IPRRC 2015: A Treasure Trove of Ideas, Research, and Information

Public Relations Researchers Get Their Conference On: Marianne Eisenmann Presents at IPRRC 2015.

This article is part of The Measurement Advisor’s series on the 2015 International Public Relations Research Conference last month in Miami. Here’s more:

• Can We Talk? 5 Lessons for CEOs from the Newest Public Relations Research
• Internal Communications and Managing Millennials: Research from IPRRC on What Works
• IPRRC 2015: Is CSR Still a Thing?
• Scandal? PRSA Silver Anvil Award Winners Ignore Barcelona and Measurement Standards
• IPRRC 2015: A Treasure Trove of Ideas, Research, and Information
• IPRRC 2015: What Do You Think About These Proposed Standards for Content Marketing, Influence, and Transparency?

As always, the annual International Public Relations Research Conference in Miami was a treasure trove of ideas, research, and information. By the end, the word cloud hovering over all conversations was “brain overload”—so many ideas, so many big-picture concepts that attendees’ minds just hit the saturation point. The only cure was mojitos.

Which is why we promise we won’t overload you, gentle reader, with all those ideas all at once. Over the next few issues of The Measurement Advisor, we’ll be publishing a number of stories on the research presented at the conference.

The theme of the conference was “Emerging Theory, Methods, and Applications: Towards Professional Standards for Research and Practice.” We’ll be sharing with you the five or six major subjects or themes that conference attendees focused on:

1. Standards

There were standards proposed for transparency, ethics, influence measurement, and for content marketing. And then of course there was my paper on five case studies of how tough it is to actually implement those standards.

2. Authenticity Isn’t Optional

Authenticity has emerged as a key element to successful communications, not just in a crisis but in terms of how your CEO communicates, and how organizations are perceived.

3. Social Media

Social Media continues to be one of the most intensely researched areas of the conference. We’ll share the results of Don Wright and Michelle Hinson’s longitudinal study of the use of social media in PR, as well as studies on the use of Instagram and other specific platforms in times of crisis.

4. CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility is now a key element in most corporate communications programs, and its effectiveness was studied by a number of the IPRRC attendees.

5. Internal Communications

We were pleased to see an increase in attention devoted to internal communications and far more research than usual into the attitudes and behaviors of your newest employees, the millennials.

6. Crisis PR

Crisis is always a hot topic at IPRRC and this year saw in-depth research into the effectiveness of communications around Ebola, Malaysia Airlines, the name of the Washington D.C. football team, Target’s data breach, Carnival Cruise Lines, and Tesla cars. ∞

Thanks to IPRRC’s Facebook page for the image.