Tough new reality for PR professionals - virtual communication

For years now I've been struggling to get practitioners to use video (yes I know I'm using text here but this is a text-based place). It has been an uphill struggle but I'm happy to say that more than a few of them are having a go now. So I wondered, as I eagerly unwrapped my Google Cardboard this morning, how long it will be before they get to grips with virtual and augmented reality and the huge opportunities presented by these two forms of communication.

It can be applied in so many different areas of stakeholder and community communication. Really, its application is only limited by our imaginations - and perhaps the imaginations of our organisations.

I was delivering a training session last week on developing digital content and one of the delegates was obviously frustrated with the barriers her organisation continually raised when it came to engaging in any form of social communication. Introducing virtual reality into such a culture is going to be a huge challenge for her - but, as a public sector organisation - it will be missing out on huge opportunities for engagement if it fails to keep up.

Lifelong learning is a must for public relations and communication professionals. Only when we learn something new can we then challenge old paradigms and outdated approaches to communication and engagement. And if we don't learn, the reality is that we will simply be left behind or drift quietly into irrelevance. PRINZ and CIPR - along with many other public relations associations have active professional development programmes. And I hope - some time soon - those too will make good use of virtual reality to help us learn something new every day. Right, I'm off to play...