Key Aspects Every Public Relations Professional Must be Aware Of

Vorasit Turongsomboon, holding an International BBA degree in Accounting from the Faculty of Commerce & Accountancy, Chula- longkorn University and having completed his Master’s degree in Marketing Communications from Bournemouth University, Vorasit has over 15 years of experience in diverse marketing functions such as Public Relations, Influencer Marketing, Advertising, Brand Management, Integrated Marketing, and Marketing Strategy.

In a recent conversation with Prisila (Correspondent, Asia Business Outlook), Vorasit shared his insights on various aspects pertaining to PR in today’s business context. Below are the excerpts from the exclusive interview -

How has the steady shift from offline to online mediums impacted the way PR professionals connect with their audience?

PR professionals must learn to adapt themselves to the changing business landscape and market dynamics every single day. When it comes to choosing between offline and online mediums, in the past, we used to think about the kind of media we'll be pitching our content to. However today, when it comes to online medium, we need to delve deeper on ways we can engage with our target customers and engage with the media. As a result, online has definitely had a huge impact on how PR professionals connect with their audience despite their fundamental principles remaining unchanged, i.e. content and storytelling.

Throw some light on how the emergence of social media has disrupted PR professionals initiate brand-customer interactions online.

The rise of social has played a significant role in driving the PR industry forward. Today, the role of social media is mainly to create conversations with the target audience. Thus, instead of the usual way of storytelling, PR professionals need to think about how they can leverage content on social media to initiate organic and genuine conversations with their target customers. As a result, the spectrum of how we narrate the story is changed today, wherein instead of the brand telling its target audience the story that it wants to tell, we need to think of creative way in which we can come-up with a brand story which the audience can be a part of. This has been a major evolution on how social media has transformed the way PR professionals initiate conversations between a brand and its potential customers.

Suggest a few effects ways in which PR professionals can ensure consistency in brand messaging across different channels.

To maintain a consistency in the brand’s communication, you need to have a strong brand message and make sure that it reaches the target audience of the brand. Since the consistency comes from the brand itself, we need to maintain a consistency in the way we deliver the brand message to the target audience as well. However, the brand must also be agile in terms of the conversations and messaging, wherein whenever we allow our target audience to be a part of that conversation, we need to be flexible and open to accepting the variety of other new kinds of content that can be created from the consumers themself.

"To maintain a consistency in the brand’s communication, you need to have a strong brand message and make sure that it reaches the target audience of the brand"

What is the importance of implementing influencer marketing partnerships into a PR strategy to enhance brand visibility and credibility?

In today’s social media world, influencer marketing is not an option to the brands anymore. It has to mandatorily be a part of the strategy right from the beginning of any branding and marketing campaign. Since there are a wide variety of influencers on social media today, we need to do a careful analysis and then decide on which kind of influencer we can partner with as part of our PR strategy. However, while doing so, we need to have a clear strategy on what we want to achieve from each of the campaigns and be clear in communicating the same to the audience as well. This will help PR professionals in successfully enhancing brand visibility in their target markets.

Briefly explain how PR professionals can formulate efficient campaign strategies while targeting audience across different countries.

The key to successfully working across multiple countries is that we need to ensure that we have a core regional strategy that serves as the primary strategic pillar for PR to fit with the local landscape across all locations. Although we are connected across all regions of the world, each region has its own specific culture and interests. Thus, it is imperative for PR professionals to consider these aspects while strategizing their campaigns across each region.