No... I'm not referring to personal beliefs. I'm talking about the need for communicators to become more media agnostic.

This week, Forrester Research released the results of a new survey in which the research group asked agencies and their clients how well they'd rate solutions marketing firms currently bring to the table.

The results leave some room for improvement. Only about one in five clients would recommend their lead agency's services to others. And three out of four said they had no good way to measure return on investment of the marketing activities executed by agency partners.

While the survey focused primarily on one category of marketing services firms, the implications apply to public relations, too.

First, we need to continue innovating and offer more creative solutions to our client partners across information sources. Not just traditional media initiatives. Not only social media strategies. Not just experiential initiatives like mobile marketing programs. But a smart, appropriate mix of media channels and tactics that resonate with our clients' key constituents.

In short, we need to become more media agnostic.

Second, we need to keep demonstrating value -- tied to business objectives -- for everything that we do. Firms which can quantify the impact of their work over time will always come out on top, and will remain trusted partners for clients who rely on them for strategic support and execution.

The necessary changes inside marketing services firms aren't coming as quickly as some would hope, but PR as a whole has fared slightly better than some other marketing disciplines. Many of us in the public relations world were, for example, early embracers of social media and its opportunities for stimulating dialogue and shaping opinions of influencers. Firms with a heritage of working primarily in paid media have had a harder time adapting to the shifting media landscape and slower to offer a wider variety of solutions. (There are, of course, exceptions to this.)

But there's still room for improvement within the public relations field. At GolinHarris, we've spent a lot of time examining changes in the way individuals consume information and have altered the structure of our teams to help adapt. For example, the GH Dialogue integrated media practice combines traditional media relations, digital and social media, and experiential marketing into a single cohesive, media agnostic group. We've broken down the traditional agency silos typically based on media channels, and are working collaboratively every day to ensure our account staffers can successfully navigate a complex media environment.

These changes aren't coming easily for the industry, as they require major cultural shifts in established organizations. And they won't happen overnight -- but we're making headway.

Most clients still come to PR firms first for media relations support, but that's changing quickly. More and more demand integrated media strategies that combine the best of mainstream, digital and experiential information sources. The latest Forrester survey results should serve as a wake up call to anyone who believes it's business as usual.

If clients don't get innovative solutions beyond mainstream media from their advertising or PR firms, they'll go elsewhere, taking traditional media work with them, too. And we'll have nobody to blame but ourselves.

I, for one, think public relations is up for the challenge and can take the lead role becoming our clients' most trusted integrated marketing counselors.