You create editorial outreach plans, know your media and can rattle off their phone numbers like those multiplication tables. Headlines and story ideas pop up in your head with no resistance. You could write press releases in your sleep, preempt the next question the journalist will ask and in a crisis, with a sixth sense, predict whats going to be in the papers the next day.
You probably fit all of this into a single days work with 007 flourish. Thats great! However, the news is, all this is not enough anymore. The world has moved on and so must todays PR and corporate communications professionals. Traditionally,
public relations campaigns largely occupy the space of planning and strategising how to get in or stay out of print and television media. Dealing with this powerful influencer and managing a programme of news creation has been the norm.
Not anymore. New media has made itself felt and suddenly its almost like facing an army of a rapidly replicating Agent Smith in Matrix fashion. As the world ties itself closer and closer around us, conversations about the brands/companies we work with swirl around thicker and thicker, spreading out in a matter of minutes. So it becomes important to evaluate how we will keep ourselves relevant, moving forward.
Its going to need a shift in the very way we approach our profession. Its going to mean a pushing of limits on campaigns we execute and how we want to execute them. It will demand that we, therefore, master not just the message but also the exploding variety of media that presents itself to us at the click of a button.
Writing that press release is pass if we cant take that content and mould it into a multitude of different expressions. Not only do we have to become active participants in this new world but also become the people who are willing to delve deeper, study it, experiment with it. Well need to teach ourselves new skills that go beyond pitching and writing feel-good essays of brands and companies.
As short form content gathers speed and it becomes a two-way traffic well need to learn how to creatively respond and roll it out ourselves in audio and video formats, 140 characters and in real time. In fact, the media itself is finding new ways to gather its content and shape its editorial basis the sentiment in this parallel world. The new-age PR professional needs to be ahead of the curve, listening and assessing new ways of keeping his brand relevant and regarded.
Already our audiences are leaving us behind in this new world and while we try and keep pace with their momentum its important we push the brands and companies we work with to join the multi-channel conversations. But how will we do that if we dont move on ourselves?
