Speaking with PR Students -- the future is bright

I had the pleasure of speaking with a group of second-year Public Relations Students at Durham College in Oshawa, Ontario.  It’s a small but intense program with many grads heading off to the workforce right across the province. 

My remarks focused on my usual chat – “how we combine our corporate efforts aligning traditional and social media in order to tell our story.”  In it I speak about the incredible rise of social media as a distribution channel for news.  And these students will be leaving school at a time when their talents and skills will be in high demand. 

Face it.  Today’s organizations need to get their messaging out.  Whether it is to sell products and services, or in our case, helping reach stakeholders including consumers, social media is in no doubt resonating. 

When I started my current role in 2011, I was hired strictly for media relations.  At that time our focus was almost 100 percent on traditional media, almost zero on social media.  In an amazing short time – 8 years, the dynamic has reversed.  And so has my role. In addition to media relations, I’ve added digital communications, social media, and events.   

Part of this change is because the traditional journalism landscape has changed dramatically.  There are fewer, and smaller, newspapers, and people now consume their news across multiple social media platforms.  

I commute by a train to work each day.  I can’t remember the last time I saw someone with a newspaper.  In fact here’s a secret, I haven’t had a home delivery of the newspaper (any paper) in years.  Granted, I do have online subscriptions and see actual printed papers in the office but I’m not lugging my Globe and Mail on the train each day.  I used to.  

When I asked the Durham students who are reading a newspaper, any newspaper, I was surprised when two hands of the class of 18 went up.  I asked what they read and both cited local community papers.  That’s good news for local, community-based journalism. People want to read about where they live. 

Many of these students still have no idea what they want to do in the PR field. I told them it was fine and perhaps best to be as well-rounded as possible.  Try everything.  For years we saw the specialization of the communications disciplines. Today, being strong writer, a story-teller, is valuable.

What does the future hold? I see it in social media targeting, strong analytics and focused storytelling. Companies and organizations that can resonate, relate and engage with their audiences will win.  Those who just talk at their audiences will lose. 

While we focus on numbers, how many stories are placed, impressions and value of coverage, we sometimes lose sight of engagement.  The customer is not always right….but they do have a right to an opinion and we need to be prepared to hear and acknowledge it.