Ecommunications Public Relations in an Interactive World

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E-communications Public Relations in an
Interactive World
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Agenda

• Main challenges facing public relations functions
  from the telecom industry perspective.
• E-communications as a public relations enabler
  tool
• Traditional tools of PR.
• Non traditional tools, and their effect on the PR
  function efficiency.

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Main Challenges

• Integration of Multinational entities in local
  communities
• Multinational entities in Egypt may sometimes be
  portrayed negatively (Sainsburry
  MacDonald'setc. ).
• Misperceptions about Telecom companies tariffs
• Mobile operators may be perceived as contributing
  to liquidity crisis and currency devaluation.
• Some mobile telephony services are perceived as
  over priced compared to land line services
  tariffs.

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Main Challenges. contd.

• Lack of knowledge of the use of technological
  applications
• Facing the challenge of educating the public on
  the usage of Mobile and IT applications
  Voicemail, SMS, Wap, Mobile Internet ...
• Health and Safety concerns
• Negative public perceptions concerning mobile
  hand sets and network antennas poses the
  challenge of raising the level of awareness of
  the true scientific facts in this regard, and
  affecting a positive change of the publics
  perception of the issue.

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E-communications a Public
Relations enabler tool

• Public relations traditional communication tools
• Press releases.
• Interviews and feature stories.
• Press conferences.
• Media gatherings.

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E-communications PR tools

• E-communications have changed the means and time
  boundaries of traditional PR activities, and
  allowed the use of additional resources in this
  area.
• Today the common usage of electronic
  capabilities by PR divisions in companies allow
  to get media monitoring and clippings by e-mail,
  as well as communicating on line with media
  professionals, for news, press releases,
  interviews, QAs etc.
• New interactive IT and mobile applications are
  being introduced, increasing efficiency and reach
  - following are a few examples of what will be
  future PR communication tools.

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E-communications PR tools

• News Rooms
• This is considered a major step in improving the
  news service provided by corporate to
  journalists.
• Journalists can log in to the news room on the
  internet and read corporate press releases from
  around the world, browse the image bank and find
  out about current events.
• Vodafone launched its global newsroom Global
  Media Center on the corporate website at
  www.vodafone.com/media on July 31st 2002.

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E-communications PR tools

• News alerts
• Companies can also use e-communication tools,
  such as mobile short messages (SMS) or e-mails to
  immediately convey their position to journalists
  regarding issues that need clarification -
  especially on topics of urgent nature which do
  not need issuing a separate detailed press
  release or announcement.
• Vodafone has launched Vodafone view on July
  30th 2002, through which journalists can register
  for receiving this service on www.vodafone.com/new
  s to receive Vodafone news alerts by SMS and/or
  mobile e-mail.

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E-communications PR tools

• Future Trends
• Webcast on mobile devices
• This could be a very powerful tool for PR
  activities and announcements to be accessed live
  through mobile devices.
• This year for the first time, Vodafones annual
  general meeting was webcasted live on PDAs to
  all shareholders

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Outlook

• E-Communications tools capabilities contribute to
  change the public relations operations from
  conventional techniques to be more automated and
  interactive processes.
• This will lead to the dis-intermediation of some
  activities.
• However PR professionals and Agencies will see
  their roles significantly changed with more
  focus on Strategies, Business Development and
  Innovation, and less on routine mechanical
  tasks.