1/ (THREAD) This thread summarizes a years-long research project in an attempt to answer critical outstanding questions that - unaddressed - are existential threats to the continued prosperity of the #publicrelations industry.

2/ A summary of the full report can be downloaded at https://thinkdifferently.ca/science-theory/  Please like and share with anybody you think might find it helpful.

3/ The research started as a way to make #pr and #marketing work for startups and #smallbiz that were unable to afford traditional agency retainers.

4/ What has been discovered by the research not only provides a solution to that problem, it also offers potential solutions to many of the outstanding challenges and unanswered questions the industry has been seeking answers to for the past few decades.

5/ More, it has resulted in the creation of a systematically organized body of knowledge for forming testable hypotheses and strategic predictions. It provides the basis for turning #communications from an art to a demonstrable science.

The research project utilized a range of…

6/ …established approaches and methods throughout - including @leanstartup principles and processes and the #buildmeasurelearn feedback loop, customer development method, #designthinking, the use of visual tools and assumption-based planning.

7/ This research builds on the work done by @ericries, @AlexOsterwalder, @sgblank, @rgmcgrath and @davidjbland

8/ This project started by looking at #publicrelations but expanded to include a wider range of communications disciplines. It sought review and interrogate existing assumptions, academic theory and operationalized practice.
The research project sought to investigate whether it…

9/ …was possible to create a way for both seasoned practitioners and entrepreneurs to improve the effectiveness of public relations and marketing strategies and whether closer cooperation between communications disciplines could deliver measurable value for everybody.

10/ The project sought to address key barriers to adoption: primarily affordability and accessibility. It sought to make the work that public relations and marketing practitioners undertake more transparent and understandable, and develop metrics that enables communications…

11/ …strategies to be measured both in terms of progress towards the desired outcome as well as business impact. To measure them in both qualitative and financial terms.

12/ The findings of this research project enable many of the questions the industry has sought to answer - and which have become existential threats to its survival - to be answered.

13/ These questions include, but are not limited to:

What is public relations?

How do we quantify and measure value?

14/ [QUESTIONS CONT...]

How do we measure both outputs and outcomes in a cohesive, systematic, way and for measuring both the effectiveness of strategies as well as tactical implementation?

15/ [QUESTIONS CONT...]What is the value of relationships to an organization and is it possible to quantify it qualitatively in terms of business impact?

16/ [QUESTIONS CONT...]

How do we differentiate between publicrelations and marketing?

Where does public relations fit within the wider communications field?

How do we raise the credibility of public relations amongst business executives?

17/ [QUESTIONS CONT...]

How do we use data as communications practitioners to justify our work and enable us to demonstrate why businesses should invest in it?

How can the industry protect itself from becoming obsolete?

18/ As part of this research project it was sought to to understand why these questions persist, develop and test working hypotheses and seek to answer as many of these questions as it could.

19/ The research also sought to develop repeatable models that can be used to operationalize a new approach to integrated communications based on the findings.

20/ The research project sought to challenge many of the most common assumptions made by practitioners and academics alike to test them. It was established early that the research work would not attach a business model to the project because of the risks of confirmation bias.

21/ A business model could skew findings if the desire to protect standard operating processes and procedures . There were to be no "Sacred Cows". It would, instead, explore whether alternative models were possible and their merits and obstacles.

22/ Having reached a series of conclusions, the project team then sought to seek academic research to support various pieces of its findings.

23/ This approach was chosen in preference to using academic research as part of the research methodology and experimentation process to avoid confirmation bias.

24/ During the research project hundreds of experiments have been run in order to test assumptions, hypotheses and validate outcomes. Some experiments continue.

For the purposes of the research project it was important to start with working definitions for each discipline.

25/ During the research process, these definitions would be tested, validated or disproved or left unresolved. At the start of the research project the working definitions were:

26/ #PublicRelations - a strategic process of building and maintaining strong mutually-beneficial relationships between an organization and key stakeholders

27/ #Marketing: the strategic process of compelling a third-party to take an action in the context of a business relationship

#Publicity: generating awareness of something (in its own right]

28/ #Branding: the process of building and communicating the reputation of an organization - on which it builds loyalty and trust with key stakeholders

#Network - an interconnected group of productive relationships.

29/ These definitions were determined by consulting published academic theory and respected dictionary sources.

30/ The working definitions used at the start of this project were deliberately focused on the desired outcome and on core function, rather than relying on tactical implementation.

31/ This was done to avoid any bias and the fact that definitions may have a range of different contexts to be added and removed and it was important to identify the core activity of each discipline.

32/ The definitions were used to establish the distinct component parts of communications strategy in order to enable each to be investigated independently as distinct disciplines.

33/ It would also allow for the key component parts of each discipline to be identified in their own right, removing potential conflicts resulting from the way they might be used tactically.

34/ By breaking out the component disciplines and removing ancillary factors, the research project sough to investigate whether it was possible to develop a plain-speaking way to describe each one.

35/ The research project looked at whether existing discipline labels help or hinder the understanding of core activities and whether there is strategic value in removing them.

36/ It was important to understand whether removing discipline labels increased understanding and, in particular, made the integration between communications and business strategy possible.

37/ A new taxonomy could be used to explain each discipline in a way that was understandable by both seasoned practitioners, and those with no formal education, training or operational experience in core domain areas.

38/ it was also believed that a new taxonomy and, as a result, an ontology for integrated communications could make it easier for both sides [practitioners and non-practitioners] to collaborate for mutual benefit.

39/ The research project also sought to investigate why measurement has proven such a problem for communications practitioners - especially for #publicrelations.

40/ Measuring the value of communications to an organization has been a topic of much debate over many decades - without a satisfactory resolution. This research project sought to understand why.

41/ It was also investigated whether a system of measurement could be found that could be applied to each discipline area and whether it would be possible to understand the interrelationship between discipline metrics.

42/ An integrated metric stack would, it was hypothesized, allow both measurement of each component parts of a communications strategy, to measure progress and ultimate impact on an organization.

43/ The project also sought to understand whether it would enable strategies to be measured in both quantitative and qualitative terms as well as in terms of business impact.

44/ The public relations industry has long sought to become trusted advisors to senior executives and the project sought to explore whether a new measurement model could help achieve that goal.

45/ It was believed that the more closely aligned to business outcomes pr measurement became the greater the role it could play in overall strategic development for an organization.

46/ Another objective of the research project was to understand whether a way existed to measure the core outcome of public relations - strong mutually-beneficial relationships - both in isolation and as a tool for achieving specific business outcomes.

47/ The research also sought to understand whether there was a specific link between the ability to build & maintain relationships and other comms disciplines as part of a coordinated strategy - and whether this could increase the chances of achieving defined business outcomes.

48/ A note about validation

At the completion of this research project the team undertook desk research to find any peer-reviewed academic research that would support the findings of the work done in order to validate its core findings.

49/ We identified research papers that supported some of the key tenets on which the findings presented here were based.

50/ It also identified some of the underlying assumptions that had retained the status quo and suppressed the development of some of the findings that this research program has discovered.

51/ Academic and empirical research reports are detailed in the appendix at the end of this summary report and referenced within the detailed discussion.

This project also looked to experiment with the findings of this research project to establish whether any could be turned…

52/ …in to an operationalized method and/system which could be applied to businesses - both by established communications practitioners working with clients, by business teams internally and by entrepreneurs with little or no formal communications training.

53/ Ways in which findings in each research area could be independently applied by both practitioners and entrepreneurs in order to improve the effectiveness of communications strategies in order that impact could be measured were also explored.

54/ Where multiple areas of research could be applied in concert, experiments were conducted to identify it. Finally, it was asked if it was possible to develop a unified theory of integrated communications. We believe we can show that it is.

55/ More from this research will be published in the coming days. For media inquiries, advanced previews or queries contact [email protected]

// END