Navigating the Digital Era Through Public Relations
The spread of fake news and disinformation is incredibly dangerous for individuals and companies, especially in terms of the public relations efforts that many companies utilize. That’s why it’s important for companies to keep track of all of the information about them online so that they will be able to spot any fake news and disinformation before it has spread too far and developed into a potential public relations crisis in the process.
Technology
From the beginning of the evolution of technology, every piece of tech was intended to operate alongside people, however, since the pandemic began, it’s managed to take away from the human experience, replacing it with technology instead. This allowed plenty of companies and consumers to work remotely, while still being able to reach each other all over the globe through the Internet. However, it is precisely humans and human contact that allows everyone to create and share stories, inspire creativity, and get new experiences. That means even though people can benefit from technology, they still need to cooperate and coexist with the technology that has been developed, instead of making technology replace crucial parts of everyday life. Technology should be a tool that can be used to successfully allow people to communicate with one another, as well as cooperate so that people can share their experiences and stories, and inspire each other to be creative in the first place. In terms of public relations, this means companies can use technology to distribute and share the stories that they’ve created with their target audience, however, they need to rely on individual people to be able to create those stories, instead of what companies have tried to do, which is relying on technology to create stories for businesses, in regards to artificial intelligence (AI), for example.
Misinformation
To be able to do that, companies have to start investing a lot more than they ever have in the  past into social listening and data analytics tools. This way, companies will be able to make sure that they take a data-driven approach in terms of most, if not all of their business operations, from figuring out what interests a target audience, to the best way that the company can meet the needs of that audience, as well as prevent any potential reputational damage at the same time. In today’s era of relying on digital information, it’s essential for companies to be able to precisely target any content that might be harmful to their reputation, and deal with any potential issues before they reach a bigger audience. This also allows companies to manage all of the content that they create and distribute in a more trustworthy and authentic way that the audience will find to be relatable.
