Phillips D., Young P. Online Public Relations
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Building blocks for online PR
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The simple search or more complex search terms will yield a lot of page
impressions. Who is providing all these pages?
All the pages of the organization’s website will (should) be listed unless
they have a ‘robot block’ to ask search engines not to index the page.
The search engine will probably find some pages that were provided by
the organization and are out of date but still on the organization’s site or
are cached (filed) on other computers, called legacy pages.
Many, if not most, will be from organizations with an interest in the
organization.
Some will have been encouraged or paid to reference or link to the site
(sometimes known as affiliate marketing).
Others will have a self-interest in being associated with the organization,
and others will have other motives.
Then there is the growing number of individuals who comment. For
some organizations this can be a quarter of all web page impressions!
Rate of growth in interest of the website
Some search engines, like h�p://www.alltheweb.com, show the numbers of
pages that were added to their index each year, which gives an indication
of the growth in popularity of a website over time. All search engines will
show that there is an increase in pages indexed each year, just because of
the growth of the internet. The best measures are against benchmarks such
as competitors. Comparing the relative growth rates is instructive and
provides helpful data.
THE CONTEXT
The nature of context and environment, the values of the audiences and the
ability for them to interact can be examined. If one anticipates the reach of
the organization to be through a laptop in a living room and competing with
television, its context will be different from that of a university library. In
addition the context may be one that prompts motivations for the audience
to select itself with the help of semantically a�ached, semi-detached or just
passing acquaintance with the online concepts of the minute.
There is one other consideration. The content can be explicit, implicit, de-
tailed; is it possible to reduce it down to just 140 characters for microblogs?
There is another form of context that is useful. Is the information on a
website relevant to the context of visitors? One way of finding out is through
examination of visitors entering the site (where from, when, to which page
and from which website – what pages visited, how long did they stay per
Landscaping
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page and where did they go?). All this information is available from the
web analytics so�ware that is available to all web masters.
Landscaping the competition
A similar exercise with competitors will yield similar results, and will also
provide a benchmark against which to judge the relative presence of the
organization. Competitor analysis is used to seek the context in which an
organization is present online.
Analysis of competitors’ sites is useful for another reason. The numbers
that come from landscaping tend to be huge, and looking at other organ-
izations helps one to get a sense of proportion.
The (traditional) media
Most organizations are evident in online news media. The growth of on-
line coverage in this form has been significant in recent years, and the rate
of growth indicates that this is potentially an important area for PR to
consider.
Online PR, of course, does not replace other forms of practice and, indeed,
most PR activities help online presence a lot. Events, people profiles, product
descriptions, case studies and application stories are all the kind of material
that people like to share online. The media provide an area where such
content can be made available and should be used because of the potential
benefits and because it is a strong growth area online.
Getting lots of traffic is great but if visitors are not going where you want
them to, there is a problem.
Website analytical software or Google Analytics helps you get a clear
picture not only of where the traffic is coming from but also of what it
is doing once it gets there. The steps needed to find such data include
analysis of the top exit pages, ‘time on page’ and whether the page has
a very low time on page. This information will identify the point where
visitors have decided they have seen enough. It may be for the best of
reasons or because they are disappointed.
If the average time on your top exit page is 20 seconds or less, then it may
be reasonable to assume that people are landing on that page and leaving
right away. This can be a because of a good experience, such as a ‘thank
you for visiting/doing something’, or it could be that the message is just
plain inappropriate and the visitor has left to find a better experience.
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Links from media stories are very good for search optimization and site
ranking, as well as being a useful third-party endorsement. Media relations
are a considerable asset for building online presence.
Recent findings about the growth of online media coverage (Figure 17.2)
suggest that that there is a valuable symbiotic relationship between online
PR and press relations.
Figure 17.2 Acceleration of growth in online news coverage a�er 2006
(image courtesy of eFootprint.com)
IN BRIEF
Landscaping of the online presence of organizations and external
agencies and constituents is required for effective online public
relations.
When landscaping the online opportunities for public relations there
are four major considerations:
– the platforms;
– the channels;
– the context;
– the content.
In any landscaping, knowing about the organization’s own presence is
a good start. Be aware of:
– who claims an affinity with the organization by linking to its
website;
– what kind of sites reference the organization;
[fc]Figure 17.2[em]Acceleration of growth in online news coverage after 2006 (image courtesy
of eFootprint.com)
2008 shows marked increase
1,000,000
2,000,000
3,000,000
4,000,000
5,000,000
6,000,000
7,000,000
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8,000,000
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Ryanair
Estonian Air
2005 2006 2007 2008
Volume of coverage
Year
Landscaping
169
– the total number of publicly available web pages that index the
organization;
– landscaping search returns.
The nature of context and environment, the values of the audiences
and the ability for them to interact can be examined.
Landscaping competition is useful.
The growth of online coverage in this form has been significant in
recent years, and the rate of growth indicates that this is potentially
an important area for PR to consider.
170
Organizational
analysis
Looking at the content that appeals to the online community, one sees that
it comes in two interlinked flavours. The first is optimized content designed
to appeal to search engines. Its elements include the important keywords
relevant to the subject, which are part of search engine optimization. These
words will be significant for metadata (of which more later), in the text on
the page, and the way that other content like photos, drawings, video and
podcast files are described (long URLs of unreadable numbers and le�ers
are confusing for search engines as well as people).
The second rule about content is that it must be provided in a form
that chimes with the interests of the prospective reader. To find what is
the unique appeal of an organization, its products, brands and people, the
practitioner has to look deep inside.
In preparing any public relations plan, there is a need to understand the
organization. With the potential for unimaginable numbers of people to find
and evaluate the direct and indirect statements made by the organization,
this is key. In addition, these people have sight of information published
by trade and professional associations, regulators, information aggregators,
the media and social commentators online, which means that there is a need
to be precise in statements about the organization. Claims served up with
spin, hype, exaggeration or bling can draw a rich and o�en lurid riposte
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Organizational analysis
171
in cyberspace at a time and in circumstances not of the organization’s
choosing.
Value systems that are evident online need to be analysed and defensible.
Wenstøp and Myrmel offer virtues, duties and consequences as three types
of value systems that need to be identified about the organization, and it
may also be necessary to modify unrealistic claims, common in another age,
to be able to compete online.
1
Such analysis will affect evidence and content published online, includ-
ing the corporate backgrounders (history, financial and management struct-
ure, products, markets, associates, regulators and endorsers). Some of this
will be provided by the organization (or it will point to it – o�en using
hyperlinks, sometimes selectively using web widgets), but it is important
to bear in mind that most organizations are not directly responsible for the
majority of data that is published about them; in practice this might include
government, regulatory and trade data provided by third parties, as well
as website and social media content of varying degrees of accuracy. At
this stage the practitioner will also want to check the organization’s www.
wikipedia.com entry.
As we have seen, all organizations have an online persona, partly of their
own construction but increasingly shaped and defined by external comment
and contribution. A useful method for examining the online image of an
organization is to examine its website and selective commentary of the
online audience for the values that are identified.
CASE STUDY: AN EXAMINATION OF KEY
VALUES ON WEBSITES
The Number 10 Downing Street website offered this front page content on
October 2007:
The EU, inheritance tax, Burma and flood defences were on the agenda at today’s
PMQs. The Prime Minister also took questions on the Royal Mail strike, the NHS and
affordable housing.
There is an agenda here. The value systems of the site suggests it is for the well
informed. The use of acronyms suggests the site is for a defined circle of visitors.
This is a website for the ‘Westminster Village’, which includes very few chefs.
However, the New York Magazine restaurateur’s blog also showed interest in the
Prime Minister’s residence on the same day, telling the story that: ‘Katy Sparks is
on board at 10 Downing Street, stepping in for Scott Bryan.’ ‘But,’ we are told,
‘ Sparks is not alone in creating the 10 Downing Street menu. A mystery chef,
currently employed in the city somewhere, is onboard too’ (http://nymag.com/).
There is no mention of Katy on the Downing Street site.
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Looking at the 14,000 web pages that link to the Downing Street site gives
us a clue about who is interested (using http://www.google.com/help/features.
html#link). We can see that the online community is adding its own content and
that the interest in the organization goes beyond its own agenda and the online
constituency indicated by the values it displays on the site.
This kind of analysis gives a good indication of the people and values that
are important to the online community.
Because the online community is critical (and occasionally adversely
critical), it will examine these value statements; where there is dissonance –
ie the claim is unreasonable or unbelievable – it will expose such statements
for wider user-generated comment online. Online commentators recognize
hype.
Stories of hype provoking adverse response are legion and a couple serve
to make the point.
A blog comment about Nokia in http://www.gizmolounge.net read:
‘Nokia is going [to] great lengths to hype up their future phone the
Nokia N81 8GB Music Phone. So much so that they started a viral
marketing campaign starting with the site http://www.070829.com.’
The comment undermined the marketing proposition and campaign
in a theme taken up by hundreds of people in blogs, Facebook and a
number of other social media sites.
Many companies have fallen foul of this form of online re-post. If an
organization makes a claim on- or offline, it must be able to defend
it or face criticism, as Kimkins did. In the blog http://allaboutkimkins.
wordpress.com, the company’s claims for its diet product were exposed
and covered in 14,000 blog posts in a few days.
Hype and spin have a place, but have to be in context.
A typical value analysis profile would include analysis of:
Company – product line, image in the market, technology and experi-
ence, culture, goals.
Collaborators – distributors, suppliers, alliances.
Customers – market size and growth, market segments (including in-
ternet user groups). Benefits that consumer is seeking, tangible and
intangible. Motivation behind purchase; value drivers, benefits versus
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173
costs. Decision maker or decision-making unit. Retail channel – where
does the consumer actually purchase the product? Consumer informa-
tion sources – where does the customer obtain information about the
product? Buying process, eg impulse or careful comparison. Frequency
of purchase, seasonal factors. Quantity purchased at a time. Trends
– how consumer needs and preferences change over time.
Competitors – actual or potential, direct or indirect, products, position-
ing, market shares, strengths and weaknesses of competitors.
Organization’s climate or context – the climate or macro-environmental
factors are:
– political and regulatory environment: governmental policies and
regulations that affect the market;
– economic environment: business cycle, inflation rate, interest rates
and other macroeconomic issues.
Social/cultural environment – society’s trends and fashions. Techno-
logical environment: new knowledge that makes possible new ways of
satisfying needs; the impact of technology on the demand for existing
products.
The range of traditional landscaping processes outlined in the CIPR ‘PR in
practice’ series book Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns: A
step-by-step guide remain significant too.
Organizations are exposed in a range of channels for communication
whose perspectives on values systems will differ. Television audiences will
accept hype statements with li�le qualm, unlike the blogging community.
The problem for the practitioner is that the TV programme can be transposed
to video-sharing sites or blogs (sometimes legally and at other times not),
and can easily be commented on.
One final test is useful, which is to examine how the online community
regards online content.
The ‘uses and gratification’ theory, first put forward in the 1940s by
Lazarsfeld and Stanton, a�empts to explain why mass media are used and
the types of gratification that they generate.
2
Denis McQuail offers a schema to help establish the quality of websites.
3
When reviewing a site, this is a method that may be valuable in gaining
insights into how people will regard and use a website (or a blog), and
Morris and Ogan point out that U&G is a comprehensive theory and is
applicable to internet-mediated communication (see also McLeod and
Becker).
4
Using McQuail, practitioners can create questionnaires to invite people to
evaluate a website, blog, wiki or any other online property so as to identify
its appeal as an online resource.
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SEGMENTATION
A quick glance at the ‘Way Back Machine’ (h�p://www.archive.org)
shows that online there are no messages hidden from users. In addition
information is kept (cached) on many computers in the network (even the
humble PC does it). This might give rise to a view that there is li�le need
for segmentation because anyone can find anything. This is a misleading
view. Not everyone has the skill or inclination to use the capabilities that
are out there. There are platforms and channels for communication, as well
as types of content, wri�en and semiotic, that are more significant for some
audiences than others. Those people who have an interest in the values and
value systems of the organization will be drawn to them, and where there
is dissonance they will at some point take up the issue.
The use of segmentation techniques offered by Smith, Grunig and Hunt,
and others – as described by Professor Anne Gregory and Alison Theaker
as well as Freeman (stakeholder theory) and a multitude of others (not
least the many market segmentation theorists and practitioners) – is now
One means by which sites can be evaluated is by using focus groups to
ascertain responses to four elements of a website/medium. An alternative
used in some experiments with students was to create an online ques-
tionnaire. The respondents were asked to review a website and respond
to four elements:
The first was information. The question was framed to ask how the
students used the site for information, and they were asked to rate it
for its faculty to educate in certain areas, such as learning more about
the world, seeking advice on practical matters, or satisfying curiosity.
The second element dealt with personal identity, where students were
asked if they identified with the content personally, professionally or
for other reasons.
The third part dealt with use of the site and how it integrated with
the users’ need to become involved, have social interaction or gain
insight into the situations of other people, in order to achieve a sense
of belonging.
The fourth usage of the media identified by McQuail is ‘entertainment’,
that is, using media for purposes of obtaining pleasure and enjoyment,
or escapism. Not surprisingly, there were some websites that students
found less than fun.
This kind of activity in situational analysis will show the potential nature
of online interaction to inform strategy and objectives and may, tactically,
result in changes to a website.
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175
augmented by user-generated market segments we described in the last
chapter.
5
Users are now beginning to decide that they themselves will select issues,
products and brands. This undermines the segmentation theory used by
most organizations. The evolution of online behaviour whereby user-
generated market segments (sometimes confined to closed communities
such as Facebook, MyRagan and Melcrum) form around brands, issues and
organizations makes discussion of these networked social groups (mostly
very small groups) important.
There is nothing new or revolutionary about the concept. Small com-
munities throughout history have behaved in the same way, aided by the
normal discourse of daily lives leavened by gossip. The internet, a place,
has many networked communities.
There is a temptation for many of us who are used to mass communica-
tion and mass markets to imagine that, because we can find references to
issues and brands online, these sites and posts are a homogeneous market.
The evidence suggests otherwise, and deeper analysis shows that comments
about brands and issues are typically confined to relatively small, o�en
transient, online social groups.
It is very common for people to use search engines to identify what
the online community is saying. This is far too simplistic. The online com-
munity is predominantly active in small groups and cares li�le for views
expressed across the whole internet unless seeking to selectively ‘pull’ new
information.
Online social groups range from the intense and academic to those seek-
ing hard news and simple family snapshots. To imagine that all comments
about an issue, brand or event comprise a single sweep of comments
across all such groups would be a mistake. This would be like listening to
the hubbub of a virtual tower of Babel. It is only within the mostly small
networks of linked individuals with common interests and language that
any sense can be made of the vast majority of posts in blogs, social media
groups of friends and Twi�er followers. It is in these loose groupings that
o�en rich interactions are to be found. In many cases they are very profound
and o�en scholarly – and a�empting to interject into, what are really quite
private social groups, has to be very carefully done.
Clay Shirky applies this explanation of ‘power law’ to interactivity online,
and notably to bloggers. He notes that they range from people with a lot of
followers, who because they have so many cannot be very interactive with
them all, to the blogs at the nexus of a few chums (who interact a lot with
a few). This means that the ‘average’ blogger is probably a long way down
the curve, and ‘average’ is a meaningless approach to identifying influence.
6
We come across the power law a lot in online activities. Wired magazine’s
editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, in an article in October 2004 where he
coined the expression ‘the long tail’, shows a commercial interpretation.
7