Social Media Monitoring Efforts Not Yet Paying Off for Some: Survey

While nearly 70 percent of public relations professionals say social media monitoring is important to them, more than one-third have yet to see the impact at their companies, according results to a new survey.

Business Wire and PR News recently fielded a survey to gauge how public relations professionals are using the data from their social media monitoring efforts and find out if they feel monitoring has made a difference so far in their businesses.

The two most common uses of data from social listening among the 300 professional communicators who participated in the survey are “to listen to customers and prospects” (72 percent) and “to find influencers” (60 percent).

“PR people are good at generating action [on social channels], but not yet understanding what the data can provide internally”

37% of PR professionals use social media monitoring to keep tabs on the competition; 45% to monitor potential attacks

When asked if social media monitoring has been effective for their company, a surprising 26 percent said not yet, while 10 percent said no. So while the practice is in effect, obvious business benefits are not always clearly seen. One possible reason: Not only is the practice of social listening in its infant phase, the question of how to apply lessons from that data is still murky.

“PR people are good at generating action [on social channels], but not yet understanding what the data can provide internally,” said Serena Ehrlich, director of social media at Business Wire, who spoke about analyzing PR data at PR News’ Measurement Conference in Chicago on Nov. 20. “They need to monitor actionable data for the company to put to use.”

Business Wire recently partnered with NUVI social media monitoring to help communication professionals measure and track real-time social conversations.

According to an infographic summarizing the survey results, 37 percent of the survey respondents said they use social media monitoring to keep tabs on the competition. Some 45 percent use it to monitor potential attacks and risks.

The statement about the survey did not indicate the percentage of respondents working in public relations for financial services firms such as insurers.

Source: PR News, Business Wire