Healthcare Communications Blog

All Media is Digital. All Media is Social. Social Media is Public Relations.

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Is everybody ready? Great. Now repeat after me:

All Media is Digital.

All Media is Social.

Social Media is Public Relations.

Excellent. We’ve now cut through gigabytes of chatter, terabytes of noise and a virtual universe of pontification by “experts” on digital media, social media and the role of public relations in the new “communications paradigm.”

Ahem.

As somebody who has been working consistently in digital media since managing one of the first digital communications divisions of a multinational public relations firm in 1997, I’ve been an active participant in the evolution of digital communications. The technologies and tools we’re able to apply to our clients businesses today have enhanced our ability to communicate in so many ways.

Convergence is here. News organizations, magazines, entertainment companies, and media conglomerates are providing content that is seamlessly integrated between print, digital, and broadcast media platforms.

So why do some agencies, and clients, continue to have such a siloed view of the landscape? “Digital media.” “Traditional media.” “Social media.” Isn’t that kind of thinking just, you know, “so ten years ago?” Calling media “digital” misses the point that all media – at least all media that is still relevant—is now digital. And if it’s digital, it’s social, since the age of the unidirectional “website-as-electronic-billboard” was ending at about the same time that the iPod was becoming the newest must have gadget, and our cell phones were, for the most part, still pretty dumb.

Do you need a digital strategy? Or do you need a strategy that increases customer awareness of your product or services by integrating multiple content delivery platforms and delivering your messages to customers in multiple formats? Do you need a social media strategy? Or do you need a strategy that establishes an authentic dialogue between you and your most important target audiences and enables you to learn and adapt based on real time information? Digital and social media will be central to both, but both strategies are broader and allow for more than one tactical approach in their execution.

And what about public relations? The Public Relations Society of America defines PR this way:

“Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

Establishing a dialogue, and building positive relationships with key audiences through two-way communication has always been a fundamental goal of public relations. Social media is a tool that can be used to accomplish this goal. Social media is public relations.

It’s time to free ourselves from the shackles of conventional thinking. The era of strategic convergence is upon us. Strategy should dictate the best tools for the job. Because a true artisan uses many different tools, and is expert in all of them.

So, once again, repeat after me:

All Media is Digital.

All Media is Social.

Social Media is Public Relations.

Thank you, and good night.