Welcome
Research, research, research
This PR Futurist is packed full of the latest research impacting public relations and communications.
- Alarming data from Salesforce about how badly companies are tackling the AI revolution (although good news for us at Purposeful Relations as it shows how many people need our help).
- UK government research reveals public relations is one of the professions most exposed to the impact of AI.
- Ipsos research provides evidence of the link between reputation and business efficiency.
- Ofcom's Online Nations report reveals rumours of XTwitter's demise are wrong and TikTok needs your attention.
And finally for some inspiration check out the Information is Beautiful award winners and entries. Is the way you present your data good enough? Is it informative and easy to understand. Does it grab attention?
Stuart Bruce | PR Futurist
News
Talking AI at the Corporate Communications Conference in Athens
In two week's time Stuart will be in Athens to give a keynote at Greece's annual Corporate Communications Conference. He'll talk about the impact of AI on corporate communications covering everything from ethics and strategy to practical next steps that every communications leader needs to be doing now.
Other speakers include: Dimitris Tsiodras, Chief Press Officer, Prime Minister’s Office; Ana Adi, Vice President & Professor of Public Relations/Corporate Communications, Quadriga University of Applied Sciences; Andre Manning, Director Corporate Communications and Public Affairs, Tata Steel Europe; Andrew Bruce Smith, founder of digital communications consultancy Escherman.
Karen Marshall
corpcom.gr
Get in touch
Thinking About Change
Well done! You have almost completed 2023 and hopefully you will find time, as one usually does, to celebrate the year. At Purposeful Relations it feels as though we have (finally!) come out of the shadow of the pandemic as we see more clients in person and travel to more conferences and events. While a lot of work is focussed on technical and process change, it is always the people that are in the middle that are our focus.
We are always delighted to talk about your challenges, no matter how early in the process of change you are. Book a call with us and let’s start a discussion about change and how we take you and your colleagues on the journey.
Tim Bailey
purposefulrelations.com
Data, measurement, analytics
Information is Beautiful award winners
As a visual thinker, I love a well-designed chart or graphic that pulls a story from a morass of data. So the entries to the Information is Beautiful Awards are a delight to review. As an added bonus the previous year's winners are also on the site—something other awards could learn a lesson from. Browse the entries and be inspired.
As a keen cyclist I enjoyed the history of the Tour de France in statistics, which really satisfy a data ‘enthusiast’ like myself. Though nothing beats watching the actual event. of course.
Tim Bailey
informationisbeautifulawards.com
AI, digital and social
New business guidance to boost skills and unlock benefits of AI
New draft guidance from government aims to support businesses throughout the UK to upskill their workers with the tools they need for jobs alongside AI.
Stuart Bruce
www.gov.uk
AI in (higher) education: A call for sector-wide collaboration - Chartered Association of Business Schools
A fascinating account of work done at Warwick Business School that uses AI as a positive contribution to student learning. WBS have created a private (not internet connected) AI system to provide formative feedback to students on their long form writing, such as essays and dissertations. The results have been promising and student engagement high.
This feels like the right approach, as it honours ethical and data security principles and offer students value to their learning. If you are currently using AI and don't have ethical and data security guidelines in place, talk to us as we can help you get these important policies in place.
Disclosure: I worked for the pre-Charter ABS for eight year's at the turn of the millennium.
Tim Bailey
charteredabs.org
PRSA Releases Guidance on Artificial Intelligence | PRSA
The Public Relations Society of the America (PRSA) is the latest public relations association to publish guidance on the use of artificial intelligence for communications. It joins guidance already published by the PR Council and ICCO's Warsaw Principles.
Stuart Bruce
prsa.org
Research and reports
More than half of generative AI users use unapproved tools at work
The AI revolution is like the early days of social media in so many ways. Back then the response of many companies was to either ignore or ban. Both are now happening with generative AI.
More than half of AI users in the workplace are using unauthorised tools and even more shockingly 40% are using banned tools. Just like with the early days of social media banning is the most dangerous approach. Banning is intended to reduce risk but usually increases it as human nature means people will find ways to ignore or circumnavigate bans.
Companies are creating these AI risks themselves as seven in 10 workers have never completed or received training on how to use generative AI safely and ethically at work. Eight in 10 companies don't have AI policies. In the UK it's even worse as it's nearly nine in 10.
Salesforce researched more than 14,000 workers in 14 countries.
Have we ever mentioned that Purposeful Relations helps clients to create AI policies and strategies and provides training? 🙂
Stuart Bruce
salesforce.com
PR is one of the jobs most exposed to the impact of AI
Public relations is one of the jobs most exposed to the impact of generative AI like ChatGPT. The UK government's Department for Education has just published "The Impact of AI on UK Jobs and Training" report. It is one of the first to try to predict the impact of the latest AI developments on the UK labour market. It estimates that 10-30% of jobs are automatable with AI.
Not surprisingly it predicts that professional occupations such as management consultants and business analysts; accountants; and psychologists are most exposed. Some of the least exposed are sports players, roofers, plasterers and cleaners.
It's important to note that the analysis measures the exposure of jobs to AI, rather than distinguishing whether a job will be augmented (aided) or replaced (substituted) by AI. The difference between augment and substitute is critical. The report identifies writers, authors and translators are the occupations with the highest automation.
PR professionals who think 'senior' or 'strategic' roles are safe from AI are mistaken as AI can already be used to augment these roles extremely effectively. AI isn't just for entry or mid-level content creation roles, but can also be used for strategic planning, audience insight, reputational risk assessment and much more.
AI isn't coming to take your PR job, but it is coming to take the jobs of PR professionals who aren't expert users of AI.
Stuart Bruce
www.gov.uk
Unlocking the value of reputation - research provides evidence of link to business efficiency
The latest Ipsos Global Reputation Monitor is based on research in 24 countries and explores the relationship between a good reputation and better business efficiency. It provides evidence of the relationship between corporate reputation and business efficiency. Building trust gives companies an advantage in telling their story in times of crisis, marketing their products efficiently, and turning stakeholders into advocates.
The five key takeaways are:
- Corporate reputation strongly impacts business efficiency. A strong reputation cultivates better relationships with important stakeholders – those whose support helps a business to deliver its objectives.
- Trust increases marketing efficiency across industries and geographies; consumers are more likely to engage with and act upon advertising from the companies they trust. Trust also positively impacts buyers' feelings towards a company’s products/services and their willingness to pay a premium.
- Building trust builds up reserves of equity companies can use for improving business performance, alongside better potential outcomes when facing unforeseen difficulties.
- Having a good reputation ensures a company’s voice is heard during crises and that they are given the benefit of the doubt. Trust plays a significant role in this, acting as a safety net, with over half of the people who trust a company likely to support it during a crisis.
- Building a strong reputation to gain benefit of the doubt is crucial in all sectors, especially high-risk ones. Trust and benefit of the doubt are highly correlated; as trust increases, so does the potential for support in challenging times.
Stuart Bruce
ipsos.com
Ofcom Online Nations 2023 report is out
The 2023 Ofcom Online Nations is finally out. It's usually published earlier in the year and is the definitive data source for how the UK uses the internet and social media.
You need to understand what social media platforms, online news sources and other websites and apps that your stakeholders are using and how they are using them.
Two stats jumped out for me. First the demise of XTwitter is nowhere near as bad as you might think if you listen to the loudest PR and social media types. The second is that you can't ignore TikTok. It's for everyone, not just young people.
Stuart Bruce
ofcom.org.uk
100 keywords now searched for more on TikTok than Google
Ignore TikTok at your peril. Digital PR agency Rise at Seven has conducted research that found more than 100 keywords are now searched for more on TikTok than Google. The agency analysed more than 5000 keywords across multiple industries.
If you think TikTok is just for the kids then think again as you're several years out of date. This year's Ofcom Online Nations report shows TikTok passing LinkedIn to become the fifth most popular social media platform amongst all adults and 8.2 million adults 45+ use TikTok.
TikTok is now a relevant platform for corporate affairs and is no longer just the domain of consumer marketing.
Stuart Bruce
linkedin.com
First social media trends report of the season
It's that season again. It's not just the holiday season but the report season when there is a plethora of research reports and predictions for the following year. One of the first social media prediction reports we've spotted is from SEMrush. The 'Report Visionaries' providing insight include Matt Navara (founder of the excellent Social Media Geek Out newsletter and community) and Kristin Gallucci, Adobe's senior manager strategic marketing.
You won't be surprised that one of the five highlights of 2024 it identifies is the use of generative AI. It also identifies TikTok and LinkedIn as the two most important platforms, which is why we've been highlighting both in PR Futurist throughout the year.
Stuart Bruce
semrush.com
New USC Annenberg university report explores the relevance of AI and communications
The USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism has published the Relevance Report identifying emerging issues and forecasts topics and trends impacting society, business, and communication in the coming year. Previous reports have looked at everything from activism to ethics, but this year's focuses on.... you've guessed it AI.
It looks at it through various lenses including education, communications, creativity, collaboration, ethics, transparency, job shifts, bias, climate, and health care.
Stuart Bruce
usc.edu
CommTech tools
What does AI know about you, your brands and your company?
For the last 20 years Google could be described as the world's biggest reputation management engine. In 2024 consumers and stakeholders won't be searching, they'll be asking AI.
This has huge ramifications for corporate communication and public relations. Nobody, I repeat nobody, fully understands how AI large language models answer questions about companies and brands.
Track AI Answers is an interesting tool that claims to track AI answers to questions about people and brands. It does so across several LLMs. It's too early to say how well it works.
What we do know already is that AI's answers to questions about you will be critically important.
Stuart Bruce
trackaianswers.com
CommTech newswatch
Ipsos releases AI corporate reputation analysis tool
Ipsos has launched an artificial intelligence-based platform for modern brand, risk and reputation management. Ipsos Rise – short for Reputation Intelligence for Strategic Evaluation – claims to help brands synthesise disparate data sets, such as news, social media, surveys and regulatory data, into more easily analysed information.
I'm intrigued as to what this actually offers as we are already experimenting with using AI to do the same using both external sources such as media monitoring, social media listening and real-time surveys with internal data sources and financial information.
Stuart Bruce
research-live.com