by tanya on October 20, 2011 in Red Ribbon Inspiration

Peace of mind PR or is it?

Bonita Da Serra

In PR, you can literally work from the moon, if there was internet connectivity of course.

At first, working in the tech world frightened me; the new jargon and constant developments. Nowadays, I can’t think of life without these daily conveniences – being able to connect whenever and wherever.

The PR world has also been shifting thanks to the wave of new technology sweeping the industry, which makes life easier, business more efficient and flexible and giving you constant opportunities to grow and develop. However, even though this gives us a wide range of benefits, it also emphasises our deep dependence and reliance on technology.

Think of the last time you posted a letter or heard the word telegraph?  I also laugh at the thought of PR’s hand delivering a press release, instead of sending a quick and easy pitch via email. Today, life is so much easier and journalists prefer it too. Social media has also changed the landscape of PR and to join the social community, you need be more than just a spectator and start getting proactively involved.

Luckily for us, we no longer have to rely solely on the landline and laptop option, as the mobile atmosphere is filling the gaps and providing even more convenience, but also more go-time and less downtime. Being a huge BlackBerry fan (despite the outage), I love having constant access to my emails and social media, even the ease of simply Googling a foreign concept is at your fingertips.

The industry is APPsolutely blooming, with apps for just about everything. The mobile workforce concept is also fuelled due to employees easily able to check an email at any point in time, without the stress of rushing back to the office.

Increasingly smartphones are becoming a standard mandatory business accessory for the person on the go. The recent Blackberry outage caused chaos worldwide, making you sceptical of your dependence on the new and long for the good old days.

Nevertheless, ‘new’ technology is impacting the world in which we live for the better, many are already using apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Weather or even the addictive Angry Birds… but watch this space because the evolution is only just beginning.