#WeArePR: The PR of politics

Christine Silfversparre is the 3rd interviewee for the #WeArePR series, an exploration into the evolving world of communications through #PRTech.

How do you think modern politics is reflecting or clashing with the modern marketing world?

I see the trend right now, especially in Swedish politics that some of the politicians know the value of social media and are really great at exploiting it and turning it into a real conversation, not just pushing out messages.

Do you think there’s a contrast there with how politics have traditionally been, and how consumers are used to being spoken to in marketing now?

Some politicians still don’t realize the impact social media has had on communication. Every single conversation has an effect and together they all contribute to whether you fail or succeed. I do think a lot of politicians still don’t really comprehend that because if they did, they would work in a little bit of a different way.

What can marketers learn, maybe, then, from how politics has changed its game to appeal to that kind of new, young audience?

I think it has to do with engaging a certain audience. We marketers should be embracing new technology and talking to the correct audiences.

A lot of the politicians are doing really well with this in Sweden. We have Carl Bildt (@CarlBildt), former Minister for Foreign Affairs. He’s really active on Twitter and social media and not afraid to share.

When we’re talking about who you are as a marketer today, what do you think is important to reflect on?

I think the most important thing is about embracing technology, we need to know exactly what is going on and be ahead of the curve compared to other industries. The second thing is getting your timing right, remember timing is key.