Don't try to control the conversation, be prepared for never ending PR campaigns and acknowledge the consumer is king.
That's what IABC Global Chair Robin McCasland advises leaders confronted by an ever-changing communications landscape.
During
her recent leadership tour of Asia, Robin briefed government
communications chiefs in Canberra on trends in
international communications.
Speaking
in a government town a few of Robin's observations run counter to
traditional government models.
For example while surveys routinely show
public trust in government and corporate leaders is falling,
administrations still put forward only the top echelons of officialdom
who it comes to advocating policy to the public.
Robin
forecasts that in future, smart organisations will empower their
employees to share the communications load and deal directly with
citizens, consumers or clients particularly through social media.
Workers already know the issues and are the buffer between the
community and their own hierarchy. The time is coming when clever
leaders will look at workers not only for what they do, but how they
can evangelise the corporate brand.
The
Global Chair also touched on the growing importance of peer opinions in
decision-making, illustrating this with a personal example. When an online dress buying experience turned sour, Robin took to social
media to alert her friends to her dissatisfaction Someone with
Robin's global profile must have significant networks, so after the
offending company learned of her displeasure they were quick to fix the
problem.
Which
proves that while communicators can labour long and hard to present a
persuasive case, often it's the conversations we have within our own
circle that really decide how we act and the results we get.
