Piaras Kelly PR - Public Relations in Ireland

John Burns’ Atticus column in the Sunday Times caught my attention in early January. John was writing about an article in the Sunday Times which suggested that blogging in Ireland was running into a bit of a standstill. Needless to say it generated a bit of a reaction online. The interesting aspect Burns pointed out was that despite the huge furore over the article, the Sunday Time didn’t receive a single email or letter about it. In closing, he remarked ‘the agenda may be set on dead trees, discussion is increasingly happening elsewhere.’

I believe that if traditional media are to remain relevant in the future then media outlets need to be at the centre of the discussion. This means proactively engaging with the public. This isn’t to say that they don’t. The press have always depended on engagement with the public, whether it’s radio phone-in shows or getting tips from Joe Public.

The difference is that consumers are increasingly changing their behaviour and the media aren’t adapting to this at the same pace. For example,Helge Tenno highlights some findings from a report which shows that consumers are increasingly multitasking while enjoying other mediums. For example, ‘almost half of kids (47 percent) report texting someone ‘often’ or ‘sometimes’ about what they are watching on TV—an activity that was almost unheard of five years ago‘

Diarmuid O’Riordan brings this to life on the Connector blog with a look at the John Joe Late, Late Toy Show phenomenon. He points out that traditional media has the capacity to connect a large amount of people, but that it also has the potential to extend this relationship online.

The clip of John Joe was seen people who didn’t tune in on the night thanks to RTE’s catchup service, RTE Player, and the inclusion of the clip on their official YouTube channel. A Facebook group comprising of 50,000 members then sprung up and a remix of the video garnered almost 80,000 views on YouTube. The missed opportunity for RTE here was to own more of the relationship

Looking at the relationship media organisations have with their audience, they ned to recognise changes in their media consumption habits and create more consumer touchpoints in order to build loyalty. For example, consumers are texting and tweeting during TV shows, what type of audience interaction tools are the relevant TV channels and shows using to engage with people conversing about them?