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What developments on the horizon could affect future opportunities as a Public Relations Specialist?
#communication #public-relations
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Michael Ambrozewicz
Director, Communications, AT&T Global Marketing Organization
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Michael’s Answer
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the field of Public Relations in a few ways:
1. More reliance on PR professionals to communicate more information to audiences, esp. on a crisis basis with daily / more frequent communications.
2. Increased pressure on PR professionals to manage information flows and decipher the most relevant and accurate information for their audiences. Need to update and adjust previously communicated information to better reflect the current reality vs. the reality from a few hours, days or weeks ago when information was first published.
3. Greater need for PR professionals to coordinate messages and communication plans that factor in and integrate with social media, marketing/advertising and investor relations team's concerns.
All of this means job security as the pandemic continues and organizations rely on their PR professionals to manage reputations and keep their organization's story in tact across multiple audiences.
Another development: Artificial Intelligence tools. Some see them as a threat to the PR professional's job, but they aren't really. Many tools have emerged that help PR pros do their jobs faster, better esp. within these crisis situations that this pandemic creates. For example, analyzing social media sentiment and recommending tone and phrasing to use in subsequent social media posts to try and create more positive engagement going forward.
The key thing is to stay up-to-date on trends and technologies. Join the Public Relations Student Society of America, and the International Association of Business Communicators (which covers more than just PR roles).
Learn more about the Public Relations Society of America and join at the super-valuable student rate: https://prssa.prsa.org/
Learn more about the International Association of Business Communciators and join as a student member to get access to their global network and resources: https://www.iabc.com/
1. More reliance on PR professionals to communicate more information to audiences, esp. on a crisis basis with daily / more frequent communications.
2. Increased pressure on PR professionals to manage information flows and decipher the most relevant and accurate information for their audiences. Need to update and adjust previously communicated information to better reflect the current reality vs. the reality from a few hours, days or weeks ago when information was first published.
3. Greater need for PR professionals to coordinate messages and communication plans that factor in and integrate with social media, marketing/advertising and investor relations team's concerns.
All of this means job security as the pandemic continues and organizations rely on their PR professionals to manage reputations and keep their organization's story in tact across multiple audiences.
Another development: Artificial Intelligence tools. Some see them as a threat to the PR professional's job, but they aren't really. Many tools have emerged that help PR pros do their jobs faster, better esp. within these crisis situations that this pandemic creates. For example, analyzing social media sentiment and recommending tone and phrasing to use in subsequent social media posts to try and create more positive engagement going forward.
The key thing is to stay up-to-date on trends and technologies. Join the Public Relations Student Society of America, and the International Association of Business Communicators (which covers more than just PR roles).
Michael recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Patricia’s Answer
First of all your question shows you have one of the skills needed to become a good PR professional, which is to always to try and anticipate situations, developments possibilities. However your question is a little too broad, so I don’t really know what kind of development and horizon you mean. The broad answer to that would be it depends on which type of market you’ll want to work in. It can be very traditional like working a company’s branding, doing their press activity, dealing with all their external stakeholders, and employees, supporting marketing services; could also be dealing with crises management if it is a high stakes business. Or it can also be something way more technological, if they need a strong position in social media - today many companies have PR people to just manage and feed their social media profiles. One thing is for sure: every smart company will need PR if they want to thrive in the ever growing competitive markets, so there will always be good PR opportunities out there.
Find out what kind of activity encompasses the work of a PR professional
Try to imagine which of those activities you would like to do
Think of a handful of business fields you’d like to work in
Patricia recommends the following next steps:
Updated
Bob’s Answer
Does this answer your question?
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/public-relations-specialists.htm#tab-6
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/public-relations-specialists.htm#tab-6