PR as genuine human connection

James Vella Clark is Media and Communications Manager at Corporate Identities and has been in the sector for the past 24 years.

I will start with a small admission: although this year kicked off with a bang, throwing me wholly into work, that did not stop the niggles that sometimes tend to hit me at the start of every year when I somehow find myself rethinking my work, what it means and what its real purpose is.

Let’s face it. Who doesn’t go through such phases? As for me, I found myself asking ‘is my work truly effective? Am I doing things right?’ ‘What could I be doing differently?’ ‘What can I do better to give more value to my work and make it more effective?’

I reminded myself of last month’s article in which I wrote how through our messages and narratives, we seek to engage, provoke and establish real connections and chased my niggles away with the conclusion that if I want to change how I work and improve the way I do things, it is totally up to me.

This brings me to my point: The endless number of nonhuman platforms have turned our lives into a jungle. Messages are constantly flowing from everywhere and to communicate with our audiences, we have to scramble through a jungle of media platforms with the hope that our messages make it through.

I feel that at times, we need to seek ways how to bridge clients and stakeholders through more human connections by returning the very essence of communication to its rightful human dimension.

After all, while technology can help us manage, monitor and nurture communication, it can never replicate the beauty of human engagement with all the forms of intuition, empathy and adaptability it brings with it. Human connection is an instinct, and this remains valid even for stakeholder engagement.

Public relations cannot just be about disseminating information. Our life at work cannot just be about churning press releases but encouraging and helping our clients nurture stronger and more genuine connections with their respective stakeholders. These connections are what ultimately give brands the humanity they seek to foster.

In our work, we need to constantly remind ourselves of what makes us human and this includes aspirations, values and deep-seated connections.

Beyond the aspect of storytelling which evokes empathy with the wider audience reached through media platforms, we need to be the first pillar in the bridge that brands are trying to build towards their audiences and this bridge can only find its solid foundations in human interactions with the audiences that matter most.

Beyond fostering human connections through compelling narratives and stories, our job is to constantly entice our clients to actively listen to their audiences, to understand their needs and concerns, and to engage in genuine dialogue directly with them.

My work does have the potential to become more human – by bypassing our readily available communication channels and going directly to source: more social interactions with the people on whom we rely, through face-to-face meetings, community events and direct engagement with stakeholders.

I am increasingly becoming a believer that every human interaction presents an opportunity to build trust and strengthen relationships.

We have grown too much accustomed to the convenience of online meetings from the comfort of our desks instead of meeting people face to face. Online meetings have sucked out the joy of human engagement when the real stories can only come out from physical interactions – after all, it is human stories that can be the true source of more human connections.