Public Relations in times of the Internet

I was tempted to write this post when I got some feelers to where the practice of public relations is headed to and what are the practitioners doing. Some days back I had posted a link on social media platforms for getting some feedback/views on where the practice of public relations is heading to. Not getting a satisfactory response I decided to call up some of my PR friends to understand what was the current scenario. Realizing that this I should have anyways done before. Anyways better late than never. So there I went speaking to people with various years of experiences in both public relations and corporate communications.

So how has Internet changed the way public relations practice has changed? The replies I got (remember this just very few 4-5 and counting, so cannot be generalized) but it gave an insight as to what was the current scenario.

PR agencies, practitioners are working in a silo, especially some of the smaller ones not adapting to the changing world of digital for various reasons,  some of the PR practitioners are moving away to digital marketing, some even to corporate communications(for job stability), feeling that media relations is becoming stagnant, more so if menial tasks are to be done for clients in the name of publicity. Bigger agencies have bigger clients and separate teams for traditional and digital communication, so media relations still thrives. It is the smaller agencies who either outsource digital or don't do it at all. Practitioners here face this dilemma in their careers more than often.

Traditional media is gaining fast momentum in smaller towns and cities in India due to rise in literacy rates. Here doing publicity works is far more easier than in bigger metros. So media relations thrives and so does the practice of public relations. But digital is taking up space wherever core selling is the objective. Image building is something more reserved for specific situations. No wonder digital marketing is gaining importance. Change in economic conditions in the country and across the world will first push selling of products, will in turn push digital marketing. Well if you actually look at it like this, companies which are on digital space can easily look towards building consumer relations. Through social media space they can push consumers to their websites for further engagement and relationship building. Lot of companies in the entertainment sector or cosmetics and accessories are using digital marketing to the fullest. So where is PR in all of this? Prominently known as media relations in India this practice is now trying to find its space in the digital. Mind you traditional media publicity still holds a serious value say my PR friends, but with artificial intelligence and virtual reality on the rise is this digital communication a phase or there to stay, will it change the way traditional, organic communication was ever done? This blog piece leaves me and hopefully you with these thoughts.