Strategic Communication and Emerging Media

In society today, it is becoming more and more difficult to remain the same, or find people or things that remain unchanged. In the business world, it is imperative for organizations to stay informed and well versed on emerging media and other societal changes that could affect their business. An organization that refuses to adapt to new changes, technologies, and emerging communication and media outlets runs the risk of falling behind, losing relevance, and ultimately failing in the business sector. When looking at the professional world of strategic communication, Strategic Communication Professionals are required to know and learn every communication and emerging media outlet available for an organization to monetize and /or use for audience relationships. A Strategic Communication professional should never become too comfortable and stagnant in one form of communication or one specific media outlet, as new outlets and communication channels are continuously emerging. While

Bill Gates once said, “If I was down to my last dollar, I would spend it on Public Relations.” This strategic leader understood the purpose, power, and worth of public relations. In most cases, however, business executives and managers do not understand the direct impact tha t strategic communication has on the success of an organization. In society today, with technology continuously evolving and the naturally short attention span that people have, it is becoming more and more difficult for businesses to capture and keep the attention and loyalty of audience members. With the help of strategic communications campaigns, however, organizations are able to stay on the minds of audience members through the consistent relaying of information, messages, and relevant and interesting content. Strategic communications professionals play a major role in keeping organizations relevant to the public while helping the organization grow its audience base and increase consumer loyalty. Effec

A major part of strategic communication that is often not as emphasized as other sectors of the field is crisis communication. Many organizations have a reactive approach to a crisis-- meaning that they hastily react to the crisis once it happens-- instead of a proactive approach--meaning they actively evaluate potential threats or issues and have a plan in place to enact when a crisis occurs. By definition, crisis communication, or strategic crisis management, is a subset of strategic communication designed to protect an organization’s reputation and resolve any public challenges that arise that are a threat to an organization’s reputation. Business crises happen constantly in society, yet very few organizations have a plan in place to deal with these public challenges. Having a crisis communication plan in place is not only important for the company reputation, but for the company value as well. Knight and Pretty (1997) found that companies that took a reactive stance