Blogging PR: An exploratory analysis of public relations weblogs

Blogging PR: An exploratory analysis of public relations

weblogs

Jordi Xifraª*, Assumpció Huertasb**

ª Faculty of Tourism and Communication, University of Gerona, Spainb Predepartmental Unit of Audiovisual Communication, Advertising and Journalism, Rovira i Virgili University, Spain

* Tel.: + 34 972 41 89 04; Fax: + 34 972 41 87 32; e-mail:[email protected]** Tel.: + 34 977 55 85 33; Fax: + 34 977 55 86 17; e-mail:[email protected]

1. Introduction

Blogs are seen by some authors as major tools for online

communication, whereas by others they are little more than

experts’ opinions on a given issue (Herrera & Celaya,

2006). They are such a recent medium (beginning in 1996)

that the concept remains controversial and arguable

(Barton, 2005). In any event their persuasive and

informative function is of great relevance as they can

obtain opinion leadership with a huge influence over public

opinion. In this sense Sweetser and Metzgar (2007) have

demonstrated that in crisis situations, people who read

personal blogs have a lower perception of crisis for an

organization.

The rise of blogs seems to be unbridled and it is a

phenomenon that is occurring in all knowledge fields

(Jenkins, 2006). There are currently over 60 million blogs

in existence and 75,000 new ones each day (Cohen &

Krishnamurthy, 2006). More than 14 million people worldwide

keep a personal diary on the Internet and a further 100

million (one third of the active Web universe) read blogs

habitually (Gordillo, 2007). Every six months the

blogosphere population doubles, and it is today sixty times

greater than three years ago. No communication medium has

ever burgeoned so rapidly. Weblog writers produce 700,000

to 1.3 million articles every day – almost one a second

(Gordillo, 2007). Since their arrival blogs have been

changing, as have their social perception, objectives and

cultural, economic, political and media impact (Yang,

2007). Weblogs have diversified and are developing in such

diverse spheres as education, business, politics,

journalism and public relations.

According to Hallet (2005), the communicative use of

weblogs in public relations has twofold foundations. On the

one hand they enable professionals to analyze the market

and ascertain the opinions of their audiences – to gauge

public opinion on a business, product or brand. On the

other, they are a major technique for participating and

giving opinions both personal and organizational, be it by

posting comments on other blogs or creating one’s own.

This study, however, does not focus on analyzing corporate

blogs, which are used as a public relations tool, but looks

at blogs concerning public relations in which public

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relations or one of its activities is the main theme. Our

aim is to analyze what public relations blogs are about, or

what issues are dealt with in blog posts, in addition to

any structural elements of this new communicative tool that

may affect its efficacy to transmit information:

objectives, structure and degree of usability,

interactivity, and level of connectivity.

2. Method

Databases of public relations blogs are few and far

between. One of the most comprehensive, and regularly

updated, is the Online Public Relations (http://www.online-

pr.com)1 directory, created by James H. Norton. We have

chosen this database which encompasses a public relations

blogs directory split into four categories: Public Relations-

General (67 blogs), Directories and Aggregators (7), Miscellaneous

(3), and High-Tech PR (8). In order to avoid any bias

resulting from the categorization criteria, for the

purposes of this study we took 67 blogs from the Public

Relations-General category. The data collection was carried out

between October 2006 and January 2007. Therefore, the

sample selected for analysis consists of 67 blogs on public

relations from around the world.

For the data collection we drew up an analysis template

that measures 50 items which were later categorized to

create the main analysis variables. These variables were:

1 Retrieved October 29, 2006.

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a) Author. The blogs were classified as personal,

organizational written by an employee, and purely

organizational and, therefore, impersonal.

b) Content. Analysis was carried out of both the issues

arising in the blog posts and the images or other

resources. The content of blogs is tied up with its

pursued objectives, which were also examined.

c) Interactivity. This measures the degree of user

participation, according to the interactive resources

available on the blog. These include: the option for

external users to post comments or contact the blog

author by e-mail, podcasting, audio and video downloads,

sales of products and services, user surveys, and the

possibility of subscribing.

d) Usability. This is a necessary requisite to develop

efficient interactivity (Hallahan, 2001). This variable

analyzes how easy it is to use the weblog for those who

access it by means of: search engines on other blogs,

internal search engines, list of previous files, list of

most recent blog posts, and calendar.

e) Connectivity. This measures the extent to which the blog is

linked to other websites, be it through other linked

blogs or websites of interest.

The analysis focuses on the descriptive statistical data on

all of the items under study, in addition to the

contingency tables and variable correlation. Given the

characteristics of the study variables – largely nominal

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and ordinal – the Gamma index was used as the most suitable

correlation index for the analysis.

3. Results

A look at the date when the blogs analyzed were created

reveals that the lion’s share was set up very recently.

Only 31.3% go back earlier than 2004. By contrast, 61.2% of

the sample blogs were created between 2004 and the present.

It was not possible to ascertain the creation date for five

blogs (7.5%).

One of the defining paradigms of blogs is that they are

written in real time. With this new medium we shall no

longer speak of frequency but of real time, of ongoing

contributions. The upside of this is that they are more

dynamic and enriched with a range of conversational styles,

but they are lacking in contemplation (Orihuela, 2006).

Despite these characteristics, over half of the blogs

analyzed (53.7%) receive new blog posts around every five

days. Only 11.9% are updated or include new input on a

daily basis.

3.1. Authorship

In their study into corporate blogs Lee et al. (2006) split

them into five categories: the employee blog, written by any

worker in the company; the group blog, which is a workers’

blog kept not by one person alone but by a set of experts;

the executive blog, written by management; the promotional blog,

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which is an impersonal corporate blog seeking to spark

discussion on products and events; and lastly, the newsletter

blog, which is also impersonal and aims to represent the

company stance through its information. We have used this

blog authorship classification for our own study but

brought it down to only three analysis categories: personal

blogs, by public relations professionals; company blogs

written by an employee2, either non-management or

management; and public relations company blogs.

The largest share (77.6%) of the blogs analyzed in this

study is personal, written primarily by public relations

professionals. Corporate blogs written by employees or

management constitute a much smaller proportion (16.4%).

Impersonal corporate blogs were by far the smallest group

(4.5%). This data corroborates the fact that one of the

main characteristics of blogs is that they are personal,

and users seek this ‘human voice’ in their communication

(Jenkins, 2006). Impersonal corporate blogs are not as

widely accepted by the blogger community (Lee et al., 2006:

320) because they are seen as marketing tools or as simple

filters from the public relations department.

With regard to the type of personal blogs, these results

match those found in other research. Herring et al. (2004),

in a study conducted in 2003 on a sample of 199 blogs, also

observed that most blogs (70%) were personal. Indeed,

according to this study, personal information is one of the

2 These are also called evangelists due to the major role played byemployees themselves, also known as brand ambassadors (Hannegan, 2004),regardless of their position in the organization.

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defining characteristics of blogs.

However, what is most striking in these results is the low

percentage of corporate blogs written by employees, given

the powerful communicative tool that they constitute for

organizations. Some companies have caught on to their

potential and encourage their staff to keep blogs. These

contain personal, subjective communication that is not

directly sent out by the company but by a third party who

gives their own opinions and the information is therefore

perceived as impartial and unbiased. However, the value of

this type of communication lies not only in its

impartiality but also in the personal information provided,

which gives a human face to the company and builds up a

positive community vision around it and its products (Lee

et al., 2006).

3.2. Content

Table 1 shows the main objectives of the blogs analyzed. As

can be seen, most seek to comment upon topical affairs in

public relations profession, as well as to voice personal

opinions on these issues. Given that the blogs analyzed are

largely personal, interest in the author’s contributions is

understandable. Conversely, the low percentage of weblogs

that aim to debate issues surrounding public relations

theory is surprising.

Table 1. Objectives of analyzed blogs

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Blog’s objectives N %

Give personal opinions 54 80.6

Comment on current affairs 62 92.6

Inform about personal life 26 38.8

Inform about

products/services34 50.7

Inform about an

organization 28 41.8

Theory development 19 28.3

If we look at the contents we find that 88.1% of the blogs

analyzed contain comments on various aspects of public

relations and 85.1% on other communicative affairs.

Commentaries on blogs and communication in the blogosphere

are also considerable (74.6%), albeit in a lower

proportion. It is worth highlighting that comments on

aspects of the author’s personal life, such as trips,

hobbies, family and professional achievements, arise in

50.7% of the blogs. This reveals that weblogs are

communicative tools with a strong personal emphasis in all

areas discussed.

Overall, this data suggests that blogs belonging to an

organization are more serious and formal, in both their

content and the blog posts. Moreover, they fundamentally

provide information on their own company and publicize its

website. This contrasts with personal blogs where the tone

can range from the strictly formal to the colloquial.

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The results also reveal differences in the contents of

professional and non-professional public relations blogs.

The former explore issues in public relations and

communication in general, as well as the blogosphere and

the Internet. However, the blogs written by non-

professionals provide opinions on advertising, television

and other more informative aspects. These do not contain

experiences but opinions and perception of the field.

Broadly speaking, there is no advertising on blogs.

Although 41.8% of the sample includes banners, these are

not advertising of the blog but traditional adverts that

have been added to blog posts to be highlighted, displayed

or commented on from a marketing communications

perspective. Therefore, they constitute advertising

integrated into the user comments, with a high degree of

subjectivity.

Lastly, Table 2 shows the percentages of the main issues

tackled in the blog posts on the weblogs analyzed. As is

evident, 95.5% of the blogs discuss the blogosphere in

their comments. These concern the importance of this new

communicative tool, its characteristics and its use in

public relations. The next most important are topics on

Internet communication, in addition to the theory and

practice of public relations, albeit from more of a

professional than an academic or research-based stance.

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Table 2. PR issues discussed in blog posts.

PR issues discussed N %

Profession and labor

market44 65.7

PR firms 44 65.7

Clients 26 38.8

PR theory and practice 50 74.6

Internet communication 57 85.1

Blogs 64 95.5

Books 43 64.2

Campaigns 43 64.2

3.3. Interactivity

As Jo and Kim (2003) pointed out, interactivity can play a

crucial role on the Internet, setting it apart from

traditional media. In consequence, “the intrinsic

interactivity of the Web can enhance the mutual

relationship and collaboration between the message sender

(the organization) and the receiver (the public)” (p. 202).

One of the main characteristics of blogs is their potential

for user interactivity – the option for users to write

their opinions openly or respond to other comments.

Kelleher and Miller (2006) have demonstrated that blogs are

perceived as more relational than websites. From a similar

standpoint, Hiebert (2004) recognizes that blogs foster

democracy because they restore dialogue and participative

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communication in the public sphere and preserve the role of

public relations by means of two-way communication.

Blogs have a more human voice and conversational air about

them that sets them apart from other online communicative

tools. The two primary defining differences of blogs are:

personal communication and the possibility of adding

comments. Furthermore, these features create positive

relational results amongst users: greater satisfaction and

trust, mutual control, and involvement (Kelleher and

Miller, 2006). So, by providing the opportunity to set up a

human conversation, blogs have become major tools for

online two-way public relations.

Nevertheless, only 73.1% of the sample analyzed in our

study enables external posts from registered users, whilst

4.5% allow them without having to register. So, although

this is a distinctive feature of blogs, 22.4% of them do

not admit external comments.

The ability to contact the author, however, is more

frequently used — 88.1% provide this option via e-mail.

This is largely through the Outlook program which

automatically opens when the author’s e-mail is clicked

upon.

However, interactivity – one of the fundamental

characteristics of this new means of communication – not

only refers to users being able to write and post comments

on the blog but is a far broader concept that embraces many

more resources. As Orihuela has stated (2006), for users

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blogs are a new way of actively searching for contents,

exploring and surfing information spaces. Furthermore,

blogs are multimedia. They contain a mélange of texts,

audio files, videos, graphics and photos. And all of these

interactive resources comprise a new communicative language

that breaks through the barriers of textual and audiovisual

communication.

Notwithstanding, the public relations blogs analyzed in

this study have, on the whole, yet to provide many of these

interactive resources. With regard to the potential of

podcasting, only 31.3% offer the possibility of listening

to or downloading music or audio files, while 34.3% have

videos. These are first and foremost from Youtube and are

in the main advertisements, announcements and lectures on

public relations.

Images are essential for arousing visitors’ curiosity in

blogs (Domínguez, 2006). Most of the blogs analyzed contain

photographs, although these are not used excessively. 43.3%

of the sample – almost half – either does not display any

photos at all or only contains one or two. Thus, the visual

side of blogs is far less developed than websites. Blogs

predominantly contain comments and information rather than

images.

Broadly speaking, the photos are personal and show the blog

author or his/her family, trips and friends. It is also

possible to find photos of recommended books and a

spattering that have no direct link to public relations.

These are usually from adverts or means of communication

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and are found on the posts left by the blog’s users.

Surveys only appear in 11.9% of the blogs analyzed. These

tend not to be polls set up on the blog in order to

ascertain its users’ opinions but come from public

relations studies conducted by companies or bodies other

than the blog author.

An option to subscribe in order to use some type of

interactive resource or to access information or

participate actively by leaving a blog post is available in

64.2% of the blogs analyzed.

Lastly, e-commerce is a resource by which products and

services can be distributed, bought and sold over the

Internet. In the sample analyzed, 83.5% of the blogs do not

offer this service to their users; those which do sell

products made by the author. These include digital sales

services, public relations consultancy and materials, the

overwhelming majority of which are books.

3.4. Usability

Hallahan (2001) has examined the nature and value of the

elements of an effective website based on usability

principles. Usability refers to how well users can take

advantage of that functionality. A series of items show us

the extent to which a blog is structured and usable so that

it is easier for users to browse and use it. One of these

is the search engine. The results reveal that 68.6% of the

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sample analyzed has internal search engines, while 70.1%

contains search engines for other blogs.

Other useful features are archives (89.6%), usually ordered

and shown chronologically, and most recent posts (85.1%),

which make it easier to consult the blog. The list of most

recent blog posts is usually found in the lower central

frame of the blog and tends to contain the most current

comments. Archives, however, are largely situated in the

right or left frame of the blog.

Trackbacks, which register the links that users have

followed to other websites, are less widely used — a mere

31.3% of the blogs analyzed. Moreover, hardly any of the

blogs that do offer this possibility have a trackback in

their comments. This suggests that this powerful tool for

interaction between blogs is rarely implanted and,

therefore, underused. Trackbacks enable two or more

comments between different blogs to be linked up so that

they are interrelated. On the whole, this link is located

at the foot of the blog post, next to the comments.

3.5. Connectivity

As is evident from Table 2, the weblogs analyzed are

largely linked to other public relations blogs with

comparable characteristics and objectives that may be of

interest to users. Blogrolls are lists of links to other

blogs that the author reads or recommends. This is another

distinctive feature of the medium that boosts communities

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by creating crossed links between blogs (Orihuela, 2006).

Secondly, the results show that the blogs are linked to

websites of interest which also concern public relations

and organizational communication. So, overall, the blogs

are efficiently linked up since all linking possibilities

with other online media are found in over half of the blogs

(table 3), except the links to marketing websites. This

indicates that the structural vision of public relations is

far stronger than the instrumental perspective.

Table 3. Blogs links.

Links to N %

Blogrolls to other PR

blogs 64 95.5

Blogrolls to other

blogs49 73.1

To comments on other

blogs38 56.7

To websites of interest 54 80.6

To PR company websites 36 53.7

To marketing company

websites 25 37.3

4. Analysis and correlation of variables

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Comparing the degree of development and treatment of the

various analysis variables in the sample blogs, Table 4

reveals that broadly speaking the blogs tend to be highly

usable and are linked to other websites. However, they are

not as interactive.

Table 4. Descriptive statistics of analyzed variables

Variables Minimum Maximum Mean Standarddeviation

Variance

Linked 2 6 3.95 1.396 1.948

Miscellaneous

1 8 5.54 1.938 3.755

Interactiv

ity0 7 4.07 1.694 2.870

Usability 1 5 3.54 1.027 1.055

These results are comparable to those found in a study on

websites (Fernández Cavia & Huertas, 2006), in which the

variables of usability and interactivity were also

analyzed. This demonstrated that the sites analyzed had

better structure, design and usability than interactivity.

Websites are more usable and structured than interactive.

And the same can be said of blogs. Therefore, in general,

there is a squandered potential in interactive resources,

which are precisely what characterize and set apart online

communication.

Weblogs should make fuller use of the possibilities for

interactivity afforded by the medium since this is one of

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its distinctive characteristics. Furthermore, a study by Du

and Wagner (2006) showed that the most successful blogs –

those pulling in millions of visitors – are those that

manage to give their readers greater worth, both through

the manner in which the content is presented and organized,

and through the social interaction resources on offer to

users. Hence, the variables of usability and interactivity

are vital to blog efficacy. As has been shown, the latter

has still some development to undergo.

If we relate the analysis variables to each other it is

possible to observe that they appear to have no

correlation. As such, personal blogs are neither more

usable, more interactive nor more connected than corporate

blogs. And vice versa. Likewise, the most usable blogs are

neither the most interactive nor the most connected. This

pattern is repeated in all of the variables. However, there

is some correlation between concrete variables and items

analyzed in the study, which sheds light on the

characteristics and functionality of the public relations

blogs in the study.

Firstly, the authorship variable shows an absolute (r=-1.00)

and significant (p<=0.000) negative correlation with the

treatment of issues regarding advertising campaigns and

public relations. This implies that all of the corporate

blogs analyzed display and discuss their campaigns.

Secondly, with regard to blog objectives, those that aim to

give information about the author’s personal life correlate

totally (r=1.00) and significantly (p<=0.000) with issues

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dealt with around personal life. Logically, this type of

blog includes information from the author concerning:

hobbies, recent trips, professional and personal

highlights, and so forth.

Similarly, blogs that aim to provide information about

products or services correlate widely (r=0.72) and

significantly (p<=0.006) with blogs that have more videos

and interactive resources (r=0.57) (p<=0.002). So, as can

be seen, blogs with promotional objectives are more likely

to use interactive resources and videos to display their

products and services in such a way that is more attractive

to users.

Conversely, blogs whose purpose is to report on an

organization correlate negatively with the possibility for

external comments from users (r= -0.74) (p<=0.007) and with

the option of contacting the author (r= -1.00) (p<=0.008).

Astonishingly, corporate blogs – which have an organization

as a rhetorical subject in the public space behind their

author – are not taking advantage of what this new medium

can afford as a key tool in relationships management.

As has been demonstrated in previous studies (Cass et al.,

2005; Kelleher & Miller, 2006; Lee et al., 2006), the

capacity to facilitate conversation with audiences and for

these to make their own comments has a considerable and a

positive impact on users’ perception of the organization.

For Lee et al. (2006), companies must realize that setting up

open dialogue with consumers is the best way to forge good

relations with them, based on familiarity and credibility.

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Additionally, they believe that this is the prime benefit

of corporate blogs – their capacity for dialogue. Cass et al

(2005) add that blogs which foster participation from

consumers and take on board their comments not only build

good relations but achieve more sales and business since

ascertaining consumer needs and encouraging them to give

ideas and suggestions leads to better sales figures.

However, the results of our study show that many firms

still have misgivings about giving users or customers total

freedom to make unrestricted comments. Therefore, public

relations firms are actually underutilizing a major value

in excellent public relations – dialogue (Kent & Taylor,

1998).

If we look at interactive resources, the results show a

high correlation (r=0.62) (p<=0.008) between photos and

videos and between photos and links to other websites

(r=0.69) (p<=0.007). Such results suggest that the blogs

that contain the most photographic images are also the ones

with the most videos and, therefore, focus on the treatment

of images and multimedia resources. These are also the

blogs that have the most links to other websites and are

the most connected.

There is a high (r=0.90) and significant (p<=0.006)

correlation between videos and the sale of products and

services and a strong correlation (r=0.86) (p<=0.000)

between videos and the option to subscribe. This tells us

that the blogs that sell products and services are those

that include the most videos. So, as has been demonstrated

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previously, videos can be good promotional tools that make

online products and services sales more tangible.

Similarly, there is an absolute (r=1.00) and significant

(p<=0.003) correlation between products sales and the

option to subscribe. This reveals that all blogs on which

products and services are sold require buyers to subscribe.

There is also a high (r=0.60) and significant (p<=0.003)

correlation between interactive resources and the

subscription option. This means that the blogs with most

interactive resources are also those that most use the user

subscription option. These results are logical in that such

interaction makes it possible to ascertain data on users as

well as their needs and opinions.

Finally, there is also a moderate-high correlation (r=0.55)

(p<=0.008) between more linked up blogs and those that deal

with issues in the professional and the labor market; and a

high correlation (r=0.79) (p<=0.000) between the most

linked up blogs and those about issues on public relations

firms. All of this means that the blogs that are most

interested in the public relations profession and industry

are also the ones that are best connected to other websites

and related blogs.

5. Conclusions

This study shows that public relations blogs have been

around for such a short time that some of their resources

and capacities are still underutilized. The lack of

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development in interactive resources is proof of this. For

instance, the most important of these, which is a defining

characteristic of blogs furthermore, is the possibility for

users to write and add comments. Many blogs still do not

enable this.

It is striking that public relations firms’ blogs – the

blogs analyzed in this study –should be less accepting of

users’ free opinions than personal blogs. Previous studies

have shown that this resource is an important communicative

technique in public relations that enables two-way

communication between organizations and their audiences;

and yet, the company blogs in this sector are those that

use it least.

Moreover, in general interactivity is poorly developed in

the blogs analyzed. Interactive resources are scant in

terms of the services they could offer, such as: user

polls, video downloads, chats and online publications. It

is therefore possible to say that the interactive potential

to involve, interest and entertain users is being wasted.

On another note, one of the foremost characteristics of

this new medium, which is also observed in the sample

analyzed, is the subjective nature of the blog posts. The

authors of the blogs analyzed take the most newsworthy

events to give their opinions on issues related to

marketing communication and public relations. Their primary

objectives are: on the one hand, to keep public relations

professionals abreast of current affairs, latest happenings

in the sector, job offers, and so forth; and on the other,

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to create a space for debate and dialogue between these

professionals.

With regard to the most frequently occurring issues, it is

interesting to note that these are rarely educational

topics such as conferences, theories or recent research. As

such it is possible to observe a widening gap between the

professional world of public relations and academic

research, despite increasing research into public relations

and communicational organization in recent years. In their

study on the role of theory development in public relations

scholarship, Sallot et al. (2003) categorized the articles

published in main public relations academic journals

(Public Relations Review, Public Relations Research Annual, and

Journal of Public Relations Research) in three categorical and 38

sub-categorical variables. The three categorical variables

were: introspective, practice or application of public

relations, and theory development in public relations.

According to this categorization, based on Ferguson’s

(1984) research about the status of theory building by

public relations scholar, used in other major content

analysis research of public relations body of knowledge

(Molleda & Laskin, 2005; Xifra & Castillo, 2006), the data

collected suggest that blogs analyzed are basically related

to the practice or application of public relations and are also

introspective.

In short, we can see that in the rapid development of blogs

there are still two areas that must be boosted. Firstly,

interactive resources in general should be further

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developed on blogs, and particularly their capacity to

allow more external comments from users. Secondly, the

professional public relations sector, and specifically some

firms in that sector, should lead the field in making the

most of the communicative resources that blogs encompass

and in fully developing their potential as a knowledge

management tool in the practice of excellent public

relations.

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