I got into PR about six years ago. Since then the PR industry has continuously being disrupted.
That's probably happening to more or less any industry simply because of how fast technology is changing and how quickly ordinary people are embracing digital and are making decisions differently because of digital.
But I haven't seen this being said so much about the other industries as it has been for PR. Google "disruption of public relations" and you'll find multiple articles every year highlighting how PR needs to be disrupted, is ready to be disrupted or better be disrupted with real action. (And the list goes on.)
Fast forward to 2016 and we find the latest Global Communications Report from the Holmes Report pushing that message again — the scale of change is disrupting the PR industry but is PR really able to adapt to this shifting landscape?
That's a question that's been asked since I got into the industry (and probably long before that) and started reading articles like the ones above. What does this really signify? That I might not even need to dig into the report to understand that PR still hasn't adjusted quickly enough. That there's still a lot of work to be done even though it's been years since the digital revolution has begun.
Nevertheess, it's always good to get some facts so here's what the report is telling us:
This is how Fred Cook, Director of the USC Center for Public Relations summarises the findings:
“Overall, we are sensing a continued optimism about the direction the industry is headed, which is good news for people entering the field. But questions remain about the industry’s ability to attract the right talent, adapt to new technologies and increase the level of investment required to capitalize on these opportunities.”
You see? We are back at where we started. Ready for disruption, but not really able to.
I know I've been focusing on the negative, there are positive things too.
I love how content is so big and how owned is growing. This is totally in line with the Inbound PR concept that I've been preaching and that fits perfectly with all PESO media types. A concept which, by the way, if followed, would solve for many of the above challenges.
Especially for the two most alarming ones: measurement and being stuck with the old skills.
The lack of proper measurement and skills highlights the need to understand data and to be able to make informed decisions based on it.
I'm often surprised at how agencies fail to analyse how their client activities are performing on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis and make decisions about what to do for e.g. the next quarter based on these findings of what works and what doesn't.
The simplest example here is the content plan (since content is becoming so big for PR). Don't go blind and just create any content. Test it, analyse after three months what the most popular and traffic-driving as well as the best converting blog posts were or the ones that helped sales. Then choose what to double down on for the next three months accordingly. Don't just write something you think should work because it fits the topic.
It's obvious that change is needed. A whole report is telling us that. But things are happening too slow.
It really is time to take action, please!
How can we speed up change?