A quote from Tim Hughes, Executive Chairman of the Photon Group, in the Australian Financial Review caught my eye today.
He said, “One-way forms of communication using TV, radio and newspapers will always have their place, but in this new consumer-empowered world, they are much less relevant. Communications is now two-way.”
Funny thing is if you are a PR person, communications has always been two-way.
Far too long ago I recall my first year PR lecturer defining PR as “the two way communication between an organisation and its publics.”
The difference now is that online and social media has caught the attention of traditional marketers and advertising executives and forced them to re-define their business according to a two-way model.
Conversely, I was chatting to one of our PR consultants the other day after he attended a seminar on the use of online and social media in the IT industry, and he said “it’s all pretty common sense really.”
And “new media” (I use the phrase loosely) is common sense if you are trained as a communicator, not just a marketer.
And it is common sense if you work for a consultancy that ensures you are trained on the nuances of “new media” such has how to engage with the blogging community versus the traditional media community.
PR theory is all about listening, participating, creating two-way flows of information, feedback loops, research, refining messages and refining company strategies with the ultimate goal of achieving a sustainable business outcome.
Sounds remarkably like the theory of how to engage with social media ie participate, and you are half way there.
I applaud Photon for the establishment of Population what it claims is “Australia’s first dedicated online social media and marketing company”.
I would argue, however, that while having a business dedicated to these mediums may be a smart move for a large corporation with multiple agencies in its stable, every communications business should have these skills in-house rather than in a stand-alone specialist business.
I will go even further. Anyone in a communications advisory role, particularly PR consultants, needs work with “new media” as part of their day-to-day work.
You cannot devise a PR plan for a client that covers direct communications (eg speeches, events and email marketing), traditional media (eg editorial written by independent thinking journalists) and then say, “but let’s get our specialist new media agency to advise on what we will do with blogs, online forums and social networking sites”.
Our industry moves too fast for this.
Clients want a well-rounded consultant that can devise a holistic solution that spans all methods of communication – face-to-face, direct, traditional media, influencers (government, regulators, analysts, bloggers, forums) and social networks.
That’s why n2n consultants survey our client’s customers to assess what blogs, forums and social media sites they value and for what types of information (and the results from the latest research are not what you would expect – I’ll explain more on that later).
That’s why n2n consultants monitor blogs, YouTube and other sites for all our clients (just as we monitor traditional media).
That’s why n2n consultants participate, or work with our clients to ensure they participate, in relevant forums.
It’s just a logical extension of what we do every day.
