Talkwalker, a social listening and analytics platform partnered with market research and data analytics firm, YouGov- to gather data from communication professionals based in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America with an objective to understand how the industry functions today on a global scale.

The report focuses on understanding how the term PR is defined in different regions and highlights how PR professionals use social listening tools in their day to day work and the challenges they face with these tools.

The survey involved collecting responses from 3700 respondents from 82 countries. According to the study, the respondents considered the following as a PR offering.

As the PR landscape goes through major transitions, the elements of content marketing are now also considered as a PR offering; with 69% involvement in working on building a content strategy, 48% involvement in creating audio/visual content and 47% in drafting external communication materials.

67% of professionals globally recognize Influencer marketing as a PR offering. In the MEA region, 78% of professionals from the UAE, 66% from Saudi Arabia and 86% from South Africa.

Social Analytics and Tools 

Social listening involves monitoring a brand’s social media platform for customer feedback,  direct mentions, and discussions regarding related keywords, topics, etc. According to the report, 64% of professionals globally are using it mainly for campaign and media relations performance. Newsjacking which involves piggybacking on current events and news stories is considered to be one of the most effective PR techniques, yet only 15% of professionals globally are utilizing it.

The MEA region ranks top when it comes to daily usage of social listening tools by communication professionals for their day to day work.

According to the study, Marcomm professionals in the Middle East and APAC region face a challenge in finding regional coverage of their communications, which forces them to opt for multiple listening tools.

When it comes to the preferred choice of social listening tool, 63% in the MEA region, are willing to accommodate client preferences while on a global average, only 40% of professionals are willing to do the same. Morocco stands as the least resistant country to change tools based on client preference.

The study also presented a global overview of what the communication professionals look for in social listening tools and measured it against the preferences of the professionals from different regions.

In the Middle East, the professionals favored the same qualities as the global trends with affordability and accurate demographic analysis in priority.

You can read the full report here