PRPOI releases report on ‘Insights Survey 2020’ as part of its #InsightsThinkTank series
An upskilling platform at no fee and completely voluntary that ensures you stay ahead of the curve, when it come to PR and Communications! A strong digital community of close to 9500 members across all platforms, at various levels in the PR and Corporate Communications universe, PRPOI (Public Relations Professionals of India) has been an offline and online initiative for nearly 8 years now.
But how did we add value in 2020, the quintessential question, especially when the planet struggled with everything changing? All through 2020, we tracked industry changes and curated sessions every Saturday that would help the PR community upskill in real-time. Another objective that we have adhered to throughout our sessions, is to create camaraderie within the PR industry and showcase new voices from the same. These have been very well received by the entire community.
Putting together 51 speakers through 32 sessions, made it a light-bulb moment for us to reach out to the whole community and get their feedback on how did we fare through the year. And are we pleased or what!
The closed community and the communications industry at large pitched in to share their thoughts. To begin with, we were glad to see that close to 95% of the respondents will recommend us to their peers, who are looking to learn the ropes of the industry. What kept us in good stead was the ability to curate unique content and impress upon a wonderful line-up of speakers – the feedback that we got.
Tarunjeet Rattan, founder of PRPOI asserts, “The world of communication is moving forward at a break-neck speed and if one wants to thrive in the industry then the only option is to upskill in real-time. The last 11 months have merged external and internal communication to create a new roadmap for PR campaigns. And the only way you can upskill is to speak to industry veterans as it happens. There will be time for analysis later on. It has been heart-warming to see the PR industry in India support us and take up our upskilling sessions and keep coming back for more. This year we intend to go global and discover new twists to the PR adventure and add new voices to the conversation”.
Close to 50% of the respondents managed to be part of most of the #SaturdayLives alongside highlighting strong validation for PRPOI as a platform to learn with and upskill. That brings us to what continues to interest the industry is the ability to hone skills in the field of external communications (for all stakeholders). It’s interesting to share that close to 48% of the respondents want to learn and upskill in the areas of – How brand campaigns are led through PR campaigns; ROI in Employee communications; and Generating organic visibility for brands.
Adds our co-founder, Sonali Sokhal, “We never expected such an overwhelming response when we started PRPOI. It has been an encouraging response thus far and the survey was a natural progression in our journey to understand how to curate content better. The survey results show that our curation and content find an audience and upskilling is a very important part of all our professional lives. It’s been a wonderful response from our 9000 strong community”.
Engaging with media has been one of the prominent shifts for the communication industry, as the pandemic forced a lot of changes upon the existence of media houses. This definitely saw a change in approach by the communication professionals, as 65% of the respondents agreed that the communications industry witnessed a huge trove of opportunities.
“Organizations are making efforts to re-look at the skillset of their current employee pool and how one can enhance their talent pool. It was refreshing to see conversations around upskilling employees with the available tools, especially the digital platforms, and that’s what motivated us at PRPOI. Understanding and accepting that constant learning is an essential pathway to build stronger career growth, was the big change that 2020 thrusted upon us. There is no doubt that 2021 will come with new challenges, but we as an industry are prepared to pivot for the better”, shares PRPOI co-founder Pooja Trehan.
The survey also threw interesting nuggets that we as professionals can work from anywhere, to design those narratives and keep the storytelling going. Yes, the PESO model (paid, earned, shared and owned) got its own celebrity moment, when 78% of the respondents agreed that the best use of this model is through a well-thought combination of all platforms.
Just as 2020 thrusted upon us the biggest challenge of ‘Showcasing ROI for Communication Campaigns”, 2021 comes with the strong inclination to learn about global trends such as ‘AI in Communication’ and ‘Purpose led communication campaigns’.
Stay tuned with us because it helps us learn better. Grateful for the immense support extended by our media partners and industry partners all through the 36 episodes! What better way to close this than the sign-off by Jeff Bezos – Keep inventing, and don’t despair when at first the idea looks crazy. Remember to wander. Let curiosity be your compass. It remains Day 1!
Or you can log onto www.prpoi.in to download the report.