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

PROSWhat 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

CONSWhat 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 beforea 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 duringan 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 aftera 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-McKnightInterMedia Africa

mirzoyantsa@intermedia.org