The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee recently published a report on harmful content on the internet.  This once again brought a renewed focus on social networking following the earlier publication of the Byron Report this year and the Home Office best practice document on social networking.

The report was written to address the "increasing anxiety among parents about the use of social networking sites". The Committee's inquiry included evidence from industry, other parliamentarians and the third sector concluding with 29 key recommendations. Recommendation 28 is of particular note; stressing the need for greater parent responsibility in protecting children from harm on the Internet and suggesting that parents should have more knowledge of social networking sites.

This is interesting stuff, but what does this mean in regards to social media consumption?

Leading children's charity in this area Childnet International have this week published a new guide for parents on young people and social networking sites suggesting that one of the easiest ways for parents to become more familiar with social networking sites is to set up their own page to see what the attraction and the appeal is, and to look at the information and advice for parents on these sites.

This view was backed up with advice issued in July by the Internet Safety Advocate, at security provider Symantec, with whom Metrica have been working on the Digital Family Safety campaign: "now that summer is in full swing, chances are your kids are spending more time online than usual. Staying informed about what they're doing in cyberspace is the best way to help ensure they don't do anything foolish".

With social networking sites high on the public agenda, and likely to stay there with the September start of the new UK Council for Child Internet safety, it could well be that more parents go online and set up their own profiles.  As the internet increasingly becomes the marketplace to reach people of all ages, companies may find that reaching parents on sites not necessarily associated with that generation will become increasingly possible and profitable.

I recently got back from China where I witnessed the amazing phenomena that is a total solar eclipse.  Truly amazing.  The breathtaking phase of the eclipse when the moon completely blocks the light from the sun is called totality.   Pondering on this (in true PR measurement geekdom), I got thinking about how important the totality of marketing is.  As evaluators we need to look at all marketing efforts from the eyes of the consumer.  PR is often left out of integrated marketing analysis.  Something that we at Metrica are working hard to overcome by working with econometric experts to model the PR effect into the mix.  Now it seems some in the industry want to evaluate social media separately from traditional channels.  How many more silos do we need?  Let’s get integrated!  Things to think about are:

 

1. How does your company report on marketing as a whole?
2. Is there any integrated marketing evaluation?
3. If there isn’t, suggest it.
4. If there is and PR isn’t included, change it.

Right now is the time to act, as boardrooms increasingly recognize the link between communications, reputation and business success.  PR must be fully integrated and represented in marketing evaluation. Not least to make sure that PROs are getting all the credit they deserve.