Casablanca, Morocco (PRWEB) May 27, 2017
The annual PR conference of APRA, one of Africa's most important PR organizations, was held in Casablanca, Morocco between May 10-13.
Attracting participants from all around the world, the APRA conference embraced PR measurement and the updated version of Barcelona Principles as its main topics of discussion were in the center of attention of most esteemed media monitoring companies and PR practitioners.
Within the context of the conference, John Aarons, Senior Managing Director of FTI Consulting, had a speech on "Competitive Africa: Effective Positioning Through Integrated Communication Keynote".
The conference highlighted that goal setting and media measurement are fundamental to communication and public relations. Effective media management can cut through the noise and competition to get your message across to your target audience, influence the behaviour of our customers, members, supporters, and employees. It is also stated that these concepts allow PR practitioners to take a “proactive” rather than a “reactive” approach to consumer demands.
Seyithan Teymur, Managing Director of Newsmeter’s and Deniz Aydoslu Development Manager of Newsmeter, made a presentation on measurement and evaluation, issues being more and more important in terms of the relationship between media monitoring and PR. Another underlined topic within the presentation was applicability and availability of PR measurement tools.
“Media Monitoring Tracks and Measures What People Read”
Deniz Aydoslu announced that “Media Monitoring Tracks and Measures What People Read”.
All researches show that the top criteria for measurement is what people read and view. With this acknowledgement, it should come as no surprise that the advertising value, as it is also highlighted within Barcelona Principles, is not the main issue for PR measurement. The focus rather should be on extending the scope and reaching more people.
Another important point was highlighted by Seyithan Teymur: “Data has become more valuable than oil, it is absolutely necessary to monitor and evaluate media, because what can not be measured, can not be valued!"
What’s Next?
"What is next?" question has also been answered by Seyithan Teymur from Newsmeter.
It was pointed out that measurement and analysis of media gives enormous power to PR professionals. People can now recognize trends, and develop informed business strategies. Nowadays, virtually every step PR professionals take has a digital footprint. This actually entails a huge opportunity for PR professionals to generate direct impact on their audiences by relying on metrics driven data. The nature of the competition has changed, and the only way to come out on top is to collect, measure and evaluate media.
"PR and Good Governance In Contemporary Africa" topic, which has been focused on Africa, was another important topic for the conference, and it was discussed within "Perspectives and Reflections on Missed Opportunities" presentation.
During the SABRE Awards Ceremony which was held in the evening of the second day, the PR works in Africa have been awarded and by aiming future works to be brightened by the networks founded with APRA business meetings which were held in the light of rising trends, the conference came to an end.
