Today, data is being used to not just predict human behavior, but influence it. This was the case in Cambridge Analytica’s use of Facebook data to influence elections around the world, including the Philippines.
“We’ve always been a data-driven agency. But last year, we decided to invest even more heavily in our data and analytics arm,” said Doy Roque, Founder and CEO of M2.0 Communications, a PR agency focused on using data to drive its communications initiatives. “The pandemic forced us to re-evaluate our approach and ask ourselves very important questions: What do our clients need now, what will they need moving forward, and what are the other ways we could add value through our as communicators?”
The result is an integrated methodology M2 calls narrative mining — which helps organizations analyze and understand the stories that people share and the way these spread and change over time.
“In so many words, narrative mining is the application of network theory, NLP, and other statistical methods to discover, unpack, analyze, and understand narratives,” said Karlo Cleto, Head of Data and Analytics of M2. “By doing so, we hope to surface richer, truly data-driven insights to enhance everything from strategic planning and reporting to messaging and influencer outreach.”
According to Doy Roque, narrative mining is a gateway for further innovations in the PR space. “We’re just scratching the surface with the applications of data in public relations, digital, and marketing communications,” he said. “Our near-term goal is to further develop our tools to unearth even richer insights quickly and at scale.”
