... And no, that's not a forbearer of the apocalypse; it's a nod to the seismic shift occurring in the underbelly of the PR industry, and it was a common theme at the 9th
annual International Public Relations Research Conference, hosted by the Institute for Public Relations and the University of Miami last weekend. The conference,
aptly titled "Changing Roles and Functions in Public Relations," provided a forum for graduate students, professors and practitioners to present their latest research and discuss
its implications on every facet of communications.
While some papers floated loftily in the seventh heaven of academia, others were grounded in the reality of the profession, looking towards the future of what appears to be the
second coming of PR. As always, hot button issues included measurement and cyberspace, but it was the presenters' outside-the-box application that underscored the thought-
leadership presence. The biggest take-aways:
It's not you, it's me
True, it is a people business, but with all the talk of numbers and metrics, many have forgotten the cornerstone of PR: relationships. Dean Kruckeberg, communications professor
at the University of Northern Iowa, co-wrote a paper titled "Toward an Organic Model of Public Relations in Public Diplomacy," which debunked symmetric and asymmetric
business models and emphasized the viability of more organic, conversational approaches.
That was then, this is now
Continuing on with the relationships-based theory, Hans V.A. Johnsson of Kreab and RealBiz (Sarasota, FL) presented his paper entitled "Communications - From the
Outskirts of the Center of Value Creation or Extreme Makeover in the Business World." According to Johnsson, the future of measurement rests not on econometric models but on
people-based transactions, or relationships. He continued by making a statement that could bring an accountant to tears: Throw out checkbook balancing sheets, because accounting
only takes into consideration past transactions and fails to measure performance meaningfully.
Johnsson's book Performance-Based Reporting, coauthored with Per Erik Kihlstedt, further illuminates the theory that traditional accounting must be replaced with methods
for performance-oriented management, assessment and reporting. The books gives life to the "Baseline Approach," an 80% accounting-free method based on experiments with 1,500
business and more than 4,000 executives over a 25 year period.
Show me the money
Meanwhile, if measurement's still on your mind (and when is it not?), Katie Paine, CEO of KDPaine&Partners, LLC, introduced her communications dashboard with
"Integrating PR Measurement into an Overall Communications Dashboard." Using her work with a private school in Hawaii, Paine demonstrated the ability to fuse the synergy between
media relations, employee communications, Web sites, blogs, direct mail, advertising and all other communications functions into an overall dashboard. Similar to tools like
Cymfony's Brand dashboard and Biz360's Market 360, Paine's product introduces a new degree of customization that points to the next level of integrated measurement
tools based on defined objectives and individual measures of success.
Also present was Paul A. Argenti, professor of corporate communication at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, to discuss his proprietary measurement work
(see PR News, December 14, 2005). In conjunction with Fleishman-Hillard and Predictiv, Argenti's team spawned Communications Consulting Worldwide and,
in turn, a tool that measures intangible drivers and links them to a quantitative corporate performance score. Such thought leadership again illuminated the direction in which
the industry is moving - that is, away from vague, "how we feel" measures and towards numbers-based evidence that PR contributes to the bottom line.
Did somebody say blog?
Already tired of hearing about the momentum of blogs in the world of PR? If so, get over it, because they're not going anywhere. Research presented by Don Wright
(University of South Alabama) and Michelle Hinson (Institute for Public Relations) in "Web Blogs and Employee Communication: Ethical Questions for Corporate Public
Relations" suggests that it's only just begun.
According to 18 questions they asked of a sample of PR practitioners, their study found that, regarding employee blogs, 59% of CEOs rate blogs as a good or very good tool for
internal communications; only 15% of U.S. companies have policies discussing work-related blogs; 49% of respondents believe it's ethical for employees to write negative things
about their organizations on blogs; and 59% believe it's permissible to discipline employees for negative musings. Thus, the study suggests that employee blogs have already found
their way as mainstream, widespread employee communications tools, and now corporations must develop new policies to address them.
So there you have it, straight from the researchers' mouths. PR is in the midst of a revolution, and a combination of tactical tools and proprietary theories will continue to
push the needle. It may be the end of the world as we know it, but as far as we can tell, PR feels fine.