Bragging rights between Kevin Rudd and his opposition number Malcolm Turnbull over their respective online presence have taken a new turn, according to yesterday’s The Age newspaper Texting Turnbull catches the Twitter bug.
Basically the argument is that Rudd has been on microblogging site Twitter longer, but Turnbull writes his own posts!
The question of whether the PM uses a staffer to write his Twitter posts, or ‘tweets’, aside, this example highlights a big trend in corporate communications – executives now have a much greater ability to communicate directly with stakeholders, media etc.
The traditional role of the press officer acting as corporate gatekeeper has a limited future. As barriers to communication fall, identifying where the PR function adds value to an organisation and how it’s demonstrated has never been more important for consultants or in-house teams.
As an agency, the question of how we are adding value to a client has to be always top of mind.
Three predictions for 2009
- Traditional PR processes that don’t add value will be under attack as executives question why they are being done
- PR budgets will move away from corporate communications to product marketing as organisations pressure public relations to support sales
- Charging models will be proactively re-examined by smart agencies.