Evaluating the effectiveness of your online presence

Balancing the global potential and local constraints of web-based educational and informational campaigns

Web-presence: pros and cons PROS What does the internet have to offer? Visibility: Everyone’s ideas and offers are visible; access can be extended or limited at will at any time Flexibility: Discussions are fast and diverse; online programs can be adjusted based on interests and/or abilities of the audience Low costs: Information can be distributed to a potentially limitless audience at minimal cost Interactivity: Consumers of information can easily cross to producers and distributors and back CONS What are the potential challenges? Unknown: Audience before online engagement Who are they? What are they interested in? Who are their leaders? Unknown: Audience during online engagement Do we have the right people? How are they getting to the program? What attracts them to the program? Unknown: Audience after online engagement What is the effect of the program? Will they stay connected? Will they spread the word? Will they connect others?

Internet presence and and web-analytics When? Before the program starts During the program After the program What? Mine the history Track movements and conversations Observe engagement Listen to conversations How? Data mining tools, web-crawlers, Twitter and Facebook analytics Google analytics Radian6, Alterial, brand tracking software Track topics Track post-program engagement transformation All of the above

Case Study 1: Audience before a global educational consortium Identify the web environment in which the program takes place: Find key topics and key people Understand relationships What can Twitter tell us?

Network Analysis: Mail.ru is an important platform for discussing issues of Broadcaster country; Broadcaster can serve as a connector and information hub for such discussions Conversation tracking: LiveJournal, Facebook and Twitter are potential platforms for promoting Broadcaster Audience 1 The blog users are located in the Broadcaster country The topics discussed are relevant to the mission of Broadcaster Blog community on mail.ru is fragmented and not very internet savvy Audience 2 These blog users are outside Broadcaster country and less concerned with censorship They are internet savvy, connected to their own and other online communities, and are engaged online They are interested in more sensational topics Case Study 2: Audience during an international broadcaster Are you talking to the right people? Are we using the same language as they do? Can we fix broken links?

Case study 3: Audience after a public diplomacy initiative What will people do next? For a lasting impact, audiences should remain actively connected even after the program is over

Key takeaways: The online space has benefits and challenges – research can help leverage the former while avoiding the latter. While online space encourages flexibility, it’s essential to know your audience before the program launch to avoid losing them due to a “false start” Monitoring the audience during the program helps keeping them engaged and intersted and prevent drop-outs Staying connected with participants after the program is over helps tracking and encouraging a long-lasting impact of the program

Dr. Anastasia Mirzoyants-McKnight InterMedia Africa