What I have below is clearly not exhaustive, but they are the ideas that really resonated with me as a recruiter. Also, as we all know, many vital corporate communications skills are clearly timeless and I’ve tried not to put too much overlap of them here.
Increased Importance Of Ethics And Corporate Social Responsibility Considerations.
The concept of transparency as it pertains to the modern enterprise is relatively new and hugely transformational. Because of current and future technology, our organizations are going to be transparent whether we like it or not. We’re all living, or will shortly be living, in glass houses. As a result, it’s going to be largely up to the top communications leaders within the company to make sure this fact represents an opportunity and not a restriction. The silver lining of the existence of the challenge posed by transparency from the communications person’s point of view is that, if it’s within her purview, it gives her a lot more leverage for influence internally — and should mean even greater access to and cooperation from C-level executives.
Greater Flexibility In Writing And Speaking Style.
My PR friends tell me that in many cases the press isn’t the primary audience for their press releases anymore. More often they’re writing them for the end users, or they’re presenting the information in a short, web friendly video. As a result the savvy communications pro is very careful about balancing the use of conversational-style writing and speaking with the more formal, “professional” style. Use of the proper voice and tone in the company’s various channels of communication is key, and while it’s a task that in and of itself may not be that hard on a case by case basis, we have to remember that it all has to be integrated seamlessly with the overall messaging and marketing activities.
More Metrics And Quantitatively Oriented.
There is clearly debate about the extent to which lead generation and lead nurturing could and should play a role in what PR people are going to be asked to do in the near future, at least as it pertains to their role driving social media initiatives for their companies. What’s really not debatable is that the need to analyze what people do on the web (and how much they do it) will continue to grow. That means looking at numbers, data, statistics — web analytics. There’s no escaping it. Communications experts are going to need to know their stuff here, especially if they want to gain respect and get more influence with top management.
