Chages is afoot in the world of government communications

The post Christmas period is a time to re-think the changes we face in the communications field, especially in government relations. I have just joined the Board of Westminster Advisers a consultancy which specialises in public affairs and the management of corporate communications. How do we see the year ahead? Certainly it will not be a case of a change here or a change there. It will be an intensification of the changes began to become apparent last year (2009).

Operating in a world where we advise clients on the best way to put across their views on policy to either the current government or the new team expected in May, is a world away from the old fashioned lobbying process where lobbyists called a few MPs, took them to lunch for a chat with the client and then repeated the process over and over again hoping changes in policy might ensue.

Three new elements are now in play, each impacting on the other.
The first is the greater transparency of government decision-making at local and national level, the second is the explosion of digital new media which means target audiences are now the world, and they can be reached in a few seconds after Tweeting, blogging or entering a Twitter and blog feed to their Website. Did you know that over 100 current MPs are registered with Twitter? There will be more after the election as the average age falls.

The third and final element is frequently missed, it is that far from there being any dumbing down in the content of government and business communications, the quality of work content is reaching ever upwards, or deeper if the truth be told. With consultancies staffed by briliant young people, often with high academic qualifications and research organisations like Demos and The Bow Group, constantly raising their standards, every policy debate is now underpinned by heavily researched facts and figures. Up-to-date facts and not those published six weeks ago. Some consultancies, like Westminster Advisers, are almost like issues research
organisations themselves such is the quality of their day to day work.

So, with a climate which combines open communications where the media can and will pick up on any action taken by clients, a sense of debating in an open playground created by the social media is worrting so many business people as higher levels of research underpinn every argument debated across many disciplines, Life in the communications industry which includeds marketing, advertising, public relations, direct mail and even design, will be nothing like the communications world many practitioners joined a decade ago.

Give me your views and I will talk more about this changing environment. I am lecturing at Leeds Met Uni to their government Masters Degree students in a few weeks and will find your comments worth hearing. They may well inform my lecture.

Lets draw in ideas on how best to mobilise what is now a multidisciplined industry and make sure the business world and the worlds of politics gain from the changes rather than become lost in a sea of new words, new technologies and new standards of issue research.

Reginald