Today we have revealed the results from our recent public sector PR agency survey and at the same time published our latest whitepaper on social media in the public sector.
One would be forgiven for thinking that the current climate of cuts would mean doom and gloom for any PR professional in the public sector. And no doubt this is the case for many. But our survey found that on the whole sentiment among PR agencies with public sector clients is reasonably positive and the whitepaper, written by Brighton & Hove City Council PR head of communications John Shewell, emphasises the great opportunity social media represents to public sector PR professionals.
John argues that use of social media to communicate with public sector stakeholders represents not only an opportunity to communicate better but to also do so more cheaply, thus allowing PR to have a positive role in enabling public sector organisations to run more efficiently. "With budgets being squeezed and the public wanting to communicate in ways convenient to them, use of social media in the public sector is soaring," John said.
Our survey revealed that 48 per cent of PR agencies are confident of winning new public sector clients in the next 12 months despite continued cuts. This compares to our similar survey late last year where no agencies expressed confidence in winning new clients.
Also interesting was that we had 52 agencies complete the survey this year, down from 100 last year, despite increased efforts on our behalf to get people to take. I'm not sure what this means but perhaps last year the level of fear was higher, leading to a greater interest in the survey.
The survey also found that the number of PR agencies saying public sector clients made up 40% or more of their business has more than halved over the last 12 months – 17% this year compared to 40% in 2010. Though this conclusion is perhaps a bit unreliable knowing that the sample was very different from 2010 to 2011.
One thing is for sure though, despite the inevitable challenges caused by massive cuts public sector communications can be an exciting place to be.
Check out the survey results press release and the Social media in the public sector whitepaper press release.
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