Today was that day.

Briefing, a leading media and advertising trade publication here in Portugal just published a joint survey with GfK on which they report that 65% of the population of Portugal are users of social networks.

In a country where Internet penetration is considered to be around 40%, that is somewhat of a ridiculous number.

So, let’s look at that research report.

GfK interviewed 501 people, ages 15-45, living in the Greater Lisbon and Greater Oporto geographic areas.

The report states that these 501 interviews represent the Portuguese population universe.

I wonder, what, if any filtering questions where put into the survey itself.

Are you an Internet user? How often do you use the Internet? What’s your preferred platform of access to the Internet? How long have you been an Internet user?

Anyway, whatever the filtering questions, 501 interviews cannot represent a population of 10 million, specially because not all of those 10 million are using the Internet.

Universal McCann’s Wave 4 reports that the Internet penetration rate is of 39,8% (source: internetworldstats.com). Anacom (the telco regulator) states that in the second quarter of 2009, there were 2,945 million users with mobile internet broadband access (through phones and other access devices) of which only 1,451 million where active.

According to Anacom, the number of clients with fixed line internet broadband access totalled 1,751 million.

In both cases, the penetration rate is of 16,5% (fixed) and 27,7% (mobile).

But there’s more.

Hi5 is reporting an user base of 2,5 million accounts in Portugal. Briefing reports that 58,1% of users in its report, claim to have an account on Hi5. That’s more than double the reported usage by Hi5 itself.

The reports states that the number of Facebook users is 35,8%. Facebook has a Portuguese user base of around 1 million. See the difference ?

I don’t know if I even should comment on the rest of the report.

MSN Messenger is placed at the same level as Hi5, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Even YouTube is in there.

Why, why can’t we have decent numbers reported about Internet usage here in Portugal?

And why does a specialist publication report such wrong claims without proper editorial control?

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I’m sure over the coming days I’ll have a lot of explaining to do to my clients and colleagues.

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Contribution

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both are metrics.

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one for communication

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the other for consulting.

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in 2010.

Can you put a monetary value on a Facebook fan?

Of course you can.

Being that we’re in a season of sharing, here’s some free consulting.

Facebook Fan Lifetime Value

Intro: This model is based on the Music Fan Lifetime Value model developed by Laurence Trifon.

Lifetime Value is a marketing metric designed to ascertain the «true» financial value of a customer at a given point in time.

A fan’s Lifetime Value is based on the total amount of revenue expected to be sold by the organisation to that particular individual over time.

It incorporates such variables as Churn Rate, Discount Rate, Retention Cost, Period, Profit Margins, Pricing and naturally, Conversion Rates.

When developing a Facebook Fan Lifetime Value framework, you should always implement a three scenario rule (aggressive, neutral and passive) based on typical buying behaviours.

This model does not, understandably, cover situations when the stakeholder (the fan) will not convert to a buying attitude, but is expected to perform in other ways (productivity increases, legislative support, and so on), so, beware that it’s mostly oriented towards brands and brand marketing.

Also, Brands should start to incorporate a new metric, Cost per Fan or Cost per New Fan, into their measurement frameworks.

Facebook is a game changing world for Brands.

This is where the free consulting ends.

If you want more, you know where to reach me.

It’s not just email and all the other conversation tools. It’s a very broad range of services and utilities that each and every one of us now has at his or her disposal to better and more efficiently perform one’s duties.

But not everyone can see beyond the tools. Not every professional can distance himself (or herself) from the tools to see what the full potential of this new technological medium is.

Digital is a new approach to Communication. There are a lot of implications in this new medium and one has to learn fast and hard how to use it as a competitive approach.

The reason why I’m dwelling on this issue is quite simple.

It astounishes me to see that a lot of people still use the digital medium as if it was a simple broadcast tool. Take the oh-so-ever-present example of the Press Release.

Here you have a medium where you can publish indexable information (very, very important – the indexing) to which you can relate further information, be it other sites, photographs, video, short bios, quotes … the list could go on and on.

So, what do you see happening?

People write their tradition A4 press releases on Word and publish them online (Scribd, Docstoc, you name it).

Why?

We, as communication consultants, always assume that the client already has a rather meaningful understanding on why we are there. After all, the client has already hired us or has at least opened the door to do so.

Obviously, it is not quite so.

We spend a rather big amount of time arguing on the benefits of public relations versus advertising. We should be more focused on the value of communication as a whole.

Back to Basics

But let us review what Communcation is all about.

Wikipedia presents us with a very clear definition. “Communication is a process of transfering information from one entity to another.“

Even better, it continues with “Although there is a thing as one-way communication, communication can be perceived better as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas (energy) towards a mutually accepted goal or direction (information).”

Simply explained … Communication is Conversation. But more on that in the future.

The communication model, as most of you will still remember from college, revolves around the Sender, the Receiver, the Content and the Channel, just put it into simple terms.

This model is the basis of what Communication practicioners do on a daily basis (or at least should do). Identifying Receivers (aka Stakeholders), selecting an appropriate Channel and adjusting the Content/Message as appropriate.

Now, as a model, it is a rather simple one and we should be thankful for that.

But we should be able to link it to Value and this is how I’ve thought the chain through.

1. Communication

The model itself is explained above. This is our starting point. What we do.

2. Content

The soul of Communication is Content. It’s all about defining and developing an appropriate, relevant and consistent message to the Receiver (Stakeholder). More often than not, it is here that most organisations fail, by developing irrelevant or inconsistent Content.

3. Trust

Content, when properly developed and aligned with the Receiver’s expectations, is the driving force to establish Trust.

4. Relationship

If we establish that Content is the reason why the Sender is able to connect on an emotional level with the Receiver, it becomes apparent that the next level in the Communication Value Chain is the Relationship.

5. Transaction

By creating a Relationship between the Sender and the Receiver, we’re setting the possibility of a Transaction occuring, whatever that maybe.

6. Value

If Transactions occur, then the Value becomes apparent, be it financial or otherwise.

This value chain is still under development. I still feel that it needs some work. But it’s becoming quite clear that it is our raison d’être.

If they tell you that they don’t know how, they are not useful.

Everything you do, everything we do, as communications specialists, should be measured and evaluated.

We are in the business of engagement, of perception and reputation management. The business of intangibles. But a business still.

So, you should start thinking about it, if you already haven’t.

Where to begin?

Communications measurement isn’t art. It’s actually quite an easy science. Since we are in the business of engagement, that should be the focus of our measurement strategy.

How do we engage our stakeholders? How do we convey them with our relevant messages? And what impact do those messages have on stakeholder perceptions and attitudes? And this is how we bridge communications and business objectives.

If your strategic business objective is to sell more product, then the key to communications measurement is to understand what drives consumer behaviour. When the consumer acquires a product, what has driven him to do so? What experiences (direct and indirect) have influenced his perceptions? Where did he source his information?

If your strategic business objective is to retain your talent, then the key to communications measurement is to understand what motivates employees and what drives them to align with their current employer. How do they perceive their leadership? How are they influenced by internal and external communications? What are the drivers for their professional development?

At this point, you might be saying that professional development is a HR function on which Communications has absolutely no influence.

Well, lets take the example of training, which is known to be a critical aspect in retaining key talent.

If your organisation doesn’t communicate your training strategy properly, employees perceptions will drive attitude.

If your organisation doesn’t have an appropriate training strategy, listening (a key communications function) should help you and your organisation adjust, if appropriate. And even listening can be evaluated.

Communications Measurement is done traditionally via quantitative and qualitative research. Just ask the right questions.

The traditional metrics that most public relations and communications consultants will put forward are a joke, at best.

to be continued…