The title of this blog is, I admit, hardly an original play
on Mr Spock’s supposed reply to Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series - ‘It’s life,
Jim, but not as we know it’. But, stay with me, it has
a higher purpose. Although in one episode, Spock does refer to ‘no life as we
know it’, the version now taken as characteristic of the Vulcan comes instead
from being the hook in a 1987 novelty song, ‘Star Trekkin’’, sung by The Firm.
History is written by the victors, Churchill is reported to
have said, and given the wide use of this misquoted phrase you might think that this is
indicative of the power of communication to change perceived reality. You might even see it as just great public relations
by the music industry. But that would assume you understood what is PR.
But I’ve spent much of my professional life, it seems,
trying to explain to businesses and individuals exactly that. This task has not got any easier in recent
years as the components of an already fragmented discipline have increased and
changed relatively in value. But it has occurred to me that if I can’t explain succinctly
what I spend a lot of my time doing what chance does anybody else have of
understanding it?
We’re all publishers
nowSo here goes. Some background. Traditionally, public relations has been confused with media relations - mass `earned` communication through the press. It was always more than that, but the arrival and rapid growth of digital channels and social media has meant we have all the potential to become publishers. And in being so take advantage of `owned` and `paid for` communications opportunities inherent in company websites and blogs or Google searches and Facebook and LinkedIn sponsorships.
Conversely, through the same channels, as individuals we all
now expect to be able to talk to companies, organisations and brands directly.
More than that, we expect to be heard and responded to where, when and in a way
that we like.
Like a hydra with
Tourette’s
Yet in the digital age too many companies are communicating, it appears, for the sake of it - just making noise, unsure who they’re talking to, or why. Like a hydra with Tourette’s, they spew words
and images across media with a multitude of different voices and tones. This is a big,
expensive mistake. The age of machine-gun messaging is well and truly over. People
want to be engaged with on their terms - spoken to, not shouted at.
Thus the art of communication is becoming ever more
intimate. The idea of business-to-business and business-to-consumer are becoming arcane
as marketing becomes person-to-person.
Curiously, though, it’s often large organisations, and particularly the
big brands, that know the most about us.
Usually courtesy of loyalty cards and tools that track what we say about
ourselves online every day that provide the big data and analytics that should
enable us to be targeted very precisely.
I say should because it’s what’s done with that data to
realise its value that PR is now all about. PR is no longer just about getting
journalist, analyst or blogger buy-in to tacitly endorse a product or position
in the hope that it will better influence a purchasing decision than by spending
money advertising the virtues of a product
or service.
Content and multiple
channel management
Communicating effectively is now all about content and multiple
channel management. It involves
redefining relationships between companies and customers and providing the latter
with information that is useful and pertinent in a way that they want to
consume. In an industry ever in search
of new buzzwords this approach has become known as `content marketing`.
Before anyone thinks I may have just cracked a new definition
of, and term for, PR, I’d like to point out that there is yet no accepted definition
of what is `content marketing`. But, to
my mind, the elevator pitch is that it is the engine of an integrated strategy
to communicate consistently across all platforms so delivering clarity, reinforcing
leadership and building that most valuable of entrepreneurial and corporate
assets - trust.
Spin redundant
So far so good. But effective
marketing has long since ceased to be based on a shiny monologue - power has
passed to the consumer who needs to buy into the totality of a corporate
offering in order to start listening, let alone become an advocate. Its success nowadays is predicated on an acceptably ethical and transparent business
approach. This necessitates appropriate values
and behaviours existing and demonstrated throughout the organisation and makes
the idea of `spin` redundant.
Thus, these days, business, marketing and PR strategy have
to be closely aligned. Communication must
be at the core. The role of PR being to manage paid, earned and owned media
across multiple platforms, deciding the right `voice` and the right content with which to
engage with each audience – down to an individual customer. And that, as football managers are prone to
say, is a big ask.
The idea of the central role of content management, then, is
central to PR going forward – and, while it doesn’t offer a new definition of
what PR is, it goes a long way to suggest its function both now and in the
future.
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