Category: communication

Three forces changing the face of PR — and an action plan for dealing with the changes

A new white paper from Cymphony — called The Changing Face of PR (PDF; free, but registration required) — describes three forces affecting the public relations business:

  1. Increasing overlap in marketing and public relations. PR is expected to do more product focused activities. Advertising embraces publicity-generating “buzz marketing” tactics to reach influencers. The growth of “social media” such as blogs gives PR more direct contact with the end users of their companies’ products.
  2. Improved measurement. The C-suite demands more rigorous performance and efficiency measurement from all functions. PR departments are under greater pressure to shift from measuring “outputs” like clip counts to “outcomes” like revenue and brand equity growth.
  3. Increasing importance of social media. The rapid proliferation of blogs and social media sites has created a new class of media influencers and new tools to deliver a company’s message to the market.

The white paper also offers a four-step action plan. No spoilers here, though. Download the document and read for yourself. It’s worth the time it takes to register.

Hat tip to EducationPR for the link.

New vs. traditional media: Whom do you trust?

When it comes to breaking news, most Americans trust the old media sources (newpapers, radio and television) over the new media (blogs, podcasts and the like). But new media may be catching up.

That’s according to a LexisNexis survey of American attitudes toward different media sources.

As reported more than a week ago by TechWeb, “About 25 percent would turn to print and broadcast media Internet sites” to get breaking news, while only 6 percent “would seek information from Internet user groups, blogs and chat rooms.”

But the survey noted a trend toward relying on a mix of new and traditional media:

Some 52 percent of consumers said they believe they will continue to place the most trust and reliance in traditional news sources, but 35 percent expected to primarily trust and rely on emerging media (Internet pundits, citizen journalists and bloggers) in the future. Thirteen percent anticipated trusting and relying mostly on emerging media.

Blogs, user groups and chat rooms ranked second, behind traditional lifestyle magazines for entertainment, which ranked first among news topics of interest.

And blogs like this one, which report news like this 11 days after both the mainstream and new media, are not trustworthy sources for breaking news. (By the way, did you hear that North Korea might have tested a nuclear bomb a couple of days ago?)