A recent article in PR Week (subscription may be required) touted the importance of “mixternal communications.” This means considering the fact that internal audiences can see external communications, and vice verse, so teams should work together.
I agree with that concept, but I don’t think it is really anything new. This verifies several long-held public relations theories and concepts:
- Stakeholder theory–this is the idea that PR pros need to maintain two-way communications with all publics, sometimes managing competing interests, demands and perspectives.
- Discourse ethics–which means allowing ‘control mutuality’ in communications or that any public can initiate communication and not remain a passive audience. It also implies honest and consistent messaging, not saying different things to different publics for organizational advantage.
- Integrated communications–many people know of integrated marketing communications (IMC), but I stress to my PR management students that IC is a better and broader concept. IMC usually stresses integrating various tactics (and in the process unfortunately diminishes “PR” as earned media only) for the purpose of marketing to customers. IC by comparison stresses and integration not of tactics but of publics and objectives.
“Mixternal” is a fun and fancy word someone just thought of, but the truth is many savvy PR pros and Chief Communication Officers (CCOs) have of necessity been mixing and coordinating internal and external communications all along. The hardest part may be convincing others in the C-Suite that this is the best view of what public relations is, and the organizational structure and practice should follow.
