Blog post -
The Future of Communications and the Modern Communicator
Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications, gives her thoughts on the changing role of the communications professionals and insights into the future of communications. She also was the keynote speaker at FutureComms14 - the PR & comms event of the year.
The future of communications rests in the hands of the professionals driving the industry forward. Ask yourself: What’s required of me today and am I the "Modern Communicator"?
It's certainly not an easy question to answer but definitely a necessary exercise to complete; look deeply into our your own professional goals:
- Do you feel you have achieved the flexibility you need as a global collaborator
- Taken bold storytelling strides as a creative content operator
- Exhibited technological savvy as a PR tech specialist
- Built stronger, more meaningful connections as a relationship agent
- Measured ROI or impact, as a PR analytics engineer?
The answer starts with the individual mindset, then the collective mindset. The future is our overall desire to advance skills, show a greater willingness for speed and the flexibility to adapt in the global organisational environment.
Wake up, the future of comms is now!
Whether you’ve been trailblazing or keeping up with your colleagues and peers, you’re experiencing the future of communications.
The fast-paced business of communication, the changing market landscape, fickle consumer behaviour, and rapidly advancing technology, waits for no one. There’s no time to sit back and think that any of this momentum will begin to slow down. Will you be onboard to handle the new opportunities and challenges?
You will know by now that trying to fit the square traditional PR peg into the Modern Communicator round hole just doesn’t work. However, you will always take the best of the past forward, with good research, critical thinking, relationship building, and measurement that’s tied to higher-level business goals.
The role of the Modern Communicator is crystallising:
- We're all getting involved in strategic decisions as communications plays an important role in business.
- We’re hands on with technology, using it in research and reporting to be more targeted and intelligent, drawing us closer to the minds and hearts of the consumer.
- We're positioned to catch thwart and analyze what could have been the multi-million dollar crisis.
- We're watching, learning and participating in a converging media landscape which has us operating in new creative ways.
- We’re finding information at our fingertips to make relationship building a career and not just a small part of a communicator’s role.
Expansion is the best thing that’s happened to public relations, helping to further reinvent our industry.
My interest grows in the topic of future communicators as executives and the public increasingly question the value of PR. For this very reason it’s time to clearly identify who is the Modern Communicator, why this person is so important and what it takes to lead the future of communications.
The discussion has started and must be addressed by every communications professional, whether you're just beginning your career or you’re a seasoned veteran in the industry; whether it's in the classroom or in the workplace.
You’re in the Age of the Modern Communicator. Welcome to your future. It starts now.
About the author:
Deirdre is a veteran in PR and marketing, CEO at Pure Performance Communications, and author of five Financial Times books. She is an internationally renowned speaker on PR, marketing, and social media communications.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/dbreakenridge
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeirdreBreakenridge
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deirdrebreakenridge
