Making sense of modern public relations
There’s never been such an exciting time to work in public relations as we shift to direct engagement with publics thanks to the internet. I’m calling peak pain for public relations.
We’re still working with press releases and traditional media in the same way that I began my career in the early nineties.
But practice is broadening to include new forms of media including influencer relations, social media, community engagement and messaging.
Automation and artificial intelligence will be next.
The internet has disintermediated every business that it has touched since the launch of consumer and mobile broadband in the noughties.
Public relations is no different. It has forced the organisations that we serve to listen to their publics and engage in conversation unlike ever before. Shouting doesn't work anymore.
Grunig suggested that excellence in public relations is achieved when the relationship between an organisation and a stakeholder is symmetrical, meaning that both organisation and stakeholder has equal voice.
Today any difference between the expectation that publics have of organisations, and the reality, will quickly become a conversation on social media and amplified by mainstream media.
My day job at Ketchum is helping organisations get to grips with media change, and engage with their publics via new forms of media.
Here’s my take on the current media landscape for public relations practitioners.
Media change
25 years ago media cycles were fixed and media segmentation was straightforward.
Today the only deadline is now, content is filed direct to the internet, and media planning is a discipline in its own right.
Consumers find their own media via Google and social media newsfeeds. It includes a mix of earned, owned and paid media.
Media relations
I used to track the falling circulation figures for the UK broadsheet and tabloid media.
I gave up when it became clear that mainstream media would continue to have huge authority at least during my lifetime.
New forms of media have supplemented and become a channel for old. Modern relations practitioners must be able to work across all forms of media, and paid and earned.
Media relations is making way for influencer relations. Journalists in almost every category have been augmented by so-called influencers that have built their own networks on reputation.
Influencer relations
Influencers rival traditional media in almost every category apart from mainstream news as a powerful intermediary for engaging with publics.
Many accept pitches, and use their networks as means of raising their profile, showcasing their wares and creating business.
This is my motivation for blogging but it doesn’t suit everyone. Increasingly influencers demand a fee for working with an organisation or brand.
It puts public relations on a collision course with marketing disciplines.
Organisations as influencers and media
Organisations themselves are become influencers by creating their own media such as apps, blogs and websites. They’re engaging directly with internal and external stakeholders.
Typically content is pushed via these new channels, with limited means for engagement beyond rudimentary transactions.
You’ll experience this form of media whenever you use a travel app or website by companies such as British Airways or Virgin Trains.
Community management
Smart organisations recognise the potential of communities as a means of direct engagement with their publics.
This is arguably the most powerful form of media for both internal and external communications.
It’s an abused and overused phrase as it implies that there is a higher purpose that seeks to build social capital.
The majority of online communities are used as a means of content marketing, or rudimentary customer service.
The potential for community engagement lies in organisations engaging with publics around every aspect of organisational communication from internal communication to recruitment; and from product development to customer service.
Messaging
Messaging is the final area of media change. It’s rudimentary for now but shows huge potential and may ultimately replace call centres.
Customer service instant messenger channels started to appear on retail websites at the end of the last decade. Organisations spotted the opportunity for direct conversations via apps such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
The next opportunity lies in automation, enabling organisational information to be handled by a bot. Any form of structured data can already be delivered self-service by a bot.
I’m looking forward to joining practitioners at a CIPR Best Practice Conference at the University of Cambridge on Tuesday 23 May to explore some of these themes.
