Today, successful public relations agencies support the skeletons of newsrooms, help the one-man news team to function, feed the mouths of mainstream and trade media, act as the customer service and brand ambassador, organize community outreach, monitor banter, manage social media and so much more.
These services go way beyond those of a simple marketing or advertising campaign. Today, in order to develop a brand effectively, you’ve got to have a focus on strategy, message delivery and emerging trends. Every person online now thinks that he/she is a publisher, and their works, no matter how amateur or professional, are forever cemented into IP history. What is written today remains accessible at any moment via a few taps into a search engine, a millisecond and a few key words.
The rise of free, global publishing (for example Twitter and Facebook) is challenging the established mass communication model. What would you do if you had to rely on only newspapers, radio and television for your news? And what about if you could only rely on trade publications for industry news? Today’s information-hungry society would riot. People would scream: “it’s my news, and I need it now!”
However, the goal is not merely to facilitate instant access or get a short mention in the local daily. Rather the 21stcentury PR challenge is to insert thought leadership and problem-solution content into news articles on related industry topics. By taking advantage of online services and by optimizing strategic tactics to create credibility and modestly convey client ability, public relations provides an affordable and effective avenue to identify, educate and engage with prospective and existing customer bases. It’s something that we’ve carefully thought about for one of our new clients throughout 2012, with great success.
Communication between brands and consumers has evolved into a two-way model. Commercials, billboards and magazine advertisement placements may be the face of a corporation and serve as an initial handshake, but the brand’s voice and dynamic digital content actually starts the conversation and builds the relationship in the first instance.
Society has developed immunity to commercial messaging after years of visual and mental overload. PR works because it tells stories, paints pictures and speaks to the individual through reliable, trusted third-party channels. That’s why we’ve started to inergrate user testimonials into client’s advertisement artwork.
In a world where advertising propaganda lines every street, the messages created by public relations professionals actually substantiate the content you engage with, providing useful, relevant information and conveying more brand identity than any catchy one-liner or logo ever will.
PR has established itself as an unparalleled business strategy for establishing credibility, maintaining the strength of a brand and engaging directly with audiences. The question is, now that the field is evolving alongside society’s changing needs, are you prepared to embrace the transformation?
