I've worked with and among many people who talk about digital transformation as if it were just a case of plugging in a router and attaching some wires. I've heard people get excited about coding, developing new apps and recruiting new skills into the business. I have never once heard about how communication and public relations plays such an important part. It's something I'm hugely passionate about. If you don't have a communication strategy to bring everyone along with you (internally and externally) and buy into the transformation plan, how on earth will you achieve transformation? Communication is key. Effective communication can be the difference between speed and quality. It's an area I want to help more businesses with. Please visit my website www.aura-pr.com to find out more about me, my services and how we can work together. We need to be planning NOW to make the changes and progress for the future.

1. the role of public
relations in digital
transformation

2. Established Aura in 2008
PRCA Dare Awards winner 2018 & 2019
Sir Stephen Tallents Medal 2019
Industry awards judge
Former CIPR Board Director and Council member
Chair of CIPR Fellows' Forum
Recognised PR blogger

3. AURA PR
Consultancy and
Professional Development

4. Digital transformation means different things to
different people.
It is in fact the development of
using digital technologies to create new, or
modify existing, business processes, culture,
and customer experiences to meet changing
business and market requirements.

5. Public Relations is about reputation - the result
of what you do, what you say and what others
say about you.
Public Relations is the discipline which looks
after reputation, with the aim of earning
understanding (and trust) and support and
influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the
planned and sustained effort to establish and
maintain goodwill and mutual understanding
between an organisation and its publics.
CHARTERED
INSTITUTEOF
PUBLIC
RELATIONS

6. Stakeholders are internal
and external.
Public relations strategy
normally starts with
organisational purpose,
the identified problem
and then the solution.
Stakeholder
Mapping

7. PESO model by
SpinSucks
Modern public relations - integration

8. Who
determines
reputation?

9. Society, your stakeholders, anyone who comes
into contact with the brand.
A strong, positive reputation translates into
long-term value in an organisation represented
by confidence in brand equity, intellectual
capital, sustained earnings and future growth.
Reputation is likely an organisation’s most
important asset.

10. DISCONNECT
No consistency between disciplines
POOR UNDERSTANDING OF
SOURCE OF REPUTATIONAL
RISK AND HOW TO MANAGE
Not skilled or experienced in this area
and don't bring in skilled resource to
advise e.g. PR consultant
LOW AWARENESS OF COST
OF IMPACT
o Market value
o Loss of customers
o Lack of trust
o Loss of supply chain
o Business growth set backs
o Internal culture change
o Staff loss
Why
organisations
find it difficult

11. CRISIS
COMMUNICATION
When a crisis hits, do you have
a crisis plan in place?
This is developed by the
leadership and public relations
team.
Right people are involved at the
right time, with the right amount
of information and the right
checks and balances carried
out, with the right
communication at the right
time, on the right channel, to all
stakeholders

12. 8 steps of digital
transformation
AURAPR(SCOTLAND)LTD
1. Establish the purpose and objectives of the business. Put
the customer at the centre and build a platform around their
needs.
2. Use data to inform strategy and keep testing, learning
and iterating. Good governance is essential.
3. Develop a manifesto around how you will commit to keep
developing. Ensure every change is a step closer to purpose
and achieving goals. Flexibility is key.
4. Use automation to streamline processes and machine
learning to keep evolving and getting closer to augmenting
decisions.

13. 5. Get agile. Share ideas and collaborate across the
organisation, regularly with the shared ambition of meeting
customer goals. Breakdown internal barriers.
6. Empower people. Identify skills gaps, retrain and
upskill, reward thinking differently and encourage
entrepreneurial mindsets. Diversity is essential to truly
represent customers and bring in new ideas and
experiences.
7. Risk and security. Ensure processes are risk assessed
and security is a priority. For example cyber security and
data.
8. Scalability. Build this into the strategy.

14. HOW PUBLIC RELATIONS
CAN HELP ACHIEVE DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION
Breaking it
down Helping businesses to understand and define
purpose and objectives and presenting this in a
clear way
Use these definitions to communicate with
customers, letting them know of changes coming
and how it will improve their experience – keep on
communicating
Empowering employees to affect behaviour
change and upskill – trying to get them to change
the way they work requires careful
communication, additional requirements such as
training need to be considered and how you
communicate with the team could either have
them onside or be a disruption
Facilitating a sharing culture and encouraging
regular communication opportunities will fulfil the
need to share data and also, to encourage an
agile way of working

15. Power of
Public
Relations
Develop any useful materials for internal
or external use which may help
stakeholders understand changes and
timescales and the impact on them
Communicate any positive news externally
to stakeholders such as media, partners,
suppliers
Work with IT and HR to ensure the risks
around the new platform, processes and
timeline are assessed and worked into an
issues and crisis communication plan
Monitoring what’s being said by
stakeholders and using this to inform
developments going forward
Reacting to enquiries and continuing to
look for collaborative opportunities

16. "Building resilient trust through
meeting employee expectations."
Edelman Trust Barometer 2019

17. Great communication requires PR
professionals to be inspiring, empowering
and confident.
What happens if we don't communicate
the transformation or we don't do in a
transparent, relevant way?

18. aura-pr.com
hello@aura-pr.com
Thank you!