What is the state of the communications industry and what do PR students need to know now to get them ready for jobs in the current PR market?

Highlights from the state of the communication industry:

• Sales of newspapers and news weekly magazines are in a decline compared to last year
• Ad sales of weekly magazines are in a “terminal” decline
• Advertisers are going directly to the passionate consumers and moving away from traditional media (i.e., using user-generated media)
•  Companies are moving toward creating social network eco-systems (example being the Obama campaign which has a strong online presence through a variety of networks: Twitter, MySpace and Web.) The Obama campaign is creating a “surround sound” effect for voters, which guarantees that people see his content and reinforces the notions of his speeches and campaigns and allows users to easily share content
• Global Revolution in sharing messages (i.e. China). Changing the messages to being a shortened form, with the voice of new coming from a “average person”
• Changing nature of the big corporation
  
• Wal-Mart is changing the conversation about them toward its sustainability and commitment to “green” products. An example of companies realizing and exhibiting their power in the market place and not being a passive recipient of government action

How does this impact the PR professionals?

• The change in the PR business is profound
  
• PR professionals have to stop thinking of ourselves as “preachers of the Clinton spin room”

The PR industry is used to operating on a “top down” approach with controlled messaging, but that’s not enough anymore. The spontaneous part of the conversation is missing from this approach and it is what PR has been missing up to the last 3-4 years ago.

PR is moving toward a new way of communication where they share an “informed view” with their consumers and constantly update their messages and engage in a conversation with them rather than dictate the conversation. PR professionals have to listen, learn and adapt to the way they communicate with their audience and with their messages. And PR professionals have to earn their consumers trust by yielding control and allowing the messages they have to share to be communicated from representatives from all levels of the company and be communicated from the bottom up.

Examples of this:

•  My Starbucks – allowing Starbucks fans and consumers to come up with the next “big idea” for the company
  
• Brita – inventing  a new category in the market by sharing that people can be “green” and have fresh water but without purchasing bottled water. Engaged their customers to share their environment concerns and empower them to take a stand to change it.

Informing the conversation – how does the idea of digital link with real presence?

• Engaging consumers before the product launch
  
• Example: Halo 3 – consumers have a chance to check out and critique co-create the beta verison of the game before it was launched to provide user-feedback  to make the product better
  
• Creating despositories of information
  
• Example: Wal-Mart Facts.com, which was a created to serve as a “information hub” for Wal-Mart to post and share information with the general public about it’s products and move toward being a “green friendly” company.
  
• Over 150,000 people per week visited the site
  
• Wal-Mart employees working in specific departments (such as electronics) create and maintain their own blogs to serve as the “resource” and “expert” on these topics.

If there is not change in how we share our messages and change in action, there will be no real communication. Transparency in communication to the media and consumers is important to build credibility.

What does this mean for current PR students?

• Students must be comfortable cross platform
  
• It’s not just about having a journalism degree anymore