Does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man? I can't remember the last time I actually wore a suit, so for the purposes of this debate lets just go ahead and say that the man makes the suit.
Anyway, a favorite sport for those of us who do data analysis for a living is bashing public relations professionals for not being as diligent with making decisions based on numbers. Or, better yet, not coming up with appropriate measurable objectives (or measuring at all to be totally candid about it) for their campaigns. I think we're getting better (hopefully Katie Paine would agree with me), but the PR profession is nowhere close to being data/measurement snobs. Will we get there? I'm not sure we need to have every PR pro be a versed data geek, but it wouldn't hurt.
In the business, we'd call that last sentence a smooth segue... Yesterday, Keith Trivitt wrote a very interesting post on the heels of the PRSA National Conference arguing that social media is creating a data deluge for PR that will help create a new breed of professionals in the business.
This had me thinking... does data create the professional or does the professional embrace the data and manipulate it to fit his or her needs. I'd like to believe Keith. I really would. But enough years working in research (either traditional or new media communications) tells me that an abundance of data does not necessarily lead to a more data-focused professional. Should it? Yes, absolutely. Will it is still yet to be determined.
An even better question to ask is why would it lead to a more data-conscious professional? The data has been there for years, unfortunately, with little action taken on the part of the professionals. Just because the social Web has created more information than we can possibly digest doesn't mean professionals are going to immediately embrace it. I think they should, but that's a point for a different show. Even if the professionals did embrace this new dataset, would they know what they are looking at? Would they know how to pull out the insights? Would they know how to incorporate social data with search data with Web traffic information? What about with offline data? What about incorporating findings with their traditional media dashboards? I think you are seeing my point here...The shift occurs when the culture of PR shifts not when more data is created. This fundamentally starts at the collegiate program level, and I know several universities (Kent State University near my old hometown and the University of Southern California) are starting to realize it.
However, we're not talking about a small problem. The universities, and then in turn the students must want to go there. I do a fair amount of speaking to students (much of which at the Universities I've listed above) and I can tell you that these kids aren't necessarily warming to data. Do they get there? Yeah, eventually. Will they embrace it when I walk out of the classroom? I don't know, honestly (further evidence for homing devices in kids?). This issue is more generational than anything. Will we see a seismic shift as the more senior members of this PR generation retire? Who knows. That's for someone significantly smarter than I am. I tend to think, though, that the new generation of professional has been brought up with a more data/measurement-conscious eye. The question is will that eye become fully trained in time to lead the ENTIRE profession into an era where there's more of a focus on making data-centered decisions than ever before. That is still TBD in my opinion.
Anyway, after yesterday's more personal post I figured it was time to get back onto the wagon. What say you? Does the data make the pro or does the pro make the data? You tell me.
