The on-going technological convergence across different sectors will in no distant time disrupt the activities of Public Relations practitioners and only the innovative ones will keep afloat, CFAtech Founder, Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata said last week.
With industries like banking, media, and technology feeling the impact already, PR practitioners is almost following suit.
“Your industry is disrupted, the only thing you can do is to be innovative. For instance, there is virtually no difference between MTN and TV stations,” CFA told PR practitioners at the Lagos PR Summit.
He said more and more devices are getting connected and more would be connected in future, and this would pose a serious threat to online safety.
The CFAtech founder who delivered a lecture titled “Understanding Cyber Security for Communication Effectiveness” also warned that there is a growing concern of cyber security risks which PR practitioners must be wary of
“This is not an issue of saying that PR practitioners are not involved in the fight of cyber-attacks because it’s a fight that involves everybody, it is not limited to any profession.”
He lamented that virtually all the stakeholders are not cybersecurity conscious enough, charging all to start developing interest on issues that relate to cybersecurity because more attacks are likely to occur in future.
He admonished all the PR practitioners to careful while on social media as well the internet, adding that using a password manager is critical to managing passwords.
According to Chido Nwakanma, Director General of Blueflower Limited, a strategic communications management firm says that the growing concern for employers is how to manage their employees’ social media use and its potential impact on their brand.
“There is an urgent need for organizations especially the media to start developing Social Media Policy in the newsroom just as some media organization like the New York Times in the US.”
He argued that with such policy in place many employees would save themselves the hassle of reputational damage as this could amount to a devastating loss to the company.
While developing this Social Media Policy, it is important to take cognizance of individual rights.
“We need some of the things that are contrary to social media best practice, but they are not documented, no organization will stand the risk of reputational damage that is why we need strong collaboration in this regard by different stakeholders.”
