- Index hide
The information saturation that exists has affected companies working in the PR industry.
PR agencies have to focus on connecting with empathetic conversations with their audience.
Companies that engage in PR have to begin to better measure their success with “insight” and “credibility.”
The main task of the public relations industry is to take care of the reputation of its clients; but, ironically, this sector experiences its own reputational challenges due to an excess of content that exists throughout the world. Clients and agencies dedicated to communication overcome an atmosphere quite contaminated by an oversaturation of messages, in which it is increasingly difficult to stand out.
The reputational risk of public relations is not perceived between the industry with clients; but in the contact of the agencies with different audiences, because there comes the real challenge of starting a conversation, when people are already saturated.
As an example: since times past, the media have been the main complement to public relations, but currently, there is a break between journalists and PR, because currently all agencies speak to the media at the same time to say: “I have important information that should be published.”
Something similar happens with strategies in social networks; the expansion of the digital environment has distorted the objective of relating to people. In fact, while the internet might be a faster and easier way to connect, In many cases, digital tools have only saturated people with information with any type of content that does not have a specific objective.
And in the case of influencers, part of the relationship has become generating “exchanges” for a bit of content for the brand, or directly advertise aggressively with the aim of reaching, without really building a lasting relationship between the client, the influencer and their followers.
For this reason, the public relations sector must face a rapid transition, reinvent itself and propose a reconfiguration of the way of doing communication, where it is possible to clearly understand what public relations is and generate relationship campaigns with the audiences, without losing the objective of “connect with people”.
For Miguel Ángel Zapata, CEO of The Close Up Companythis saturation has mainly affected clients and companies that work in the public relations industry, because audiences they lose interest in listening; they want to know less and less of everything and concentrate only on those that provide valuable information.
“The goal of public relations has to be real connections with people, frank, authentic connections, not just sending messages. Not only saturate people with information and content, but try to achieve close connections with people, “said the manager.
Given this, Zapata explained that the public relations industry has to make a transition that allows it to achieve a level of conversation with the audience and be successful, without comparing it with other marketing activities, which have a different evolution.
For example, “advertising allows you to make quantitative leaps in the number of people you reach with a campaign, while in public relations qualitative leaps in conversation are generated,” he added.
The director recommends that: “whenever a public relations campaign is executed, the result must be “public relations”, that is: establish connection relationships with the audience, which are unique, close, authentic and transparent”.
Public relations have an important role within the entire marketing mix; do not compete with the reach of advertising, but converge and contribute differently in caring for the perception and reputation of brands with their audiences, which is why conversation levels must be established, which allow you to connect with people.
“The directors and managers responsible for the areas of Corporate Communication should not worry about creating PR campaigns to reach millions of people; it is more relevant to reach key people and that those people have an authentic connection to what their companies are. I am interested in establishing a dialogue, a narrative that stands out for its attributes and establishing an interesting level of conversation, ”she added.
In that same order, the director of The CloseUp Company, indicated that PR agencies today must have a clearer picture of the political, economic, social and cultural environment, before proposing a strategy, because that is where the details of the message conveyed by companies.
Issues such as ethics and corporate governance, social contribution and care for the environment are important to society; job creation, inclusion, gender equity, diversity, sustainability. Those issues are important to people, so one way to connect companies with their audience is to talk about what really matters, in an empathetic way.
“The most important thing is to establish communication dialogues with your audience on topics that are relevant to people, so that they want to talk with you; For this reason, many brands, when they communicate, try to express their values, their empathy and beliefs”, she detailed.
Finally, he argued that another important way to get out of these reputational risks of public relations is to begin to better measure success with “perception” and “credibility” in empathy with your audience.
“Measuring public relations by volume of people impacted is not the best indicator. Public relations does not establish the total number of people you reach, but the reputation you have with them, ”he pointed out.