investigations and hasn’t clarified the scope of that use or whether there are any restrictions or oversight to prevent abuses. 

It is seeking the information to “help inform Congress and the public about the effect of such uses and purposes on citizens’ privacy rights and associated legal protections.” Bloomberg reports that it cited news articles that reported police searching Facebook photos for evidence of underage drinking and an FBI search of an individual’s home after the person sent messages on Twitter during the G-20 Summit notifying protesters of police movements.

The lawsuit seeks a court order for the government to process the requests and produce documents.

via Bloomberg

The pay-for-news venture

In my courses we often speak about the future of news and information. Recently, a debate has emerged about a new model proposing a system that requires users to pay for news content. It was submitted to the the Newspaper Association of America(NAA) and now made public. The essence of this controversial model links back to none other than Google. The company describes a scenario in which paid content might co-exist in mostly free-content digital environment.

“Google believes that an open Web benefits all users and publishers,” Google’s RFI said. “However, ‘open’ need not mean free. We believe that content on the Internet can thrive supported by multiple business models — including content available only via subscription.” Google’s position is that advertising will likely be the main source of revenue for most news content, but that “a successful paid content model can enhance advertising opportunities, rather than replace them.” Pointing out the obvious, Google’s “Vision Statement” described two challenges: Foremost, the content has to be something consumers are willing to pay for. The second challenge is to create an e-commerce model that is “painless for users.” Google mentions its Checkout payment system and suggests it could be tailored for publishers’ use. “We can use this expertise to help create a successful e-commerce platform for publishers.

Google’s “ecosystem” includes:
• Single sign-on capability for users to access content and manage subscriptions.
• Ability for publishers to combine subscriptions from different titles together for one price.
• Ability for publishers to create multiple payment options and easily include/exclude content behind a paywall.
• Multiple tiers of access to search including 1) snippets only with “subscription” label, 2) access to preview pages and 3) “first click free” access.
• Advertising systems that offer highly relevant ads for users, such as interest-based advertising.

Read full article on Niemanlab

Measuring social media ROI

An interesting post on Mashable by Christina Warren about measuring the Return on Investment of Social Networking. Indeed, we speak increasingly about measuring Public Relations initiatives such as specific campaigns, publications, websites, and events but exploring the impact of initiatives using the social networking channels remain uncharted territories.

According to an August 2009 survey by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, 86% of professionals in a variety fields said that they have adopted social media in some way.

While the survey results are great in that they indicate an enhanced role social media in many industries, it also indicated that some professionals or companies are adopting social technologies without having a way to actually measure how effective or useful the measures actually are. In fact, 84% of respondents said they don’t currently measure the ROI (return on investment) of their social media programs.

Read the full article here>>

Public relations of war

An article in the The New Nation by Phillip Knightley brings us back to the discussion on the ethics of Public Relations. Is manipulation inherent to all public relations tactics? This article on public relations and war adds some food for thought.

Lots of people and organisations make money out of war. But I learnt this week of a comparatively new arrival on the scene that is really cashing in: the public relations industry.

PR firms from the USA and Europe have been active in the Caucasus since the conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia a year ago. But few realised the extent of their operations or how sophisticated they have become. These PR firms pump out none of the crude propaganda of yesteryear. They employ former advertising men, ex-politicians and journalists to put across a subtle but convincing case for their clients. Even Moscow has joined the trend.

Read full article>>

Mobile phones – more than just one to one communication

An interesting example of how mobile phone technology is transforming journalistic reporting and creative video recording today.

At this year’s Locarno Film Festival a film using new technology and creativity triumphed. Director Pippo Delbono showed that real talent can manifest itself through any lens.  His film, La Paura (Fear), a feature-length documentary was shot entirely on a mobile phone.

“The tiny camera, wielded like a sharpened knife, dissects the racism and hypocrisy of Italy through a range of quasi-related incidents. Delbono has transformed the pocket accessory into an artistic tool.” (The Guardian, Tuesday 18 August 2009).

Social media users – a desirable audience (new study by BIGresearch)

An article published in medialifemagazine.com on the importance of social media as lucrative audiences

The big lure of social media: Its users
By Diego Vasquez
Aug 20, 2009 – 1:05:37 AM

No wonder social networks are feeling such urgency to figure out how to monetize their audiences. According to a new study from BIGresearch, the Worthington, Ohio-based research company, social media users represent a hugely desirable audience. They are younger than the average American, more affluent, and more apt to buy certain big-ticket items, such as furniture, computers and televisions. Social media users tend to use multiple platforms. A Facebook user, for example, is far more likely to use Twitter or LinkedIn than the general population is. Social networkers have a median income of $68,311, and they’re more likely to be female (nearly 58 percent). Gary Drenik, president and chief executive officer at BIGresearch, talks to Media Life about why social media users represent a desirable audience for buyers and planners, why they’re more likely to be female, and why MySpace is losing users to Facebook.

What did you find most surprising or most interesting about this report?
The high level of usage and interactions among social media options. It demonstrates a new way for marketers to communicate with their customers. It’s interesting to see where the crossover is. For example, Facebook tends to be popular for LinkedIn and MySpace users, but Facebook users aren’t as apt to use LinkedIn or MySpace.

What’s the most important thing media buyers and planners can learn from it?
Not only is social media widely used, but the users are active consumers. They are planning on buying at a higher rate than the general population.
For example, 30 percent are planning to purchase a vacation (versus 26 percent of adults 18-plus), 18 percent are planning to buy furniture (versus 13 percent) and 17 percent are going to buy a computer (versus 13 percent).  With a higher propensity to spend, social media users need to be targeted by marketers.

Read full report …

Swiss watchdog demands shutdown of Google Street View – Article from AFP

Switzerland’s data protection watchdog on Friday demanded that Google immediately withdraw the “Street View” facility it has started offering on its map of Switzerland. Federal data protection and transparency officer Hanspeter Thuer released a statement warning that the US-based Internet giant was not respecting conditions he set to respect personal privacy in Switzerland. Thuer said that based on public comments and his own browsing, many faces and vehicle number plates had not been covered up or were insufficiently blurred. He “demands that Google Inc. immediately withdraw its online service Google Street View concerning Switzerland,” the statement said. The Street View facility allows users to take a ground level panoramic view of some locations on Google Maps, based on still photographs taken by specially-equipped vehicles. Google recently started taking shots in Switzerland. The online service, which began in the United States, has sparked controversy because the snapshots also inadvertently capture passers-by on camera, sometimes in embarrassing or private moments. Thuer said he would meet representatives of Google early next week to “improve” the service and ensure that it conforms with Swiss law.

Copyright © 2009 AFP.