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Dark Social: What Every PR Professional Needs to Know

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By: Richard Benson, Founder, Releasd

 

Dark social. Never heard of it? You are not alone! However, research shows that most of the content generated by the PR industry is being shared and talked about within dark social channels. We just can’t see it.

So let’s find out what dark social is and why it’s so important to modern day public relations.

What is dark social? 

Some platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit share data relating to how people are engaging with content. These are called ‘open’ social platforms.

In contrast, dark social media channels do not share this information. Activity takes place behind closed doors, often amongst carefully curated groups of friends, family and colleagues.

If you’ve ever shared or received content via WhatsApp, Slack, WeChat, Linkedin Messages or Meta (Facebook) Messenger for example, you have used a dark social platform. And don’t forget email and text messaging too. In fact, you’ve probably used a dark social platform in the last 30 minutes.

According to eMarketer, there will be 3.09 billion monthly messaging app users worldwide in 2021, up by 6.1% year over year. They also predict that more than three-quarters of internet users worldwide will use a messaging app monthly by 2024. Meanwhile, research from GWI shows that Whatsapp is now the world’s favorite social media platform. Other dark social channels feature heavily in the top ten.

Traditionally, dark social channels have offered greater personal privacy and control. Messages are encrypted. Advertisers are not given access to data. Here, trust is vital and mistakes are punished. The Guardian noted that ‘A poorly explained update to its terms of service has pushed WhatsApp users to adopt alternative services such as Signal and Telegram in their millions.’

PR content is devoured by dark social

The scale of activity that is taking place behind closed doors is staggering.  According to RadiumOne, a whopping 84% of content shares take place on dark social platforms. The implications for the PR and social media industry become clear when examining the types of content being shared: links to news stories, websites, blogs and products all feature heavily. Much of this content represents the bread and butter of the PR industry. In many cases, users are discovering news stories on open social platforms, then pulling them into private networks where true feelings can be discussed.

The opportunity for the PR industry

Professional communicators have long accepted that the appearance of media coverage is merely the beginning of a story, not the end. PRs have become adept at tracking its reaction across social media, under the impression that they’re seeing the full picture.

As we have shown, this is far from the case.

It may be the case that a majority of the action is happening out of view. In fact, some of the stories that have seemingly failed to get traction may have gone viral amongst niche groups of highly engaged peers. We’ve also seen that there’s likely to be a significant discrepancy between the sentiment of public vs private conversations.

But the opportunity this presents is potentially huge.

The PR industry is built on the concept that editorial is more influential and consequential than advertising. We can assume that, when friends share curated stories with one another in a safe environment, the impact is greater still. The understanding anxieties of younger audiences in particular should increase the usage of dark social for years to come.

The Barcelona Principles 3.0 encourage communicators to focus on the business outcomes and impacts of their work. Given its unparalleled potential to spark engagement and drive action, the role of dark social clearly cannot be underestimated.

At Releasd, we have attempted to measure the unmeasurable. Our PR reporting tool now includes metrics that estimate how much activity is taking place for a given story within dark social channels. To learn more about dark social and how we measure it, download the free Primer: What Every PR Needs to Know About Dark Social

GWPR Report Highlights Boardroom Barriers but Flexible Working May Accelerate Change

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Angela Oakes, GWPR Co-founder & Joint President

By Angela Oakes, Co-founder & Joint President, Global Women in PR

The Annual Index is a GWPR (Global Women in PR) report measuring the position of women in PR around the world. This research-based report* is part of a five-year plan to help us understand the issues affecting women in the industry and to measure the progress towards gender equality.

We recently launched the third edition of the GWPR Annual Index and what has become increasingly clear from our annual research is that progress towards equality continues to be extremely slow. In addition, as a direct result of the Covid pandemic, the pace for driving women forward into a more balanced PR industry appears to have taken a step backwards.

When asked about the effect of the pandemic, some of the negative feedback included slower progression for women reaching leadership positions, less job security, increased stress from working 24/7 and the belief that it will take even longer to close the gender pay gap.

Without question these are serious career issues for PR women, but the effect goes beyond women.

In an industry where women make up two-thirds of the workforce, the boardroom is still predominantly male. We know from leading management consultancies, like McKinsey & Co; (Women in the Workplace 2020) that there is a direct link between boardroom diversity and a company’s financial performance. Our Annual Index research highlights the benefits to business of having women in the boardroom in terms of productivity, creativity and improved working practices.

Business Benefits

Overall, a significant 89% of respondents believe that more needs to be done to ensure women in the PR industry have greater boardroom presence.

So what should be done and what are the barriers to women entering the boardroom? Not surprisingly the biggest barrier continues to be women taking on childcare or caring responsibilities. Half of our survey respondents had children at home and two-fifths of women reported caring responsibilities had negatively impacted their career.

First and foremost organisations need to offer flexible working practices, so that women with children can schedule their work and home commitments accordingly. On a positive note this is happening much more frequently – and all thanks to Covid. 91% of respondents reported that they are currently working flexibly.

In addition remote working is on the rise – up 20% in a year. Over the next year PR professionals believe they will be working remotely 3 days a week and 21% expect to be doing this full time. Remote working is such an important benefit that more than half rank it more highly than financial reward.

In conclusion, the acceleration of flexible, and in particular remote working, may counter some of the obstacles created by the Covid pandemic, but there is still a long way to go before PR women achieve gender equality in the workplace.

It will be fascinating to see if the long-term impact of Covid will have positively helped women in the PR workplace of the future.

* The 2021 research was conducted Summer 2021 by strategic insight agency Opinium using an online questionnaire. This year 430 PR professionals from around the world participated; over half (61%) were at director level and the vast majority (97%) were women.

 

About GWPR

Founded to connect, champion and support women in senior PR and Communication roles around the world, GWPR is a not-for-profit organisation driven by a desire to change the landscape for women working in our industry.

www.globalwpr.com

A Time For Authenticity and Action

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Extracted from the 2021-22 ICCO World Report.

Sudha Singh’s thought provoking reflections on diversity, equity and inclusion are featured in the 2021-2022 ICCO PR World report.

As I review the data from ICCO’s World PR Report, I sit with the awareness and understanding that countries and cultures are not homogenous, they are different and unique. That when we speak about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), we are at different points in our journey; sensitivity and awareness levels may wildly differ from country to country within a region or a continent. It is important to understand that priorities differ from country to country and sometimes in the same country the drivers of DEI differ from one region to another.

The US and UK – parts of the West that were roiled [in 2020] after the brutal murder of George Floyd and ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) – and Latin America fared poorly on the question of ethnic representation. The US was at 3.6 and the other two at 4.1. The key takeaway here is that there is heightened awareness and recognition of the inequalities in these geographies which is great, because it means that there is an acknowledgement of a) the problem and b) the need for urgent change.

This is further reflected in the fact the same three countries score highest on firms that have a diversity and inclusion policy with the US at 71% followed by Latin America(62%) and UK(60%).

However, there seems to be worrying shift though in the Middle-East, Asia-Pac, and Africa if we compare with last year’s data: representation of ethnic minorities has gone down in percentage terms. Surprisingly Western Europe fares the worst amongst the eight regions surveyed and we need further data to understand why that is. Overall, the data is indicative of the absence of sub-stantive progress across countries/corporates and that may very well be due to the fact that in the past 18 months companies have paused to reflect and review their efforts in the direction. Or that most corporates have been fairly oblivious to systemic inequalities. It is encouraging to see that a large number of those surveyed review their policy at least once a year if not more.

The DEI agenda in the West was propelled by the horrific murder of George Floyd, BLM and the pandemic that exacerbated racial and ethnic inequalities. It required seismic events to spotlight the trials and tribulations of marginalised communities.

The impetus in some regions/ countries is regulatory requirements and for many companies it gets to the top of the agenda because of the associated business and reputation risks. In India for example the conversation centres largely on gender; the LGBTQ agenda comes to the fore at multinationals – where DEI policies at the HQ become the trigger points in local markets. Western multinationals have the power to enable positive change in the countries and communities where they operate.

However, it is critical to keep in mind that companies must not try to force fit their policies in local markets, they must be mindful of local realities and engage with teams and experts to identify priorities or focus areas.

The last 18 months has laid bare the stark inequalities in our world. As we slowly move towards recovery, the outlook is fairly positive for our industry. This has also been a time for the sobering realisation that we are failing abysmally on representation, equity and inclusion, and the consensus all around is that it will require transformative changes if we are to build a fairer industry. For businesses as they struggled with aftershocks, it has been a time to align their core purpose to broader societal needs, listen to their stakeholders, take a stand on important is-sues and not just because of share holder imperatives. CEOs and the C-suite are grappling with the pace of change, to adapt, and understand whatever state of flux we are in at that point in time. For an industry that aspires to have a seat at the table, and advise clients on purpose and sustainability, this puts us on the back foot. How can we advise clients authentically if we as an industry are not equitable or inclusive?

As we look to the future it is important to think about what we can do to build a better and fairer industry. We can start by creating awareness about best practice through setting benchmarks and making cultural intelligence a key skill for all practitioners. According to a recent article in Forbes, the rise of awareness about diversity and inclusion has been one of the most transformative cultural trends of the last 10 years. How can we ride this wave, and what can we do to take advantage of the momentum?

Prioritise on just two things:

  1. a) Be Authentic
  2. b) Take Action

To be authentic live the values that we preach. Don’t just say it to other people or for your clients, embed inclusion into your business. Start with C-Suite buy in and accountability; listen to your employees and stakeholders; create an inclusive hiring process; be transparent about the pay gap; consider intersectionality; be a sponsor and monitor constantly.

Take Action: Before you head to the next conference or write the next blog on equity and inclusion check your equity and inclusion policy. If you have one, map where you are on the journey; share your journey including your challenges. If you are not on the journey, get started.

Workplace Mental Wellbeing Audit 2021: Francis Ingham Forward

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Francis Ignham, PRCA Director General

The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), Opinium Research and The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) have published new research on the state of mental health in the UK industry. PRCA Director General Francis Ingham reflects on the findings and shares his own battle with mental health.

I thought long and hard about what to say in this foreword. And after a great deal of hesitation, I reached the conclusion that honesty was best. So here goes…

I have suffered from appalling mental health my whole life. Frequent bouts of depression; destructive and pointless anxiety; an underlying lack of confidence. All of which I’ve hidden from almost everybody.

Why do I say this now having kept quiet about it for decades? Because it would be disingenuous to do otherwise given the content of this report, and given the recommendations it makes, particularly about the need for candour.

Covid threw a powerful spotlight on mental health. I have never before had so many conversations about how people were feeling. And they were honest conversations, not the ‘Oh fine thanks. How about you?’ type. That’s one positive of Covid, and I can’t see it going away.

This report delivers data on where we are, and recommendations on what we should do. Some of its findings -such as nine out of ten practitioners have suffered mental ill health over the past year- are shocking. Others -such as three out of four have found their workplace to be supportive- are very welcome.

The four recommendations are simple, sensible, and sound. You shouldn’t feel guilty because you’re feeling unwell. You definitely should talk about the issue. We need to take better care of ourselves, and for many, that’s about workload. And where hybrid working works well, keep on with it -we’ve certainly embraced it at the PRCA and ICCO: some people like working from an office -cool. Some people like working from home -that’s cool too. Most people like a mix.

For many of us, this has been the most stressful, challenging period of our lives. Many people have been broken by it. Even more have come close to breaking point. But every crisis is a catalyst for change, whether for the better or for the worse. If we embrace the recommendations made here, then that change can definitely be for the better.