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2 minute read
The new normal for PR and marketing professionals
- Develop, implement and manage communication plans to drive advocacy and behavioural change
- Identify and create media opportunities to profile COMPANY's messages and news
- Engage and cultivate members of the media
Both are recent job requirements for a Communications Manager. In job ad #1, it's the traditional job scope that we, PR professionals, are used to seeing in job ads.
However, times are changing. More and more, job specifications for PR Managers will look a little more like job ad #2.
If these sound more like the job requirements for a marketing professional, well, the answer is both yes and no.
Yes, these job functions were traditionally done by marketers. No, times have changed. PR professionals are also doing what marketers used to do and vice versa, marketers are doing what PR professionals used to do.
It is a very tall order but as budgets shrink, businesses want more bang for their buck. They want professionals who can help their brands orchestrate the journey with their stakeholders, build and strengthen emotional ties, and deliver returns for their brands. And they don't care if these professionals come from a PR or a marketing agency.
Let's take a step back to think this through
Who manages social media reputation - PR or marketing?
Isn't it a PR professional's job to help the brand or company build and maintain good reputation? In any case, both PR and Marketing disciplines are part of the brand or company's overall communications engine. Both are in the business of influence, pulling the organisation in the same direction, ensuring the alignment with the brand or company's stakeholders while the business continues to sustain growth in the marketplace.
That said, as a practicing PR professional, have you taken time to evaluate your current skills sets. For instance, can you create infographics? Can you create videos - from storyboard to final editing? Have you any experience with social referral campaigns?
We have to help our companies or brands inspire, incite and shape ideas with various audience groups. Some of these audiences could be the public at large, and who are themselves publishers, critics and journalists with loyal following. Yes, even in B2B business environments.
We have to help our companies or brands inspire, incite and shape ideas with various audience groups. Some of these audiences could be the public at large, and who are themselves publishers, critics and journalists with loyal following. Yes, even in B2B business environments.
It's the new normal now
With the needs of the PR and marketing professionals in mind, I will be collaborating with my good friend and former colleague, Veronica Lind, on a set of workshops for the B2B marketing and communications professionals.
Veronica used to lead a marketing team in IBM with a global remit. She had a solid track record of helping the brand grow revenue with the right marketing strategy well executed. She had also been a highly successful entrepreneur with very good business acumen.
I, on the other hand, had been a sales professional who made a switch to PR some 20 years ago. From media relations, planning and executing major events with mass audience, to change management, reputation management and even to crisis communications, I had been fortunate to have worked on all these.
Our workshops at the Singapore Master Class, are a joint effort to help experienced professionals in B2B communications or marketing to bridge gaps in their current skill sets, readying them to help their brands establish emotional connections for ROI with their customers.
These will be very interactive and we will use templates and guides that we had developed over the years in the course of our own work.
In the Workshop 1, PR and marketing professionals will get hands-on experience in developing a strategy involving strategy, content, analytics, mobile readiness and social referral, and also get to work on messaging.
In the Workshop 2, we will work on how marketers and communicators can leverage digital marketing technologies and social networks in B2B environments.
Register early for our Singapore Master Class - The Professional Series workshops here >
Stay updated on our posts for the workshops on the Singapore Master Class page on Facebook. Check here if you want read more about B2B Love Stories and get a free infographic for that engagement.
I'm looking forward to these workshops. Hope to see you there.
