By Jim Beakey
Director, Communications Mapping

In the 1990’s many of us were convinced that the public relations business was ripe for the planning and measurement tools typical of marketing and advertising. With objective-based programs and accountability to the bottom line PR would move out of the shadow of its cousins. Seat at the strategic table here we come.

It’s been a tougher job than we expected. A decade and a half later and the best tool that we had then, quantitative media analysis, is still the predominant approach.

We’ve created technological efficiencies along the way. But the persistent issue, then and now, is how to make that link from a pie or bar graph to bottom-line value – programs that change audience perception and behaviour via third party sources; that blend art and science and have a distinct and measurable impact on company financials.

At last I think we’re making progress. A few months ago I was introduced to Influencer Network Analysis (INA), developed by a few people within H&K and their spin-off and media analysis partner ComMetric.

INA literally ‘discovers’ all of the individuals, organizations, companies and brands present in a targeted segment of media and the reporters and publications that cover them There’s no pre-defined search; the software alone finds influentials present in the coverage whether we knew about them before or not. After a round of qualitative enhancement by an analyst – a review of the coverage and the assignment of roles or descriptions to the discovered influencers – INA ‘maps’ the media discussion in a hub and spoke map format.

By relying on an objective methodology, INA discovers the true drivers of change in a discussion. INA tests assumptions and preconceived notions and identifies new key opinion leaders for ongoing outreach.

Better, INA maps the relationships among influencers and media to identify leverage points – opportunities that that will offer the path-of-least-resistance to program goals. By targeting resources on the opportunities that will create a cascading effect in media, return on program investment can be maximised. And there is a measurement element; by reviewing the media landscape post-program the results of programs can be demonstrated.

So what does this look like in practice?

In one INA project a client provided the seven influencers and three organizations targeted in their current program. INA returned another 100 individuals and organizations driving the relevant discussion, nearly all of which were previously unknown to the client. The INA maps showed which influencers had pre-existing first and second tier media contacts and which might be too closely aligned with a competitive position to warrant investment. Several findings were true ‘nuggets,’ their presence completely shifting the client’s perspective on outreach.

Another project started with the 16 reporters that drove the client’s media space. INA discovered who these reporters rely on for comment and on what subjects. Patterns demonstrated tendencies of reporters to include third party commentators in story development and variances in how they cover different subjects and companies.

In another project where little was known about the discussion,the media sample was created using key word searches. INA identified the target discussion influencers but also influencers in ‘sister discussions’ – similar subjects where there was a high probability of moving our client’s message to new influencers or moving new influencers to our client’s discussion.

INA’s innovation is the application of a time-tested approach and new technology to media and communications. While it is still early days, all indications are that INA will be a valuable and cost effective tool in discovering the real gatekeepers of influence and driving programs that create measurable impact.