First let me share with you that I am honored to be a guest blogger at Schnake, Turnbo, Frank| PR. I have always held this firm in the highest regard and to be affiliated with them, even as a guest blogger, just makes my day.

It is my understanding that this blog post will be filed under the “Not your Professor’s PR” category. It took me a while to wrap my arms around why the category title but from what I can tell, the impetus is, what you learn in the classroom is nothing like what you will learn on the job. Put another way, the on the job education is better than the one in the classroom.

I would argue just the opposite –with regard to Public Relations, what you learn in the classroom sets the foundation and removes just about any surprise for everything you do on the job. And, in today’s rapidly changing communicative environment, this foundation, the information learned in text books, case studies and even from your professor, is critical.  In fact, I would go so far as to say, in the two thousand year history of Public Relations it’s your professor’s PR now more than ever before.

Let me offer a foundation for this statement. Right now, all kinds of technological buzz words are flying around. Word of Mouth Marketing, Social Media, Web 2.0 (although I just received an invite to attend a Web 3.0 seminar), etc. All are related to the way we now communicate. More to the point, the way we are able engage in two-way symmetrical communication utilizing a variety of available technologies on the web.

A single person can create a campaign which will reach one, one hundred or one million people in a matter of days hours with the click of a mouse scroll bar on their phone. The receivers of this information can talk back or pass along the same message to another one, one hundred or one million.

New tools are being developed at breakneck speed and their usage has become ubiquitous. Some of the more popular among the average person include blogs, facebook and, the newest entry, twitter.

Some interesting facts:
Technorati, a website that collects, tracks, highlights and ultimately distributes the online global conversation recently released their State of the Blogosphere for 2008. They report they have indexed 133 million blog records since 2002 and 7.4 million blogs have been posted in the last 120 days. In just the last 24 hours there have been 900,000 blog posts (this being 900,001).

Facebook has more than 110 million active users, is the fourth most trafficked website in the world and ranks number one with regards to social media sites.

Twitter has 3.1 million users who collectively “tweet” more than three million times a day. The company is only a year old and is growing rapidly.

Bottom line, social media is quickly moving into the mainstream. So much so you don’t need a professor or PR Executive to tell you this, my seventeen year old daughter shares this information freely.

Like many of my academic peers, we knew these tools would not only be popular but, more important, be enormously effective in communicating and promoting products and ideas, shaping the way individuals and communities think, feel, act, etc.  We knew this for one simple reason: these new tools amplify the basics of communication theory. Before there was WOM, MySpace, Twitter, etc. there was Two Step Flow, Diffusion of Innovation and even Technological Determinism, to name a few.

Warning, lecture begins in 3 – 2 - 1…
The Two-Step Flow (of communication) Theory was first introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet in 1944. This theory asserts that information from the media moves in two distinct stages. First, opinion leaders who pay close attention to the mass media and its messages receive the information. Opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the actual media content.

Back in 1966 Marshall Mcluhan developed the Technological Determinism Theory which state that media technology shapes how individuals in a society think, feel, act (communicate), and how our society operates as we move from one technological age to another.

Diffusion of Innovations Theory (aka multi step theory) has been around since the early nineteen hundreds. This theory centers on the conditions which increase or decrease the likelihood that a new idea, product, or practice will be adopted by members of a given culture. The theory predicts that media as well as interpersonal contacts provide information and influence opinion and judgment of others.

In college we teach communication theory and communication strategy, even at the undergraduate level, because knowing how to communicate effectively (when, where, what words to use depending on the audience, who should speak,  etc.) is of paramount importance regardless of whether you are using Twitter or a bullhorn as the tool to carry the message. This is important because, as we say in academia, “things change.”

When I started in PR I didn’t have any foundation for my work. I had a degree in Business Administration. I remember the first Web site I saw, way back when I worked in the PR department for the nation’s largest insurance company. At the time we debated whether our company should have a Web site and I remember thinking about how this new tool/tactic will revolutionize how we communicate. For the most part, I was wrong. It had no greater effect than the first telegraph or telephone. In fact, when you evaluate the evolution of the tools we use to communicate the creation of the internet makes perfect sense, just as an evolution toward three dimensional communications makes perfect sense (3-D Web is just around the corner).

After I received my Masters in Mass Communication I remember writing my first blog post, creating my first facebook  page and sending my first tweet and thought about how it will… be just another tool in a never ending line of evolutionary communication tools.

Do we need more gadgets tactical tools to communicate? I say sure, bring ‘em on. It only ensures my future and the future of my peers. Using these new tools to reach out and engage in two-way symmetrical communication is the easy part and it gets easier every day. The hard, part for those not aware of the applied science of PR, is how to communicate effectively with all these new tools.

Tools and tactics are just that. Anyone can posses a saw and hammer. But a true craftsman, someone with the experience, training and skill can construct a beautiful piece of furniture. It’s not about the tools, it’s about the ability.  Anyone can blog or have their own personal social media site and someday everyone will (my prediction). While the whole world is communicating with a frenzied, resonating, static sound which is culminating to a critical mass and you aren’t sure how to communicate with persuade a specific group to take action, go back to your text books or visit with your college professor.

The tools might will change but the science won’t. The faster the tools change, the more important it is to have a firm grasp of this knowledge. Without it, every day on the job will seem like a new day of learning.

About
Bill Handy is a Visiting Professor at Oklahoma State University in the School of Journalism and Broadcast. He has more than fifteen years of advancing technical, management and academic experience in the field of public relations. He recently started the Oklahoma Social Media Club, a collaborative effort of students, academia and professionals to explore social media tactics and he and his wife, Shelli Holland-Handy, co-own the Dog Dish, an upscale retail boutique for pets and pet owners