Does the PR industry need to learn new skills in the digital world to survive? Or are the core skills required already there?
During the recent global downturn, there’s been a lot of debate about the slow death of the newspaper industry as we know it, as digital access has turned everything on its head, leading to more freesheets, interactive iPad subscriptions and non-print papers like The Daily. What’s interesting about all this is that comparatively few have speculated about the death of the public relations (PR) industry as a result. This is ironic when you consider that most PRs probably spend about 75% of their time talking to the media. While the newspaper industry is trying to reinvent itself, the possibilities, opportunities and challenges offered by digital and social media are fundamentally changing the practice of communications. New skills are needed to thrive in this environment, but as a profession, we are pre-conditioned to learn new skills.
Many Voices, One Message new research from EConsultancy, commissioned by Bite Communications, recognizes that ‘communications is changing profoundly’, but also concludes that to address current and future challenges public relations practitioners will have to rely on using ‘the same skills they’ve honed since the discipline took shape.’
The nature of the digital world is changing the nature of storytelling. While PR has always been about creating compelling content, the Many Voices One Message research identified that the world is ‘shifting from the campaign model to an “always on” set of conversations and content interactions.’ Increasingly, our challenge is to link stories, ideas or brand concepts across multiple channels; while recognizing that we can no longer own the stories forever. Indeed, the challenge and opportunity is to create and spread ideas and concepts that are strong enough to be adopted by the target audiences across multiple media and be spread virally.
Yes, we will have to learn new skills to get the most out of digital, but it has always been so. First we mastered the telephone, the fax machine (how antiquated), then email and the web, now IM and understanding how to create a Facebook page or engage with Twitter. In the past we learnt simple design skills to create corporate brochures, or learnt the basics of quantitative analysis to develop research surveys. Our job is to know enough about everything required to enable more effective communication. Today that means understanding Search Engine Optimization, web analytics and how to create multi-media content. It means being aware of tools like Tweetdeck or Backtype to monitor online audience sentiment.
But what’s so exciting about the digital and social media revolution is the potential for putting content-led communications centre-stage. Of course public relations has never been all about media relations; at the end of the day it’s about connecting with an audience and now the audience(s) can talk back.
One way communications is dead – social media is bringing back the art of conversation (even in 140 character snippets). The digital environment increasingly enables audiences to communicate directly with organizations and tell them (and the rest of the world) what they think about them and their brands. This can be confronting when it happens in real time, rather than in a controlled focus group environment. Social media places the emphasis on reputation, authority, emotion and values – a natural environment for the PR practitioner to thrive.
As professional communicators, PR people have to be early adopters and effective ‘translators’ in helping organizations embrace new technology and the competitive opportunities it offers. We should be constantly pushing the boundaries of how people communicate and embracing new ways to tell stories. Effective public relations will always be about listening, influence, relationship building, having a clear point of view and telling a good story – core PR skills. There may be a digital revolution taking place, but from a PR skills perspective it is only an evolution and that brings great opportunities for the PR industry.