A majority of PR practitioners anticipate that more than 50% of their communications will be conducted online five years from now, according to the latest research from PR
NEWS and Edelman's StrategyOne. Respondents in a recent survey ranked customers and journalists first and second, respectively, in a list of most coveted online audiences,
followed by strategic partners, investors, employees, academia and clients.
Despite the promise of Web-enabled technologies, however, online communication strategies have yet to become mainstream in the industry. Notably, 43% of respondents said they
now spend less than 25% of their time communicating online; and nearly a quarter indicated they don't know how much of their current budget goes to Web communication.
The Internet is perhaps most underutilized in the area of crisis communications - 67% of respondents said they had no online crisis response plan, and 76% said they rarely, if
ever, monitor chat rooms for potentially volatile threats to corporate reputation. These findings are consistent with a poll conducted in October by Firewater.com (makers of a
crisis management ASP), which found that television is still favored over the Web as a preferred crisis response tool (PRN, Oct. 30).
Text-based platforms proved to be the most popular online PR tools of the day, with 89% of respondents indicating they now use email and corporate Web sites to communicate with
key stakeholders. Also, 74% said they visit industry and competitor Web sites a few times a week, if not daily, to bone up on competitive intelligence. But practitioners are
slower to tap the Web's capabilities in areas such as streaming video (Webcasts) to conduct virtual meetings and conferences. Only 15% indicated using the Internet to this
end.
When asked whether or not their companies were taking advantage of all the online tools now available for PR, 80% said no, citing roadblocks such as "lack of support" from
senior management, minimal funding, staffing shortages, client resistance and minimal knowledge/mastery of available tools. These hurdles are consistent with many cited in a
recent "New Economy" report prepared for the Council of PR Firms by IMT Strategies, an e-business unit of The Meta Group (PRN, Nov. 20).