In this edition of the #FuturePRoof podcast Sarah Hall and Stephen Waddington discuss the CIPR; Facebook; Wetherspoons; #AIinPR; and the #FuturePRoof NHS project.

#1 CIPR President’s update: CBI membership

It’s been a while since we caught up to record a podcast. Sarah’s been busy juggling her commitments as President of the CIPR, with her day job as agency boss. She‘s reinstated the quarterly report and talks through the highlights of her first three months. The CIPR has joined to CBI to assert the value of public relations to business.

#2 Facebook data scrutiny; regulation inevitable

The conversation around Facebook and data privacy has grown louder throughout the year. The Cambridge Analytica investigation by The Guardian has brought a fresh round of scrutiny from the UK and US governments. Some form of regulation seems almost inevitable.

#3 Social media fails at scale; it’s a conversation

Wetherspoon closed down its 600 social media accounts last week. The pub chain had an account per property that was used to push marketing promotions. It’s simply not possible to manage conversations at this scale.

#4 Characterising tools and skills #AIinPR

The #AIinPR panel has crowdsourced and characterised third party public relations tools. We’ve mapped these against capabilities in public relations to determine the impact of technology and artificial intelligence on practice both now and in the future. CEO Alastair McCapra gave an overview of the project at the World PR Forum in Oslo this week.

#5 Watch out for a new #FuturePRoof publication celebrating NHS communicators

Sarah’s launching the third version of #FuturePRoof in May. It’s a series of 25 essays celebrating the 70th anniversary of the NHS from the viewpoint of professional communicators.

Key themes include the role of communications in achieving organisational outcomes; how organisations can secure and maintain trust; planning and data; digital-first strategies; how to address barriers to technological innovation; and the role of practitioners in managing change.

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