So. Officially here. Porter Novelli. Finally!

The PN Digi team is still on the look out for new talent to join the team and as part of the hunt we’re opening our digi-doors to interns. The first of the summer is Ziad who will be with us until June, as his first task we asked him to share his thoughts on how Digital and PR fit together, at the end of his stint we’ll see if and how his views have changed. If you’re interested in doing an intern spot, or want to know more about the open positions we have here at PN Towers then drop Kerry Gaffney a line at kerry dot gaffney at porternovelli dot com, or a DM to @KerryMG

First things first: me.

Name: Ziad Traboulsi

Occupation: Postgraduate student in Social Psychology

Real occupation: appreciating the power of computer-mediated communication

It’s my first day here at Porter Novelli, and I have just heard the word ‘deadline’ emanating from the desk behind me, which directly draws me to my first point: on the Internet, there is no such thing as a deadline, as stories are posted round-the-clock. The elimination of ‘space’ and ‘time’ boundaries has arguably made companies more vulnerable, as the digital era has made each and everyone a potential broadcaster, which poses concerns to PR professionals who aim to manage their clients’ reputation. But it also presents them with the golden opportunity of interacting with customers with greater efficiency; today’s consumers want to be spoken with, not spoken to. The possibilities offered by new media technologies are endless – but every innovation renders the novelty obsolete, and digital PR practitioners constantly have to outperform themselves and come up with new ways of capturing their target’s attention.

The second point to be made is to highlight the utmost importance of digital PR in an age where my grandmother is on Facebook and the average user spends 55 minutes roaming around the aforementioned social networking website, and very possibly interacting with hundreds of brands in the meantime. The practice of public relations has developed very rapidly in recent years, as new media technologies have pinpointed the importance of corporate communications for all companies and organisations – from small “morn and pop” shops to large oil conglomerates. From an academic perspective, public relations can be defined as the organisation of the dissemination of information. Our digital age has deeply metamorphosed the demand placed on PR professionals as new media technologies have fragmented communication channels into thousands of smaller spheres. While as recently as ten years ago, it would’ve been possible to reach a target audience with two or three large mainstream media, PR professionals now deal with hard-to-find niche audiences.

People are increasingly wired, and it is useful to use the web to better understand and talk to them, which brings me to my third and last point: metrics. One of the digital wonders is the incorporation of powerful analytical tools at all phases in a campaign. Managing corporate communication is a fourfold process: [1] defining the problem, [2] setting communication goal and objectives, [3] taking action & communicating, and [4] evaluating. The objective of communication is to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Targeted (yes, enough with my academic blabber). In new media, it is incredibly easy to analyse and monitor a campaign in real-time, which allows for quick fixes and greater efficiency. As such, planning and evaluating for an online campaign generally allows for incredibly high ROI.

Public Relations agencies are yet to realise the real potential of the digital age and embrace new media technologies fully.