Yes, the title suggests professional suicide. But it’s true. According to the PRSA, PR pros aren’t reading blogs.

The study, conducted by Kent State University and BurrellesLuce, states that 72 percent of PR pros don’t have a sytem for monitoring blogs. Only 19 percent monitor proactively, and only 18.5 percent work for organizations that use blogs for communications with stakeholders.

Personally, I’m stunned. I find this to be a sad commentary about our business, a demonstration that we really don’t understand communications and how quickly it is evolving. The inability to effectively work within social networks will create capability shortfalls for PR firms throughout the country. In fact, if I were conducting an agency search, the inability to successfully navigate blogs and social networks would be a show stopper.

Agencies that are using blogs according to the study, find unique uses for the technology:

• 63.2 percent use them to enhance branding efforts
• 57.1 percent to facilitate two-way communication with key stakeholder groups
• 46 percent to improve trust between those groups and the organization

One must wonder when it will be too late for some firms to get on board with this trend. 2008? 2009? Will it be like the office worker who refused to give up his typewriter? Change is scary, but sometimes it’s inevitable. At this point you can’t say blogging’s even cutting edge. It’s time to get on board before it’s too late.