Over the past few decades our world has faced some remarkable changes due to the rapid development of new technology and the Internet. However, a few years back, a new era began, an era where ordinary people have a 'say' on every possible matter, anytime, anywhere - the emergence of social media has altered our lives enormously by giving everyone the opportunity to be a publisher and a communicator. This, in turn, has had a huge impact on the Public Relations practice, which has always been concerned with communicating and building relationships with various publics.

How and why social media affected the PR industry is the topic of my second book “Social Media and the Rebirth of PR: The Emergence of Social Media as a Change Driver for PR”, published by Anchor Academic Publishing.

The book covers the fundamentals and the development of PR and social media over the years, thereby emphasising the differences between PR now and PR before the emergence of social media. It not only describes how exactly social media altered the PR industry as a whole, but also how communications professionals are practicing PR using social media in their work and private lives as well.

I’ve spoken about the relationship between journalists and PR professionals in previous blog posts (here and here). The truth is, they both depend on each other, but it seems that one of the groups has a rather negative attitude towards the other one, namely journalists towards PR specialists. So, you can’t really say that’s a healthy relationship, right? Well, a recent research by Twelve Thirty Eight sheds some light on the reasons.

PR consultancy Twelve Thirty Eight e-mailed two thousand correspondents and editors to find out what they thought about the so called “sell-in” calls from PR pros. The consultancy asked only one question: “Have you ever been talked into reporting on something that you had decided to ignore following a call from a PR person?“ The result: 97.9 % said “No”.

The other day I came across a blog post by a fellow Bulgarian blogger delving into a pretty crazy idea – a magazine without advertisements. Sounds rather unrealistic, right? Well, you’d be a surprised! Such a magazine does exists, and it’s even on sale on Craigslist for the price of $4,447,847.53! Read on while I explain why such a dizzying number.

Designer Joseph G. Davies started a personal project he named Ad-Blocked Vogue, where he literally “blocked” all ads in the September issue of the US Vogue. He cut out all the pages with advertisements in the magazine and those he couldn’t cut, he blanked over with a fat marker. The result: out of the 902 total pages, 280 were full-pages ads and 45 double-page spreads. The image below says it all…

A new study by Fishburn Hedges and Jigsaw Research reveals that almost two-thirds of the public believes brands say one thing through their marketing and communications, but in reality do another. Quoting PR Week, “64% of the public did not believe that companies' marketing and comms were backed up by the way they behaved and interacted with customers.” Interestingly, only 15% of people would trust a company again after a crisis if a senior executive had offered an apology or an explanation. What’s more, 52% do not believe corporate stories if they are only transmitted via advertising or communications; 20% even said they didn’t believe brand stories at all. Ouch!

Surprised? I am not.

As I highlighted in my recent blog post with 44 social media and sustainability facts and figures, ordinary people simply don’t trust traditional company communications and messages and have a lot less faith in corporate figures, even CEOs.

But what can brands do to change this?

A recent Forrester research yet again confirms how people demand a lot more from brands than just their products or services; they demand a corporate consciousness. Not only that, individuals today have the means to express their voices openly, freely and virtually with anyone around the globe – a shift in power distribution encouraged by the rise of social media. This, in turn, has severely complicated the job of communicators and marketers to successfully win the hearts and minds of today’s consumers.

According to the research, it is trust, not buzz that builds brand resonance. This means that if organisations want to build a strong and sustainable brand, it is critical for them to first earn the trust of their customers by meeting their growing expectations . But, as we’ve seen in the 2013 Edelman Trust Barometer and 2013 Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor, trust in companies and their leaders is not really on the rise, but quite the opposite...

So then, what does the brand of the future is supposed to look like?