January 7, 2008

The barrier of information overload

My study findings suggest information overload, or “too much information” is a barrier to communication in the Web 2.0 environment. Public relations practitioners must be aware of this barrier and only share pertinent information with online publics. Online opinion leaders expect to find the information they need quickly. They find it distracting and difficult to read through fluff and unnecessary information.

Also, Web site usability is key when communicating with online opinion leaders. An easy-to-navigate Web site where information can be retrieved efficiently is more effective than e-newsletters because online opinion leaders prefer to search for information on their own terms. Public relations practitioners must keep in mind that online opinion leaders prefer to actively seek information online rather than passively receive it. As practitioners, it’s our job to make sure the information is there and easy to find.

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December 26, 2007

A call for online community relations

Public relations practitioners must pay more attention to members of online communities and consider them important stakeholders, similar in value to members of traditional communities. In my research, none of the online opinion leaders interviewed mentioned having a relationship with organizations online for obtaining information. This is not a surprising finding given the lack of attention online communities get from the public relations industry. For example, a 2006 study by Edelman and Technorati reports 48 percent of bloggers have never been contacted by a public relations representative.

Very few organizations have an “online community relations specialist” who concentrates on opinion leaders of virtual communities. The findings of my study suggest it is important for organizations to designate the role of overseeing online community relations to a member of the public relations department. This role should be valued as strategically contributing to the organization’s goals, much in the same way as traditional community relations.

Given the primary and secondary research findings in my study, it is clear that in particular, technology and news communities (such as Digg and Engadget) as well as larger virtual communities, such as Facebook and YouTube, are ripe for developing online community relations. Niche online social networks also are suitable for developing online community relations.

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December 11, 2007

Online opinion leaders influence each other

Regarding how opinion leaders of virtual communities obtain information online, the results of my study overwhelmingly show online opinion leaders influence other online opinion leaders. Most of the online opinion leaders interviewed mentioned they checked out what other bloggers had to say before sharing information and their own opinions online. This result is not surprising, given the nature of opinion leaders and their importance in the adoption of innovations process as early adopters. As expressed in Gladwell’s The Tipping Point, early adopters often share ideas or innovations with each other, which builds a base of early adopters that bridges to the early majority.

Importantly, understanding that online opinion leaders influence each other is critical in communicating online. This adds value to communicating directly with an online opinion leader because not only are they likely to spread their opinions to others within the community, they are likely to share these opinions with other opinion leaders within the community, which creates an exponential word-of-mouth effect. Understanding this exponential effect, public relations practitioners may find it more valuable allotting media relations time and resources to their industry blog stars.

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December 3, 2007

Understanding uses and gratifications of opinion leaders of virtual communities

Now that I have completed my research study, I’ll spend the next couple of weeks blogging key findings. The full research paper and presentation will be available in January. So let’s start of with a brief overview of the research findings, beginning with uses and gratifications.

The study identified a wide range of uses and gratifications of online opinion leaders:

• seeking unlimited information
• collaborating with others by either sharing or learning information
• connecting with others who have similar interests across geographic boundaries
• artistic expression to a wide audience
• facilitating relationships formed offline
• documentation and archiving
• convenience and efficiency
• no time constraints

What does this mean to the PR practitioner? These Web 2.0 uses and gratifications should be considered when planning campaigns to effectively communicate with online opinion leaders. For example, understanding that online opinion leaders value collaboration, public relations practitioners should be more open with information online and allow users to create solutions based on this information. Rather than protecting organizational information, PR practitioners should share information online to obtain and ultimately incorporate the feedback provided by this key public.

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