Free social media in Germany is being used by approximately 20 million people of the 81 million living here. Facebook is the most popular social network, Twitter is not very common – only among special interest groups. Of course, companies watch social media closely and are anxious not to miss an important new communication channel. Approximately one-third of all companies are not active in social media. As for bloggers, some PR managers focus on them for special events, others just watch but do not contact them. Social media monitoring is mainly focused on counting fans and followers.
Germany has a very broad traditional media system: 335 daily newspapers reach 25 million people every day. People still read printed newspapers. Media monitoring vendors increasingly sell digital clippings.
Old-fashioned paper clips are still offered, but monitoring them profitably is increasingly difficult: Cision just shut down one of the last three big traditional monitoring services in Germany. The monitoring market in Germany is consolidating itself.
Selling PR measurement in Germany has not changed much during the last 20 years. There are some companies that spend money on it and a lot of companies that don’t.
In 2005 there was a great deal of publicity for the “new concept” of communication controlling – which seems very typically German. The concept was that PR professionals should reconcile the whole PR planning process and connect it directly to business results. Of course, this approach makes sense. But, in reality, most PR practitioners act more reactive than proactive, and still don’t have enough time, money, and will to change. Especially because the subject itself is not an easy one: There is no simple causal connection between communication and business results; human decision making is very complicated.
This communication controlling approach was promoted mostly by vendors and some German PR professors. Startups were founded, books were published, workshops held, new teams initialized. Even on the international stage the concept of communication controlling was introduced.
Ten years later, all hopes for the big change in strategic planning and measuring are dissolved. After the first enthusiastic years several vendors had to admit that measurement and evaluation is a hard business to do successfully – and several of them shut down.
What remains is the insight that relationships are the most important issue of PR business. To measure them, it is not always possible to compute them in monetary terms. Qualitative research can help more, in any media type. ∞
