What Data-Driven PR and Social Listening Mean for Your Brand
How much does data play into brand management and reputation? And why should PR pros care? These were the questions at the heart of the recent PRWeek and Cision Webinar, "How Data-able Is Your Brand?"“ During the webinar, industry experts Jay Webster, Chief Product Officer at Cision, and Michelle Vangel, Global VP, Strategy & Insights at Brandwatch, discussed the power of data in helping you understand your brand and your target audience, and how social listening has become an essential PR tooll.
They also outlined a few key arguments for why brands today need to be “data-ble" – that is, equipped with the necessary resources to measure success in a data-driven world.
Bringing hard science to PR pros is necessary.
Analytics can help anyone in our industry in terms of executing their job. Every organization is now being asked to measure their ROI directly. But in order to take it to the next level and really understand your audience, you need someone who can understand the data these analytics are producing and know how to interpret it. Predictive analytics will be able to help us read the future behavior of consumers, detect patterns in the media, and ultimately surface suggestions on how to respond to those patterns.
Good data will do you no good if you aren’t able to effectively put it to work for you.
Social listening is critical to a brand.
The power of interpreting data and analytics comes with helping you understand whether your message is resonating with your audience.
“Think of social as a signal,” says Jay Webster of Cision. “That signal covers most of – if not all – the planet. So, what do you do with such a powerful signal?” Social listening is no longer looking at the amplification of a news story, it’s actually looking at how social conversations are driving the news.
To really know your brand, you need to think beyond the brand.
“To truly understand your audience, you have to understand them in a more holistic view,” says Michelle Vangel of Brandwatch. “This goes beyond regular demographics.”
Whether it’s your employees, customers, prospects, the media...you should be able to understand what all these different stakeholders think about your brand, but also what they think beyond the brand. Who they are, what they care about, what value they; this is what drives your audience to you.
Trendspotting: It will be your new best friend.
People are now wanting to keep a pulse on what is happening and be able to adapt to news a lot faster. This goes beyond crisis communications. This will give the ability for organizations to get ahead of the news and act on it in a way that benefits their brand and shows them in a different light. The ability to get ahead of the news will give companies a new type of power when it comes to resonating with their audience.
And, if you’re ready to see how the latest and greatest PR analytical tools can work for you? Talk with a Cision expert today!
