Aug 2, 2018
What does Disruptive PR mean?
I have become more and more interested in how technologies and innovations have started to influence the communication and PR business.
In January and February, I had to prepare for a speech I was giving at a conference called First International Forum of PR Creativity in Baku, Azerbaijan. I knew my topic had to be related to the changing module of traditional PR. Then, I found a lot of articles about disruption in all kind of business models. I researched dipper and found a lot of interesting materials about disruption in marketing and communications business.
Naturally, I chose my topic of my presentation to be #DisruptivePR.
Few months later, Prowly, software platform for online newsrooms and measuring digital PR success, invited me to write a material for Prowly Magazine. Then, I was Business Development Director at United Partners, corporate communications and integrated marketing agency in Bulgaria, and together with the team I was working on the development of its virtual press room. The agency was going through structure and business changes while incorporating different tools for automatizing the work. So, I thought it’d be a good idea to further develop the idea and the topic of Disruptive PR and how disruptions changes the way we — PR pros work.
While working on the article, I asked myself: what does disruption mean to PR pros, consumers, clients, and communications business?
In its roots, disruption changes business models and the way people think and act. It requires people to adapt to the new ways of communication. Disruption leads to the emergence of new ideas and expectations and requires PR professionals to be creative and innovate. It also requires businesses to keep up-to-date and stay ahead of current trends and be competitive and desirable for their audiences.
Disruption in PR happens because of technology, gadgets, automation of processes, social media, or innovations in terms of products and services. This affects the stages of planning, executing, and managing a communication strategy. Today, we are talking not only about pure PR (usually associated with media relations). Communication processes are integrated; campaigns are integrated, mixing different communication tactics. Today, campaigns blend digital and non-digital tactics allowing to reach target audiences in the best way possible at the right time with the right content.
The PR industry has to be innovative, think of new and modern solutions quickly, and know what people want and why it is important to their clients and relevant to their clients’ businesses.
Brian Solis, digital analyst and award-winning author and writer/blogger, talks a lot about disruption.
He claims that the key thing about disruption is that “the future of business comes down to relevance and the ability to understand how technology affects decision making and behavior to the point where the recognition of new opportunities and the ability to strategically adapt to them becomes a competitive advantage.”
PR departments and agency teams have to have the same goals as any other departments in the company (marketing, finance, sales, IT, etc.). This allows for all communication flows from various departments to be coordinated and have “one voice” of customer communication. When goals are aligned, success is guaranteed.
What’s very important is that customers want to know what impact their PR approach has had. It has been a challenge for years for PR pros to prove how PR results brought success to brands and companies. With digital transformation, the results became even more valuable. A good aspect is that technology allows to monitor and track consumer behaviour in real time and get performance analytics. Based on analytics, you can change your strategy, shift and adapt messages, talk to customers, etc.
Below I share with you the whole article about #DisruptivePR. You can read everything that I have found in my work that is changing how PR works and will continue to do so.
I hope you like it! Enjoy reading!
