I begin to write with first explaining about research. The seed of research begins with asking questions. You search again and re-look at your environment. The processes of doing this comes later. But every solution first had its inception in a question. Questions are born out of observation. Research begins at this point.
Research is usually a dreaded word, at least when it comes to students studying it as a subject or preparing it for an exam. As a teacher I have experienced this when students discuss their fears about writing a research paper. Probably the size of a paper or writing itself scares them. And of course the endless search for existing data. But why is it important to analyze things? It goes without saying that till we do not understand the past the present and the future are difficult to comprehend.
Though the importance of Research has long been emphasized in various areas of communication, this blog piece tackles it with respect to Public Relations communications. So looking for information or rather exploring an issue for which one seeks for information is still not a very exciting proposition for young learners. But can we avoid it in the times we live in? By this I mean the complex lifestyles, varied sources of infotainment, tons of sources where we could find a customer speaking about a company, sources from where a product could be bought etc. How does Public Relations activities stand here in such situations? It begins with with being alert to the "talk" about organizations. Everything being said about them. How does this happen? Through tracking Offline and Online sources. In this piece we will try to dig more into the online one. So we all know that gone are those days when there was hardly a presence of social media it was limited to connect with friends. The websites were once used only as forms of one way form of communication (I say this as I have observed the increased use of Chats on organization websites).
The times we are also talking about is where we hear terms like Big Data and Analytics. So what are these terms? How are they connected with Public Relations? We will explore these terms and their connections.We all have heard about the term Big Data. Let us still define it.The definition which is a little complex but as all things need to be defined we will do the same. Gartner’s definition says "It is high-volume, -velocity and -variety information
assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information
processing for enhanced insight and decision making" . So what does this mean in layman terms? It simply means that these are huge forms of data which help companies analyze their customers. These humongous data forms are not so easily managed by older forms of processing systems. But as technology has advanced companies are seeking these processes more than ever adapting to software and hardware required to access these data available at the click of a mouse. More on this here at Big Data. This brings us to the next concept: Analytics.: As technopedia defines it :"Analytics is the scientific process of discovering and communicating the meaningful patterns which can be found in data." More on it here Analytics.
So what is the connection between Big Data, Analytics and Public Relations? Well I m not saying anything new which has not been already said. You will find plenty of sources online explaining the connection. But in very simple terms it means observe and analyze your customers by what they say or do, especially online. It will only begin with a question so comes the genesis of research. The past data of public relations campaigns, the endless press releases, the media publications in various newspapers, television news channels, social media etc are all resources. Observing what your key audiences have to say about you and what you wanted to say to begin with. Analyzing the gap and preparing better ways to speak to them. Thus managing your reputation and goodwill. After all wasn't the customer always the King?
What do you think?
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