Mass Comm Week

The evolution of the communications industry into the digital world seemed to be a major theme of Mass Comm week and this was even reflected in the live streamed sessions, which I was extremely thankful for.

I watched a slew of live streamed sessions and found the Fleishman-Hillard's session on "Going Digital: Changes in the Advertising and PR Industry" to be extremely interesting. Providing PR support for a Fortune 500 company, the topic of storytelling in a digital era definitely hit home. As the panelists described, digital media has basically changed the entire communications industry and now the public relations, advertising and marketing disciplines are all connected and overlap. Just as public relations discipline focuses on the reputation of a brand and the advertising discipline focuses on the branding of the brand, social media is also becoming another branding component. In the end, as the FH's panelists spelled out and I have seen on a daily basis, it is all about building relationships, regardless of communications channel employed.

The FH panelists provided some interesting examples of the digital work they have done, especially with the Chevy brand. Through use of traditional and social media communication FH was able to successfully tell the Chevy story through the SXSW experience and definitely lived up to their mantra of "Be interesting, be useful or be ignored".


Another live streamed session I found of interest was Rich Oppel's discussion on "Dealing with the Media". As a veteran journalist and former editor of the Austin American-Statesman who has now gone to the so-called "dark side" of PR with Public Strategies, Rich definitely had some great perspective on how the two disciplines intertwine in the evolving communications industry. Whether you are a journalist or public relations professional, Rich is correct in that the ultimate expectation and goal is to make sure the truth is told. So many times PR practitioners get a bad rap of being spinsters and never giving all the facts. I like Rich pride myself in making sure all situations are represented honestly and fairly.

Finally, I thought the session on "Social Graces: Understanding and communicating with clients, co-workers, audiences and the media" provided some good tips and perspective as well. The reps of Wayatt Brand and Trademark Media spelled out some necessary client protocol that every communications professional should practice. I think the tip of utmost importance is setting clear expectations with clients before a project is started to make sure everyone is on the same page, marching in the same direction and going after the same goal. At the end of the day as a communications professional it is our job to find a solution to the client's problem and setting expectations upfront can save you in the long run. Nothing is better than surpassing the set expectations and receiving extra kudos from your clients.