Google Analytics

Well this is my last post for my Digital PR module. Hopefully I can continue this blogging when I go out into the big bad world of work in PR.  For the past few weeks I have been using Google Analytics and been watching YOU, yes YOU and how you search for my blog and how you access it.  It has been interesting...

Many arguments from the "old" media camp quite rightly argue how Public Relations can measure campaigns that use digital media  or online communicating.  It is all well and good if we have a web counter, which just gives us the number of visits that this blog has had.  That is just a number, we don't know WHO was looking at the website; WHERE they were looking at the website from; WHEN they looked at it and for how long; WHAT system they were using to access the interent; and WHY they were looking at the blog.

From a PR perspective all these factors are important.  When doing a PR campaign with online resources such as social media websites, Google Analytics can show us the answers to the who, what, where, when and why!  It is important to analyse the findings to gain a better understanding of who the PR campaign wants to target and who is interested in the campaign in the first place.  I was surprised when I had a look at my Google Analytics personal page to see that my blog was being watched not only by people in UK and Ireland, but also Spain, Romania, Bulgaria, Bahrain, Greece, Canada, the USA and Australia.  You can see how many times and the exact location where these viewers are, which quite frankly is a bit strange to see at first.  There is an important lesson here, Curtin and Gaither (2007) in "International Public Relations: Negotiating Culture, Identity and Power" commented on how cultural differences should be addressed when promoting PR in different countries.  "...glocalization emerges as a productive way to ease the tension between global and local."  Therefore, it is important to keep in mind audiences from other countries and cultures.

Many of my viewers have been members of my class and my friends from outside the university bubble.  However, there have been many visitors who have visited that are new to me!  It is thanks to promoting my blog on Twitter that has helped new visitors click onto my web page and I say thank you to them for bothering!

So, do I highly recommend using Google Analytics for PR purposes? Yes!  It is a tool, like I said before, that can measure the people who visit your website and also gives you an insight as to how people search for your website and how they use it.  It can also give you nice percentages, that all PR people like when trying to promote campaigns!  Therefore, it is very useful!

Here are some of my stats that maybe of interest:
87.65%  of viewers to my webpage via Blogger, Twitter or Facebook
I had 22 North American hits.
I had 216 hits from the UK and Ireland.
I had 13 visits from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe
I had 8 visits from Bahrain and 1 visit from Australia.

(please note that these numbers would be larger had I worked out how to use Google Analytics properly, so I'm missing data - I'm being honest!!)

So there we have it, the end of my blog for university...
Good Morning, Good Day or Good Night  - wherever you may be viewing from! Thanks to everyone who has had a look at my blog and many thanks to those who have contributed and commented on my blogs.  Hope you have enjoyed my blog, as much as I have enjoyed creating it!

Keep those comments coming :)




Pictures from blogspot. and vquence

Mobile Technology PR campaigns

I've talked a lot about how PR has and is using social media as a way of communicating to many people.  My main concentration was on Twitter and Facebook.  A couple of weeks ago, as part of our digital media module we had to give a presentation on how mobile technologies can be used for a PR campaign.  Today I shall talk about it today and see what you think!

With 3G incorporated on many mobile phones and the recent news of 4G it is only a matter of time that mobile phones will be many people's source of information (whether it is their primary source is one to argue about).  This phenomena will evolve in time (sounds like a sci-fi movie) and maybe you are sitting there slightly sceptic, but already Public Relations are using mobile technologies in the following ways:

Funnily enough the best uses of mobile PR seem to be from mobile brands, according to PR Week.  Threepipe's "Cut it Out" campaign for Vodafone aimed to reduce mobile phone bullying.  The agency devised a film-making competition.  300,000 cinema goers have downloaded the winning film via bluetooth on to their handsets.  The co-founder of Threepipe, Jim Hawker, pointed out that the mobile channel is under-exploited by Public Relations.

Health agencies have used mobile technologies as a way to make people aware of campaigns and to let them interact.  For instance, the FSA last year developed a mobile salt calculator app to better monitor salt consumption.

Using text messages is another way for Doctors or health professionals to remind patients to attend appointments or come in for checkups has already become routine in PCTs and hospitals, such as Addenbrooke's Hospital NHS Trust and Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Yorkhill.  It is a problem for people missing their appointments and costs the NHS a lot of money so this can help alleviate this problem.  It also helps communication between the patient and the doctor.

In politics, the most obvious campaign was Barack Obama's presidential campaign.  He embraced the mobile technology and arguably brought the candidate closer to the people.  It certainly created more people getting involved in politics and more enthusiasm amongst the voters.  Unlike the traditional methods of campaigning during an election, Barack Obama can communicate a vital piece of information to the over 260 million US mobile subscribers.  In his presidential campaign over 3 million people subscribed and opted-in to stay in touch.

Charities, especially considering January's Haiti Earthquake has made non-profit organisations take note of how important text-donations are.  Red Cross and dec.org received enormous publicity and generated well over $30 million dollars, according to CNN.  This is blatantly a strategic tool for fundraising. 

These are only a few examples and there are many more apps and other ways for PR agencies to incorporate mobile technologies into their work.  Diffusion Mobile who work primarily concentrate on mobile technologies,

For firms pioneering new mobile marketing disciplines and channels, PR has become the most important tool to educate and influence brand owners and marketing directors and to showcase success and ROI.

In my opinion, from researching this topic is that many PR consultancies or indeed PR practitioners are not using mobile technologies to their advantage.  There is a lot of commentary on the web of how organisations could use mobile technology to their potential and progression, but as of yet many are not using it.  As commentators predict we'll all be using smartphones by 2015.  This means that PR should embrace mobile technology now to keep up with news or developments.  According to PR Week a survey of 28 technology and business journalists, 57% of them said that mobile technologies are not useful in PR.  So, what do you think of PR using mobile technologies successfully - is it really a worthwhile tool?

I think so, if not now then definitely in the future.

Pictures:
1.Ref: Tecu
2Ref: mobileshop
3.Ref: smallwire
4. Ref: mobileshop

You are being watched!

Here is a video to help you PR students or people wanting a career in Public Relations!

Enjoy it and look forward to hearing some of your feedback or other factors that can help us look good online
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