Regional Managing Director of Ogilvy Africa, Akua Owusu-Nartey, has stated that its vital for a Public Relations (PR) professional to tell their stories in order to prevent others from doing so on their behalf.
In the world dominated by new media, she argued that social media will kick start conservations and come up with conspiracy theories “if something happens and no one says anything for the brand is affected.”
“You need to respond quickly to issues, especially when a crisis occurs because if you don’t tell your story others will tell them for you. If something happens and no one says anything, social media will kick in with the conspiracy theories and by the time you actually have the time to communicate, you’re on the back foot and you stay there forever,” she stated.
Akua Owusu-Nartey said this during a panel discussion at the World Public Relations Day (WPRD) celebration organized by Global Media Alliance (GMA) at the Holiday Inn, Accra under the theme; ‘The Evolution Of PR: Shifting Skillset Required Of Today’s PR Professional.’
According to her, although social media has presented numerous advantages to the PR profession, it also has its own disadvantages.
Madam Owusu-Nartey further described social media as a double-edged sword. “Social media has helped and harmed us at the same time. If you have a story, tell it yourself to avoid others from doing it on your behalf.”
With a myriad of content format and platforms associated to social media, she insisted PR professionals can take advantage of that and utilize them for the overall wellbeing of their stakeholders.
“The first thing for me when I think about social media is the fact that there are so many content formats today and different platforms which have different uses.” she said.
Madam Owusu-Nartey added, “We need to think about the platforms we can use to address issues. Twitter is a gangster and not everyone can live on twitter. If I have a client who is gentle, I’ll advise them against using twitter.”
“The first thing to understand is the various platforms and how they work if one wants to use them. You need to understand the person who lives there and how messages are broken down. The second is that there are different media content now and you can choose short video content or any other format, understand these content format and how to tell the story in a multifaceted way. For example, if I am doing a brand launch, then I will profile my people on one platform and talk about the product on another,” she explained.
The Ogilvy Africa Regional Managing Director further described social media as a weapon which can cause devastation to a corporate brand. “It is therefore critical for PR professionals to prioritize social listening and dose any flames before they get out of hand”.
