'In the era of fake news, PR  professionals have a responsibility towards their audience'

At the 3rd edition of the e4m PR & Corp Comm Women Achievers Summit and Awards 2022, held recently at Shangri-La Eros Hotel, Tatevik Simonyan, Co-founder, Director of Communications, Spring PR, spoke about the emerging communication opportunities due to new age media in a keynote session.

She said that while it is a boon for professionals, it can be a vessel for crisis and media professionals should gear up to deal with the same.

While talking about the emerging social media space, she said, “Social media has transformed the platform where everybody can promote their services, sell and buy goods. Now everyone is a brand, most importantly various social platforms are acting as an online representation of a person or a company giving a chance to form a personal brand. You cannot ignore the new development transcending in these spheres. We as professionals mainly used these platforms to reach out to our various target groups.”

“Along with the power of creating a brand social media platforms as the power to totally destroy the reputation of the organisations. Here the responsibility that social networks should play, and from the individual perspective is media literacy and education are essential for our society to practice and not to be harmed by wrongdoing.”

She added, “Even though the traditional media continues to play a vital role in the dissemination of information, it is increasingly being influenced by online content and interactions. In the era of rising fake news, PR  professionals have the responsibility to help their audience figure out what is fake news and what is reliable information. In regards to the new media, one of the key issues is to clarify our role as PR professionals in the context where everybody is a communicator and find solutions to deal with it, especially in a crisis management issue. Along with the challenges that the new media brings it opens new opportunities, new fields for PR professionals to create narratives and will trust it can be as incredible as it is for each organisation.”

She walked through the pandemic, the situations during the period and what is expected out of the organisations post-pandemic. She said, “PR professionals are thinking about this too and new circumstances, shifting attitudes towards work after the pandemic. Now we are at the boundaries of the turning point in the PR industry because of the changed perception. We are no more a service provider, specialists or consultancies but we are decision makers, core and equal partners for the clients. We are working mainly with the CEOs or business founders, we are on broad as board members or partners of organizations with corporate lead. Now PR Profession is not only about communication but also PR professionals are becoming strategic advisers for organisations to achieve their missions.”

“As a part of the international community we must work aligned with sustainable development goals to ensure the well-being of all people across the world and this crisis had a crucial role in bringing strategic advice to the frontline like having a conflict communication strategy including crisis communication is a must also reinforcing trust and building relationship forming and interesting new partner communication model”, she added.

While discussing various aspects, she also discussed one of the biggest challenges in the industry which is talent management and the talent crunch with the highest amount of employee turnover. She said that when we are talking about public relations we have a lack of PR specialists and professionals in the field. Talent recruitment is one of the main issues that we are facing and there is international research that states - in PR as well as other growing industries,  public relations is booming across all organisations, team are growing but those who are responsible for recruiting are struggling to attract the right talent. 

She said, “Talent attraction and retention is the number one challenge that our global community faces worldwide. The companies are trying to establish policies and programs aiming to reduce employee turnover and businesses are looking for strategic mind decision makers as PR professionals.”

Simonyan talked about the shift in the attitude of people where they are looking out for brands that they consume, and workplaces aligning with their school of thought. She said, “With even great expectations due to the government failures in various countries to lead during the pandemic. By an aggregate, 5:1 margin respondents in the 28 countries survey that business plays a larger role be it climate change, economic equality, workforce rescaling, or racial injustice. In Armerina. 60% of the people buy their bread based on their values and beliefs, almost 6/10 employees choose their workplace based on shared values and expect their CEOs to take a stand on societal issues and 64% of investors are looking for businesses that align with their values.

“The global pandemic was a litmus test and during that communication, professionals were the first to respond to the situation and start researching for new approaches more effective ways and formats for communicating with the audience”, she added.

Talking about women in business in Armenia, she said that almost all the organizations have women in the top leadership positions and she is proud that Spring PR represent woman in business.

“I became more sure while working that, time and resource management is always more effective among women. It is one of the secrets of our success and of course, the emotional intelligence allows us to intuitively feel and foresee the situation”, she added.