Social media surveys are a dime a dozen these days and with good reason. Social media are hot in the public relations and public affairs profession. Practitioners at all levels want to know how to use them for publicity, marketing, sales, reputation management, crisis communications, and more. And judging by the PR/PA M&A agency business, firms with social media expertise and experience are the hottest prospects around.

And, of course, use of social media by the media is of great interest. How do journalists use these media for developing news, stories, contacts, leads, facts, opinions, and opportunities to spread the word about what they've written? What do they think of social media sites?

A survey I did on this subject, pro bono, with Cision, provides interesting insights. It was sent to several thousand media, primarily print. We define social media as blogs, social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, microblogging sites such as Twitter, photo/video sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr, and review sites or web discussion forums such as eopinions.com. For a copy of the survey results, go to http://tinyurl.com/yhukr5q

As one might expect, owing to all that's been written on the subject, an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists we surveyed, 89% turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter. The survey also found that 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

While the results demonstrate the fast growth of social media as a primary source of information for journalists, the survey also makes it clear that reporters and editors are acutely aware of the need to verify information they get from social media. Eighty-four percent said social media sources are "slightly less" or "much less" reliable than traditional media, with 49% saying social media suffer from "lack of fact checking, verification and reporting standards."

"Mainstream media have clearly hit a tipping point in their reliance on social media for their research and reporting," said Heidi Sullivan, Vice President of Research for Cision "However, it's also clear that while social media are supplementing the research done by journalists, they are not replacing editor and reporter reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism."

The survey provides some great news for PR/PA practitioners. To wit: Despite most assumptions to the contrary, most journalists turn to public relations and public affairs professionals for assistance in their primary research. Editors and reporters say they depend on PR professionals for "interviews and access to sources and experts" (44%), "answers to questions and targeted information" (23%), and "perspective, information in context, and background information" (17%).

Social media provide a wealth of new information for journalists, but getting the story right is just as important as ever for those who prepare and edit the news. The takeaway for PR/PA professionals: They have a bigger responsibility than ever to ensure that the information they provide journalists is accurate and timely and that they provide access to primary sources that can verify the facts.

Media use of search engines/sites provides a good overview on which sites are the most popular among journalists. Google is the top search engine for online research with all responding journalists using this tool. Wikipedia is second but still used by six out of ten. Here are the stats:

• Google 100%
• Wikipedia 61%
• Firefox 31%
• Yahoo 26%
• MSN/Bing 15%
• Ask 7%
• Blog-only search engines such as Technorati, IceRocket 5%
• Review sites or web discussion forums such as eopinons.com, Ripoffreport.com 4%
• Other 10%

Social media are not the end all and be all for PR/PA purposes, but they have emerged as a powerful communication tool for PR/PA practitioners. Regardless of how they are and can be used, they have become the next step in the development of PR/PA principles and practices.

Knowledge of what they are, how to use them, and how to measure them has become urgent. If PR/PA practitioners don't become the dominant experts in their use, others like ad agencies and digital design firms will step into the breach and shift the dynamics of organizational communications – detrimentally to my way of thinking – toward paid advertising and marketing.

Is the PR/PA profession up to the challenge? Some practitioners and firms clearly are, but I worry that most, at least in the current marketplace, are not. More has to be done to educate the profession about what's at stake and what has to be done, individually and collectively, to take control of the playing field.

Don Bates is an Honorary Trustee of the Institute for Public Relations, a public relations and public affairs educator, and senior public relations and public affairs consultant. He also is an instructor in writing and media relations in the George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management Master's Degree Program in Strategic Communications, which he helped to establish. dbates@gwu.edu

What do web analytics have to do with public relations?" It's a good question, given that web analytics are most often used by SEO professionals and online marketers to track visitors and sales from search results and content advertisements.

The digitization of communications has enabled marketers to better understand the impact of their campaigns by directly measuring audience behavior. This is critical to companies that spend large sums on buying media placements or to optimize their website, as it has enabled them to understand what works and what doesn't in dollar terms. There is no reason why the same methodologies cannot be applied to the media that a company "earns," which is the media attention a company can generate through effective public relations and communications, or the "buzz" a product can generate online.

In fact, we would argue that earned media is actually a very powerful marketing channel that can be measured, understood and optimized on the same terms as paid media and search marketing. The number of unique visitors referred to an organization's website by earned media, the pages that visitors access, and whether or not they completed some goal (e.g., downloaded a white paper, made a purchase, made a donation, etc.) can be directly tracked in a way that has not been possible before—at least not without extensive primary research.

In the new paper published by the Institute's Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation (download here) we outline practical steps for public relations practitioners who want to adopt web analytics as part of their media measurement strategy. The paper focuses on what sort of data public relations professionals can obtain from web analytics, how to conduct basic quality control for the data, and how to integrate the data with other media monitoring and research.

The paper addresses how web analytics can be used to answer broad questions such as:

• How do sale conversion rates from earned media compare to online marketing channels?
• Is our corporate Twitter account driving traffic to the right Web pages?
• Are our press releases or social media releases being cited by journalists and bloggers, and if so, do they drive traffic to our corporate site?
• Is "Key Message A" more effective at driving sales than "Key Message B?"
• Should we invest more resources in social or traditional media?
• Where do we find the audiences most likely to respond to our campaigns?

At first glance, answers to these questions might appear out of reach. Fortunately, web analytics are more accessible and cost-effective than ever. This technology is not necessarily expensive (its free if you're using Google Analytics) and most large organizations have a web analytics team that can help public relations teams get the data and reports they need to inform communication strategy.

Since web analytics technology has some technical limitations and most organizations sell products and generate sales leads through offline channels, web analytics might not be the "holy grail" ROI measurement system that the public relations industry has been waiting for. That being said, it might be the closest thing yet.

In much the same way that online advertising has revolutionized how advertisers can measure and optimize their efforts, public relations can leverage web analytics techniques to measure actual user behavior and optimize campaigns to get the best outcomes.

Seth Duncan
Senior Research Manager
Context Analytics
SDuncan@context-analytics.com

That's the theme - and ambition - of Indonesia's public relations community, which hosted a regional conference Feb. 2-4 in Jakarta for the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). There were 162 delegates from 23 countries attending.

The Institute for Public Relations and its mission of PR research, measurement and evaluation had a high profile with this multi-national but mostly-Asian audience. Among the takeaways:

• MISSION ACCOMPLISHED? IPRA installed another woman as president: Dr. Elizabeth Goenawan Ananto who leads the graduate communications program at Indonesia's Trisakti University. She succeeds '09 President Maria Gergova, managing director of United Partners, an MS&L affiliate in Bulgaria. Egypt's Loula Zaklama chaired IPRA in '06. Academics and practitioners in emerging markets now dominate IPRA, whose mission always was to set ethical standards of practice globally and advocate for the profession where it is relatively new.


• CHINA'S DOMINANCE: You can't travel anywhere without being confronted by China's growth. China's domestic market and economy are larger than those in the whole of the ASEAN region. Most Southeast Asian countries have lost 'market share' to China. Nevertheless, Chinese companies entering new markets have difficulty establishing identity and emotional bond with consumers. Serge Dumont, Asia/Pacific President for Omnicom, says his group's research shows 58% of Chinese companies lack sufficient consumer visibility to compete fully. "I could be based in New York, but that's not where the action is," says the 25-year Asian veteran.


• TRUST IS COUNTRY-SPECIFIC: For the second year, Indonesia is included in the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer, and outpaces other countries on multiple dimensions of trust. Sixty-four percent of Indonesians surveyed trust business to do the right thing (versus 54% globally). Sixty-two percent trust government (versus 47% globally) and a whopping 84% trust the banking sector!


• ADVANCING RESEARCH: Indonesian practitioners say that obtaining budget for public relations research is still a "tough sell" to many companies and clients. Perhaps that's why a presentation about David Michaelson's Best Practices in Public Relations Research and other frequent references to the Institute's library of research topics were so well received here.


• A CALL TO ACTION: I have long believed that we are living in a world that public relations is perfectly suited to serve, and my keynote address at this conference was a "call to action." Our opportunities are enormous because business is expanding into a lot of areas where we don't yet know how to communicate. But the world is changing so fast that PR people are having a hard time keeping up. Practicing public relations in this "new normal" will require inspired leadership from within our profession.

What do you think?

The use of Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) as media measurement and a tool to value media placements is one of the most contentious topics in our business; the topic seems to emerge at nearly every professional conference. As you undoubtedly know, AVE is essentially the practice of assigning a "value"to a news story by equating it to advertising costs, with the implication that the news story is somehow "equivalent"to an advertisement in terms of probable audience impact.

The debate about AVE is healthy because it tends to move public relations practitioners beyond simple quantitative measures to more meaningful types of analysis of value. (The additional challenge of measuring the value of social media doesn't make our jobs any easier, though.)

The Institute's Commission on Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation meeting at our Summit on Measurement in Portsmouth last October voted overwhelmingly to reject AVE as a media measurement concept and practice. Although not a snap decision (the AVE debate has been raging with the Commission and profession for years), the Commission wisely also decided to first achieve some consensus around alternative media measures before vocally or publicly abandoning the practice. After all, many professionals still have bosses or clients who demand AVE data.

Now comes a new paper published by the Commission: "A New Paradigm for Media Analysis: Weighted Media Cost."The authors regard it as an addendum to the 2003 Commission white paper, "Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)" by Bruce Jeffries-Fox. The original Jeffries-Fox paper and other Commission documents discouraged the use of AVE in favor of other forms of media analysis such as story counts and audience impressions for quantitative scoring, and tone, message, prominence, dominance, accuracy, etc., for qualitative analysis.

The authors of the addendum to the Jeffries-Fox paper "agree with all the problems cited with AVE as it has been historically practiced. However, the question to be explored now is whether recent evidence warrants a fresh look at the metric itself (the cost of media space and time) as opposed to its historic use as an "equivalency"between news and advertising in terms of value.

The new paper presents evidence for the validity of using "Weighted Media Costs"in media analysis. The authors "encourage industry media evaluation, research and analysis firms (and our own Commission) to adopt this new method as a replacement for old Advertising Value Equivalency scoring, and as a replacement for, or addition to, story counts and audience impressions for quantitative scoring.

The authors hope that their research helps put to rest the "AVE wars,"and leads public relations practitioners toward clearer correlations of their hard work to real business results.

An admirable goal, to be sure. But dare I ask, what do you think?

Bob Grupp
President and CEO
Institute for Public Relations

Well, here we are. Still just days into the New Year. Time to turn over a new leaf. Start a new chapter in our personal or professional lives. Pick your metaphor; it feels good. Enter 2010 refreshed and re-energized.

Apparently what characterizes our optimism at the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education - the Institute - is not necessarily mainstream. The lead in the weekend Wall Street Journal claimed: "Few decades have been as resolutely dismal as this past one, which is thankfully all over." There have been many similar pronouncements about the times in which we live.

Instead, I draw inspiration from a new book, Sonic Boom, by Gregg Easterbrook. The author steps back from the drumbeat of headlines and considers larger trends and concludes, rightly, I believe, that we are at the front end of the phenomenon of globalization. The positive aspects - "ease of communications, more freedom of speech, markets closely attuned to consumer demand, rising education levels in the developing world" - are in the early stages. The world is going to become a lot more "global," and stress-inducing, dwarfing anything before now.

Easterbrook relies on many striking facts, including The National Academy of Sciences estimate that 85 percent of economic growth is caused by new ideas. Indeed, the world economy depends on innovative ideas that arise with entrepreneurs, are backed by venture capitalists and can be rapidly, cheaply spread to much of the globe.

Institute Trustee Rob Flaherty strikes a similar theme when he describes the Institute's mission to bridge the academic and practitioner communities in public relations. When we identify and pursue research, contributors (think of them as VC's) ultimately decide funding based on practical applicability to what companies, clients, constituents and stakeholders need in their day-to-day lives, not on of something done solely to prove an academic point.

Finding this middle ground, Rob says, where the discipline of academic research meets the real-world challenges facing our companies and clients is a marketplace-driven approach that can make the Institute's research immediately applicable and more valuable.

Building that bridge between the academy and the profession is a journey, remains the Institute's fundamental mission, and causes me to believe that we who work in public relations still are at the front end of really big opportunities in our increasingly global economies and societies. In the United States alone, employment for public-relations positions should increase 24 percent by 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With the benefit of the recent holiday respite, a good book (and the clock ticking toward a January discussion with the Executive Committee of the Institute's Board), I drafted a new operating plan for the Institute. It provides Trustees and Staff with a high-level overview of 2010 initiatives designed to foster achievement of the mission and goals identified in our Five-Year Strategic Plan.

These 2010 initiatives are defined broadly (and in order) by four major pillars:

1. Refocus on Mission: Public Relations Research
Support research that adds depth to knowledge in public relations. Provide fresh thinking and insights that enable people in both academic and professional communities to better understand our rapidly changing global environment and to use public relations to help drive change in our companies and client organizations.

2. Outreach and Education
Create dialogue. Be the moderator of discussions in public relations education and in the profession. Create more interaction and programming that offers persuasive research, practical advice and measurement and evaluation tools and techniques.

3. Thought Leadership
Position the Institute by its thought leadership, always seeking to demonstrate the impact and value of public relations solutions.

4. Operational Excellence
Ensure that the Institute operates efficiently and effectively in our fast-changing profession and business environment, has the resources it needs, maintains ethical practices with an emphasis on mission, and is transparent and accountable to its Trustees, donors and constituents.

Stay tuned to this website (which itself will be rebuilt in 2010) to access the knowledge we assemble for our profession, and please join our conversation.

Thanks, again, for the opportunity to advocate for our great profession.

Happy New Year!

Bob Grupp
President and CEO
Institute for Public Relations

Leaders are crucial to the success, image and future of nations, organizations, and professions. However, few studies have directly examined leadership in public relations. To deal with this knowledge gap, the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, established at the University of Alabama in 2005, has begun to build a research-based foundation of knowledge in this area. To date, 16 leadership studies have been carried out through the Center, involving surveys, interviews, and focus groups with nearly 3,900 PR practitioners, educators, and students.

Nine Qualities of Excellent Leadership in Public Relations

Many of the studies focus on the qualities of "excellent leadership" in public relations, or what practitioners suggest is the best or "ideal" leadership. We recently analyzed the 16 studies to locate recurring themes or patterns, and we identified nine qualities, or principles of excellent leaders. Our analysis suggests that excellent leaders in PR:

1. Lead by example: they model the way through two-way communication and exemplary behaviors. Senior leaders said thatrole models and mentors exert the greatest influence on practitioner beliefs about leadership qualities and values. Young PR leaders suggested that "leading by example" is a crucial quality of excellent leaders.


2. Participate effectively and credibly in strategic decision-making in organizations. Strategic decision-making capability is the most important dimension of leadership, according to senior practitioners: the ultimate PR leader is a valued strategic counselor who's engaged in key decision-making moments.


3. Exemplify a strong ethical orientation and set of values for doing the right thing and practicing professional standards at all times. Ethical orientation touches every aspect of practice and is crucial to individual reputation, organizational success, and the profession's image. PR students defined leadership primarily through an ethics prism, emphasizing trustworthiness and strong values.


4. Possess complex communication and rhetorical skills. We take this knowledge requirement for granted, but research reveals the multi-layered nature and complexity of this capability and suggests four levels of knowledge and skill. These include a basic technical skills level; a strategic level associated with planning; a relational level emphasizing interpersonal skills; and a political level requiring rhetorical and persuasive communication skills.


5. Possess clear self-knowledge that guides successful interactions, formation of relationships, and self-development. Self knowledge--knowing the strengths and limitations of one's character, skills, and knowledge--helps guide successful decisions and enables practitioners to interact more effectively with others.


6. Possess a strong desire to lead. Individual initiative and desire to lead may be fundamental to excellent leadership over the long term. The desire to lead is a rich, continuing source of energy, power, learning, and determination.


7. Employ transformational and inclusive styles of leadership that are sensitive to context and individual needs and differences. Surveys show that PR professionals strongly prefer transformational and inclusive leadership styles. Transformational leaders have a vision for the future, motivate change, and inspire others. Inclusive leaders collaborate, share decision-making, and engage in participative processes. Both styles are more effective in gaining trust with employees, managing hopes and frustrations, and resolving conflicts.


8. Demonstrate passion for the work and the profession that encourages and inspires others. Passion for work and the profession may be the lifeblood of leadership. Exhibiting passion and positive energy brings projects to life, spurs hope, and builds esprit de corps. Excellent PR leaders fully engage in the challenges of leadership on the job and often in the community and profession.


9. Serve as agents for change and for helping to create a culture for communication. PR leaders may be most effective in open communication environments and when organizational leaders support and model ethical behaviors. Thus, excellent PR leaders push back on restrictive or closed communication environments and inappropriate behaviors for the benefit of employees, the organization, and the profession.

More Research to Do

The 16 Plank Center studies in PR leadership collectively represent a small but important step in building a research-based foundation of knowledge in this important area. Clearly, more research is necessary to confirm these findings, refute them, or discover other important qualities and dimensions of excellent leadership in PR.

Indeed, we hope these studies inspire more research and provoke more academic and professional debate about this crucial but often invisible topic. We believe the future of our profession is closely linked to better understanding and developing excellent leaders, and that starts with research.

----

This summary is part of a presentation that was delivered at the PRSA International Conference in November in San Diego by Berger; Keith Burton of GolinHarris; and Ron Culp of Ketchum.

The Institute for Public Relations has commissioned research into the skills, expertise and competencies required in the years ahead for top public relations advisers and corporate communicators. Dr Tom Watson of the Media School at Bournemouth University in England is leading the research, which will be reported at the Institute's next European Professional Colloquium in 2010. Here, Dr. Watson outlines the context of the research and some of the issues being addressed.

As a public relations academic, there are times of the year when I am suddenly very popular. Here's a clue: it is not always (or often) with students around assignment deadlines. The sudden popularity comes when the same students are coming up to graduation and PR employers are looking for talent.

Some are very direct with a "Tom, old friend, tell me who the really bright students are." Or, it's "Hi Tom, I haven't seen you for a while. Why don't we have lunch soon?" Either way, the search for talent has an annual cycle and, at Bournemouth University in England, we have many very employable students.

But when it comes to senior appointments, I get a different message from old colleagues, headhunters and other industry contacts. The phone message is nearly always along the lines of: "We are looking for a really good senior communicator, but it's tough to find them these days. Who can you recommend to us?" This is often a phone call with a tinge of desperation.

When starting the research on competencies needed for future senior communicators for the Institute of Public Relations, I did my own phone and email research with contacts as I wanted to identify senior communicators who would take part in our study. In some parts of the developed world, there were many people to speak with, but as I moved to the developing world, the question was often reversed to "There's nobody here, who can you recommend to us?"

In this world of very fast turn-around and dynamic communication flows, it is apparent that in developed world markets like North America and North Europe, there are many technically able communicators who are comfortable on the home cultural terrain. In the developing countries of the Gulf, South and East Asia and Southern Africa, however, there is a dearth of both local talent and of senior-level international communicators. (I have omitted Latin America and francophone Africa as these have not been researched).

So why are there so few truly international, senior level communication advisers who operate with some confidence across cultures? How can they be developed? These are questions that I have started researching for the IPR. With my colleague, Dr Chindu Sreedharan, we reviewed academic and professional journals and media for the major issues that will be shaping high-level corporate communications and PR.

Our aim is to guide the public relations industry on what it takes to prepare the next generation of leaders in globally integrated organizations. The reputation of organizations is increasingly challenged in this age of rapid response. Communicators need to be educated and trained on higher skills than ever before and this research will identify the most important skills and knowledge areas.

Communicators are now operating in Thomas Friedman's 'flat world' of working without borders for corporations that are global entities with new rules of engagement. It is also an information age that is ever more complex. Here are headlines on the challenges and the future needs:

The challenges for communicators are:

• PR and corporate communications are "behind the curve" on social media; slower to adopt more technologically complicated tools
• The need to change PR and corporate communications from broadcast machine to community participation
• Greater importance for ethics, CSR and sustainability
• More and complex demands for communication from 'internal audiences'
• Need culturally-sensitive communication in a changing world
• Getting to and operating at C-Level
• Give proof of PR and corporate communication's contributions to strategy development and realization

Future communicators also need to:

• Be flexible communicators, capable of adapting quickly (eg. new media)
• Able to interpret changes and trends in communication practices and technology; guide implementation, but not necessarily as a communication technologist.
• Have broader analytical and critical thinking skills
• Become closer to trends and policy-making, especially on CSR/sustainability; often actively participating in the discourse
• Possess a more inter-disciplinary set of competencies so they can act as advisors with equal standing to senior colleagues in other functions
• Have negotiation and relationship-building and management skills
• Coaching and mentor senior management to communicate, manage relationships and deal with changing demands

A study to test these propositions is under way among senior communicators in North America, Europe and other markets. It will report in early 2010. The research is made possible by a grant from Coca-Cola to the Institute for Public Relations.

Dr Tom Watson is Deputy Dean of the Media School at Bournemouth University in England. A former consultancy MD and chair of the UK's Public Relations Consultants Association from 2000 to 2002, Tom is a member of the IPR Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation.

In July, the Institute published a case study by Sean Williams examining how a financial services company used media measurement and content analysis to gauge the impact of financial turmoil on its brand and reputation. (See: http://alturl.com/oe3b) Sean's intent was to provide a factual description of news media impact on reputation, and to provide senior executives with guidance for communication strategy and tactics. Now, more than six weeks after publication, we asked Sean to reflect on his paper and to summarize key findings.

Media still matters. The research shows vividly that the news media has measurable impact on many aspects of business communication, including direct mail response, reputation management and brand attitudes and disposition. During the period covered by the research, social media was deemed irrelevant to the subject company - this finding, today, would likely be unthinkable, given that social media expands in use and influence every week. The number of people reached by media every day, however, still dwarfs active social media. The key is to have strategic objectives for both media: traditional and social. In fact, the need to set concrete objectives is arguably the most important lesson I learned from this research.

Speak business, not PR. Most senior executives do not discuss public relations in the same terms as those of us in the practice. We too easily slip in jargon - "reach," "opportunities to see," or even "impressions" borrowed from our marketing brethren. But these terms do not speak to the effectiveness of our media program, they merely describe our audience. It doesn't help, either, that different measurement suppliers use different terms for these metrics, making it hard to compare results.

No system is "ready to roll" the moment we begin using it. The news clippings need to be coded, either by automation or people, and that process is heavy with bias and requires our intervention. Narrowing our focus of media outlets is very helpful - segregating media sources by geography or influence makes it much easier to understand the potential impact of our efforts. This goes double for social media, where the sheer scale of outlets can be overwhelming. We need to be prepared to invest our time and skill in making the system right - and that means having a clear understanding of both our communication and business objectives.

No system is foolproof - neither you nor it can account for every possible factor. Organizations will have people ready to encourage and support efforts to be more data-driven, even as others find fault and question your findings. Correlation is not causation, and often wider research into brand awareness, attitude and disposition will be needed to present a full picture of the impact of your communication strategy. Remember that we're trying to make progress, not jump directly from "monitoring" to "financial return on investment." As long as we're clear about expectations, we'll be fine.

Social Media is no panacea. We know that the creation of social networks - and the action of dialogue within these communities - has a solid theoretical basis in public relations. However, we just don't have a large enough body of objective research on the action of social media on business objectives. As practitioners, we need to monitor the social media multiverse for what's being said about us. And we need to think through, strategically, what we'll do with that information once we have it!

Today's masters of measurement are working through the maturation of best practices into standards, and must take care not to stifle innovation, but to give guidance to practitioners on whether or how the processes work when social media is the agent of creation, support, enlargement and participation in our society.

Sean Williams
Member, Commission on Public Relations Measurement & Evaluation
CEO, Communication AMMO, Inc.

These are just two of the calculations of the value of the world's 500 most valuable brands in the 2009 report, produced annually by BrandFinance PLC. See the table of the top ten brands below.

The Top Ten in 2009 (Source: Brand Finance plc)

For those who still cling to the view that brand valuation is for products and reputation measurement is for corporations and other organizations, please note that 19 of the top 20 global brands in this survey are corporations that share a name with their principal product or service. Budweiser is the only product that makes it in, at number 18.

Unlike "most admired" rankings or reputation league tables, which can only provide us with a relative measurement, the valuations produced by BrandFinance, Interbrand and other branding experts place a finite dollar value on the brand equity of an organization or product. This way the intangible is made tangible.

It is for this reason that I argue in my new book, The Global Corporate Brand Book (Palgrave Macmillan), that public relations professionals should begin to see their role as that of corporate brand managers, rather than simply as communicators. Enhancing brand value by securing an excellent reputation should be our holy grail. It is when that reputation is reflected in a dollar value - the equity of the brand - that the importance of our work will achieve the recognition it deserves in the C suite.

This is a lofty aspiration and it is unlikely to be attained without a great effort devoted to the study and understanding of the many components that go to make brands that are strong and have stamina.

The race to build a great and enduring corporate brand is neither a sprint nor a marathon. It is a relay in which the baton is passed from one leader and generation to another. Lasting success is based not on fashion but on values and behavior that earn the trust and affection of stakeholders.

I have examined the hallmarks of successful global corporate brands such as Coca-Cola, GE, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson, Starbucks and UPS. My conclusion is that strong leadership, understanding of corporate culture, adherence to strong values, employee commitment to living the brand and swift and decisive action in times of crisis are of supreme importance.

But the feeling I was left with after completing the manuscript and the revisions was that I had only scratched the surface of the topic.

More work is needed to understand the relationship between trust, reputation, relationships and brand. It is correct - but not sufficient - to maintain that they are closely linked. For example, in my book I give several instances in which a corporation suffers a temporary loss of reputation but the corporate brand has reserves of strength to leave it relatively strong and able to rebound.

Another area of useful exploration would be to establish and, if possible, quantify, the halo effect of a strong corporate brand reputation on a company's products; and vice versa. Common sense tells us that this should be the case, but that is not evidence.

We also need to understand how to proceed during the three times when corporate brand value and reputation are at maximum risk: in a crisis, during a merger and when there is a leadership transition.

Some interesting work has been done on mergers by Dr. Kent Rhodes of Pepperdine University, whom I quote as saying: "Cultural cohesion is most often the critical asset in the eventual success or failure of the overall deal..." and this is reinforced by the findings of a study commissioned by Accenture.

I would like to think that my book might be a starting point for further avenues of exploration by members of the Institute for Public Relations.

Michael Morley
President, Morley Corporate Consulting
Institute Trustee (1998/2003-2004)
Michael@morleycorporateconsulting.com

Making PR More Than a Jab at the Moon

In the Philippines, we have a phrase, suntok sa buwan (literally, a jab at the moon), which captures part of the humble beginnings of public relations practice in my country. We would churn out what appeared and, indeed, appealed as elegant PR plans. Which, more often than not, worked, after a fashion, and in the generous estimation of clients, who perhaps were themselves in no position to know better. Because we almost never did research, except that of the roughest type, we were jabbing at the moon. In spite of that, we lurched on and made points with clients from year to year.

Now, we are some distance from those days, but we are not quite where we need to be.

I am referring to the kind of research imperative with which PR is practiced in the United States, Europe and in countries where the profession is more mature. In large and advanced economies characterized by competition for markets and the need for sustaining and enlarging them - and winning the loyalty and good feeling of a wide range of important (at times fickle) audiences - which can turn adversarial almost without warning - effective PR continues to gain preeminence.

This kind of PR is to be strived after. Always, it has to be buttressed by solid public relations research. Which way go the feelings and fears of stakeholders that we need to address? Or the biases and prejudices of media in markets where our clients do or plan to operate? What kind of corporate decisions and initiatives do our clients or principals have to make to create meaningful presence in domestic or foreign markets? How might important audiences think or what will they look like five years from now?

Now that PR measurement and evaluation has been at least partly demystified, there are still big areas in PR research that need to be explored, examined, reexamined and, yes, explained. Let me cite just two:

How can PR research consciousness be fostered more widely than in the academy? How can PR research be made affordable, to help practitioners in developing countries create programs directed at markets or audiences in large developed markets?

The Institute for Public Relations has done important pioneering work in raising consciousness and stimulating breakthroughs in PR research. Its work has been influential in generating original thinking in various aspects of PR practice in the U.S., in the academy, in the corporate world and private and government sectors.

One thing it needs to do now is to extend its reach and influence to other countries.

In other countries, like mine, for instance, the Institute can help local institutions organize tie-ups amongst corporations, PR practitioners, the academy, the large NGOs, and selected government PR-oriented agencies that will be dedicated to PR research.

Many PR agencies use market research organizations versus internal talent to conduct research for their programs. Is this correct, wise, or even sensible? Does PR research really need to cost a lot of money?

How can PR practitioners be encouraged to commit to the fact that research, even if it may seem to be costly, is vital to PR practice? That without research, the kind of "success" that we, the ancients, used to reap will be ephemeral?

The Institute for Public Relations would do well to help those laboring in PR's foreign vineyards get a sense of the excitement and actual rewards that modern, research-based PR generates. The Institute can lead in making research a vital and dynamic part of the PR practiced by organizations across the world.

Reaching out globally should not be all that difficult for the Institute. Modern communication technology and the global mindset of thoughtful PR practitioners and academics will make this a more facile and productive enterprise than if it had been attempted in earlier years.

There is not much excitement flailing at the moon when moonbeams pour radiantly on you.

In countries like mine, for instance.

Romeo P. Virtusio
Chairman & CEO
Virtusio Public Relations, Inc. / Context Communications International, Inc.
(www.virtusio.com)