PR’s digital makeover means it’s more crucial than ever

For a while now PR has moved steadily towards securing a seat on the board. The fact that reputational damage is a huge business risk means that the role of PR in the organisation is now more critical than ever before. The PR industry will continue to play a key role not only in the marketing mix but as custodians of their client’s reputation. However, the industry still has a lot of work to do on the perception and value of public relations.

The distortion lies in PR people who position themselves as specialists but in fact fall short in industry knowledge. The public, CEOs, financial and marketing managers have a different perception of what we do and therefore a misperception of our true value. To illustrate this, some clients still believe that PR is event management. This is merely a PR tactic and we need to continue challenging these types of skewed perceptions through educating the market about the true value of public relations.

PR professionals need to embrace all communications channels as the technology and consumer landscape evolves. We need to embrace digital and social media in all our communications strategies, for ourselves and our clients. Social media is no longer new media but something that is a part of what we do. In essence social media is another channel — a way of reaching, communicating and engaging with stakeholders. Those that say traditional PR is becoming extinct do not properly understand the role and value of PR.

In fact, now more than ever, communications professionals are required to advise and guide the organisation on building positive relationships and protecting their reputation with all their stakeholders, especially with the plethora of communication channels available.

It is becoming even harder for companies to reach their stakeholders due to a multitude of different media. People are consuming media differently and with the rise of social media platforms, companies are finding it even harder to identify which medium is the most effective in reaching their stakeholders.

The key role for PR firms, today and in the future, is to create a digital communications and reputation management strategy within its existing offering to clients. As crafters of the brand and company messages, as well as custodians of a brand’s reputation, PR companies must take the lead in this arena.

There is also a huge opportunity to provide the publishing industry with content – something that is sorely lacking due to declining budgets and resources. Content driven campaigns are not only through the written word but also pictorial, video or audio. We as an industry need to embrace visual and multimedia communications in our arsenal of talents to provide communication in a format that goes beyond the written word.

We need to continue educating clients on the value of public relations, gain their understanding of the tools/channels used and why what we recommend will work, why certain channels won’t work etc. In the social media world it is key for us as an industry to position the value of these channels where they are most appropriate – not recommend a one size fits all approach.

The PR professional of the future needs to be multi-talented and multi-skilled in order to truly provide an advisory role to their clients. This means understanding business, strategy and reputation management. It also means understanding digital channels, social media and the future of publishing. It means being able to think beyond tactical implementation and have an understanding of what is best for the business and brands to meet required goals.