Category: media relations

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.

The name game

So one reason I haven’t been posting much here lately is because I’ve been involved in some planning and discussions about changing our campus’ name from the University of Missouri-Rolla to something that better reflects our vision of becoming one of the nation’s top technological research universities. Yesterday, UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III publicly announced his desire to “enter into a discussion” about the name with students, alumni, faculty and staff. So now I, too, can talk publicly about it.
From the news release:

Soon after he joined UMR in September 2005, Carney set a goal of making UMR one of the nation’s top five technological research universities by 2010. While UMR’s marketing materials already carry the tagline of “Missouri’s premier technological research university,” the institution is not as well known as it should be in other parts of the United States, Carney says.

“The University of Missouri-Rolla is unique among the four University of Missouri campuses because of our focus as a technological research university,” Carney says. “We believe a more distinctive name would afford UMR several advantages in recruiting students on a national level.”

Exciting times ahead! A lot of branding and identity issues to be discussed.

But it also means less frequent blogging in the coming weeks. I’ll try to squeeze some thoughts out of my head and onto this site from time to time.

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