Maybe Disruption is a Necessary Evil

Social media is disrupting the practice of public relations or corporate communications, but not adversely. I think it's forcing us to reevaluate how we use communication to accomplish business objectives and it also challenges us to truly hold up our end of the bargain in the two-way communication model.

Although our industry is built on the foundation that public relations is about managing relationships between our clients or organizations and their various internal and external audiences; it's often been easy to fall into the trap of assuming that this is mostly achieved through media relations or marketing tactics. I find that social media is another tactic for us to use outside of traditional methods that have become like muscle memory (pitching the media, creating marketing collateral, writing speeches, managing events, etc.), while at the same time, securing feedback from the audiences we're trying to reach.

The challenge is that our jobs already encompass so much. Between planning strategies, executing campaigns and reporting back to our respective clients or department heads –who honestly has time to fit in yet another communication tactic? In this way, social media can feel like a bit of a disruption to our ongoing routine. Now, in addition to coming up with a strategy, objectives, target audience, media list, marketing creative and all the other bells and whistles that come with major campaigns, we have to think holistically about where social media fits into the picture.

Although it may be a challenge to fit one more tactic into our already busy professional lives, it can be seen as a positive change overall. Shaking things up in our industry helps us all to think more creatively, push boundaries, reevaluate the way things have always been done, and best yet – increases our value to customers and companies.

For example, in my previous job working at Ketchum, I worked on one of our biggest clients: FedEx. As the agency of record for this global company, our team handled public relations for many of the FedEx business units, including FedEx Office (formerly known as FedEx Kinko's). As can often be the case with many retailers, most people are familiar with the basic services FedEx Office provides (copying and printing, signs, banners), but awareness was low about a wide range of other services available (design service, mobile printing, direct mail, computer rental and more). After conducting market research and developing a strategic plan, we helped FedEx Office launch a consumer blog in the fall of 2009: Out of Office.

Although we continued to use traditional methods to execute campaigns that promoted FedEx Office, we now had another channel for educating and engaging with customers. Nearly two years later, the blog has a strong following and the team continues to produce fun and creative posts that show customers the myriad ways they can enjoy the company's product and services. Customers also enjoy sharing the projects they’ve created or soliciting feedback when they need more information.

Did the blog create extra work for my former agency team and our clients? Of course! But, it also helped us to reach the company's target audience in an interactive way and gave us new opportunities for spreading the word about FedEx Office.

At the end of the day, social media is one more trick in our toolbox that when used effectively, helps us make a positive impact on the relationship we're responsible for managing in the two-way communication model. It may make our to do lists a little longer, but my hope is that it's worth it for both our industry and the organizations we serve.