“The Future of PR”
Neville Hobson, ABC
@jangles
October 5, 2012

http://www.nevillehobson.com http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/

What is Public Relations?
• Public relations is about reputation - the
result of what you do, what you say and what
others say about you
- Its aim is earning understanding and support and
influencing opinion and behaviour
- To establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organisation and its
publics
http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/careers-cpd/careers-pr/what-pr

Meet the Smart Connected Consumer
 She doesn’t trust “corporate-
speak” or “marketing-speak”
 She fast-forwards her DVR
through the interruptions (aka ads)
 He pulls content that interests
him, when he wants it
 He creates and shares his own
content, original and mashups
 She embraces word of mouth via
social networks
 She is connected wherever and
whenever she wishes
 He brings his behaviours - and
expectations - to the workplace
Picture: http://www.heartcorewomen.com/women-social-media/

http://edudemic.com/2012/09/swedens-newest-school-system-has-no-classrooms/

http://googlemobileads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/navigating-new-multi-screen-world.html

http://ongig.com/jobs/Salesforce.com/Community-Manager-Salesforce.com-Financial-Distric

Anyone with an opinion
and an internet connection
can influence someone else
about the things you care
about, eg, your reputation.

Everything Revolves Around

http://newsroom.fb.com/News/One-Billion-People-on-Facebook-1c9.aspx

More Web Less Talk
http://gigaom.com/mobile/as-mobile-data-zooms-voice-sms-revenues-slow/

It’s now possible to look at a smartphone and unlock it via facial
recognition, and then talk to it to ask it to find the nearest bank ATM.
However, at the same time, we see that the technology is not quite there
yet. We might have to remove our glasses for the facial recognition to
work, our smartphones don’t always understand us when we speak, and
the location-sensing technology sometimes has trouble finding us.
- Gartner Hype Cyclee on Emerging Technologies, July 2012
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2124315

Hurdles and Barriers
“Too much data is causing problems, and the inability to link
that data to other sources (specifically revenue figures and
brand tracking).”
“Perceived scope and scale of change needed, lack of
willingness to do it, lack of champion support within the
organisation.”
“Lack of expertise and understanding of systems, differences in
opinion and lack of clarity of overarching objectives within
international businesses.”
“There's a long list of data related activities and social is just
one of them... I guess we are yet to believe there is a strong
ROI behind social media integration which is keeping this low
down the priority list.”
eConsultancy/Adobe Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing: Managing and Measuring Social, September 2012
http://econsultancy.com/uk/reports/quarterly-digital-intelligence-briefing

A Glimpse
Into the Future
for the
Communicator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scream

What is Public Relations?
• Public relations is about reputation - the
result of what you do, what you say and what
others say about you
- Its aim is earning understanding and support and
influencing opinion and behaviour
- To establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organisation and its
publics
http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/careers-cpd/careers-pr/what-pr

Pity the PR person
who is not agile and
technically astute
Brian Kardon, CMO, Lattice Engines, New York
http://www.fastcompany.com/3000994/best-practices-b2b-pr

Change and Opportunity
• A brand is what Google • There has never been
says it is greater opportunity to
• Press releases are engage with influencers
created for organic than today
search purposes • A tweet, comment on a
• PR is a real-time blog, DM, Twitpic, and
business video are all ways to
• News cycles are engage in new ways
measured in minutes and • Successful PR
hours professionals know how
• Blog posts serve as “link to help the media and
bait” for people and influencers to make a
companies hyperlinked in connection or write a
those posts story
http://www.fastcompany.com/3000994/best-practices-b2b-pr

https://www.facebook.com/cocacola

http://tomfishburne.com/2011/02/for-immediate-release.html
https://twitter.com/mikebutcher/status/252701561703251970

 Profound changes are
underway.
 Skeptics will finish last.
 Focusing on adoption is a
dead-end strategy.
 Companies must be strategic.
 Companies must be decisive.
 Companies must act now.
Social software tools include wikis, blogs, microblogs, discussion
forums, social networks, social bookmarks, tagging,
crowdsourcing, and prediction markets.
http://www.deloitte.com/view/en_US/us/Industries/technology/e9c1b39fb701e210VgnVCM3000001c56f00aRCRD.htm

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/technology_and_innovation/the_social_economy

#SocialEra ?
Companies cannot survive (let alone
prosper) without recognizing that Social
as a phenomenon can allow us to
redefine our organisations to be
inherently more fast fluid and flexible by
its very design. Not by doing a little bit
more, or slimming down a bit here or
there, or by doing a few things a little bit
faster. No. We will not tweak our way into
the future.
Nilofer Merchant, author, “11 Rules for
Creating Value in the Social Era”
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/traditional_strategy_is_dead_w.html

• #Social Enterprise
• #Social Business
DNA image: http://www.dnamnd.med.usyd.edu.au/
• #Social Media

Ceding Control
“It’s a dilemma for some organisations. Where everything is so informal
and instant, what do you do about processes where you must keep
records for compliance or regulatory reasons? We are going to have to
figure out a newer way of doing things that enables us to match the
expectations of everyone, young and old, a way that is not painful.”
“The ability for citizens to be able to connect with each other and with
governments through online connectivity is a positive force in a
democracy. The new ways provide significant benefits for governments, if
they accept the fact that empowered, more informed people make a far
better part of the process through which information is shared, and
knowledge increased.”
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/digital-21/item/28627-ceding-control-in-the-age/

What is Public Relations?
• Public relations is about reputation - the
result of what you do, what you say and what
others say about you
- Its aim is earning understanding and support and
influencing opinion and behaviour
- To establish and maintain goodwill and mutual
understanding between an organisation and its
publics
http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/careers-cpd/careers-pr/what-pr

...the Arthur W. Page
Society proposes a
point of view on the
future of enterprise
communications. We
offer it not as a finished
construct, but a
hypothesis – intended
to spark further
research, exploration
and refinement.

PR’s Time to Lead
1. Provide clients with advice on
what to do, and then how to
communicate in the new
landscape
2. Aim to have the dominant
creative idea
3. Be comfortable with
interpreting data and insistent
upon using it
4. Show, don’t just tell
5. Find the right balance
between global and local
http://www.edelman.com/p/6-a-m/the-history-and-future-of-pr/

Always
Make
Esther Dyson
Catalyst
of Start-ups New
Mistakes

“The Future of PR”
Neville Hobson, ABC
@jangles
October 5, 2012