Networking: the Gen Z dilemma
Without the well-developed contacts enjoyed by senior colleagues, younger PR professionals have often struggled to build careers during the Covid hiatus, writes Lawrie Holmes.
When Covid struck, Titilope Ogunnaike had only been in the PR industry for eight months – precious little time to forge relationships in consumer media before the onset of lockdown.
As a result, the 23-year-old account executive at Four Communications found promoting client campaigns at the beginning of the pandemic very challenging. “I hadn't had time to establish good connections with journalists, so I didn’t have all their contact details,” she says. “Not having that made things a lot more difficult.”
Sheeraz Gulsher may be in his early thirties but is under no illusions about how challenging the impact of Covid has been for younger staff. “It's definitely been difficult for people starting in the industry, because we're in the business of securing press coverage and meeting journalists.
“When journalists were being furloughed on newspapers that were already shrinking it becomes quite a challenge,” says Gulsher, who recently joined social media giant Snap Inc as a communications executive after working in agencies. “It can put a tremendous amount of strain on young people in PR firms under pressure to deliver coverage.”
Geoff Ho, business editor of the Sunday Express, puts the issue in stark terms, suggesting Covid exacerbated an already growing problem created by a lack of physical contact with PRs.
That growing gulf between the PRs of my generation and the younger ones is most heavily signified by the difference in quality of stories, contact and engagement. That’s the most unsatisfactory result for them, and why they need to engage more.
“There’s a huge generational gap,” he says. “Older PRs will have done all the face-to-face meetings, lunches and so on, so their relationships are very strong. But when it comes to younger PRs, some don't like physical interaction and making phone calls, and they tend to rely on emails and messaging apps. So quite frankly, the quality of interaction has gotten even worse during the pandemic.”
According to Ho, who has been at the newspaper for the last 15 years, “That growing gulf between the PRs of my generation and the younger ones is most heavily signified by the difference in quality of stories, contact and engagement. That’s the most unsatisfactory result for them, and why they need to engage more.”
One of the issues affecting younger PRs has been the impact of remote working, limiting the opportunities to learn that working side by side in an office provided. Digby Halsby, who heads communications consultancy Flint Culture, says: “Seeing first-hand how senior staff conduct themselves with clients or with journalists, in both formal and informal situations, hearing them pitch on the phone or develop a concept through creative collaboration with a high-functioning, tight-knit campaign team, is missed if they are working from their bedrooms.”
Digital focus
Some might argue that the tech expertise of younger PR professionals can to some degree mitigate a shortfall in physical engagement. Tariq Peters, a 28-year-old senior communications executive at agency Hard Numbers, says remote working initially posed a challenge engaging with a “wide variety of people, where some people at the senior levels may not be tech savvy. But as a younger PR practitioner I was able to lead the way in terms of digital advancement.”
For Halsby, it's important not to underestimate the ability of younger, digital-native staff to forge meaningful connections with social influencers, journalists and industry thought leaders through social channels. “Establishing a rapport with a journalist through an Instagram post or a sparky Twitter exchange can often be just as effective as the more traditional, and perhaps less socially acceptable, boozy lunch,” he says.
Ho remains unconvinced of that line of argument. While any strengths in social media may demonstrate a degree of openness, honesty and willingness to share, it also presents a “massive double-edged sword,” he says. “In my experience, it leads to more problems than it actually solves. The problem with younger generations and social media is that they will put absolutely anything and everything on there without fact checking, without quality control and with no regards to consequences.”
Generational gap
Perhaps the biggest concern of all, created by the impact of Covid, could be a gulf created between younger and older PR professionals who have been able to conduct business as usual through lockdown, because of long-established relationships.
Newer recruits, on the other hand, will not have had the chance to bag enough mobile numbers, let alone cultivate relationships with clients and journalists, in an era where reaching journalists, especially by mobile phone, has proven difficult. “For those who are experienced and have been in the workplace longer there's an infrastructure of contacts that have been built over decades,” says James Robinson, co-founder of Woburn Partners. “Younger professionals don't have that access to the same network.”
Perhaps most concerning of all is the idea that senior colleagues may hog relationships with clients and potential clients, as well as journalists – leading to frustration and resentment among more junior staff. So how do you address the potential gap? “You just have to make sure the temptation is not to fall back on calls between directors or account managers and the client,” says Robinson, who encourages younger staff to be on interactions with clients.
“You have to really go out of your way to encourage more junior colleagues to come on calls, when they might not say anything or very little, even if there can be a sense of awkwardness on both sides.”
When it comes to Zoom or Teams meetings, everyone needs to be on screen, says Robinson. “I'm very insistent that people are present, are on camera. Ultimately, it's just about forming good habits.”
Although the gulf may disappear as Covid wanes, there is still an onus on younger PRs to meet clients and journalists in person. “I think some people are intimidated by news reporters, rightly or wrongly, but the only way to get over that is to meet them in person,” says Robinson. When it comes to client liaison, he’s looking forward to the in-person moments that help build a rapport. “After all, it’s harder to build a sense of shared purpose and camaraderie with clients when you're not all in the same room.”
Despite the challenges, Snap Inc’s Gulsher is upbeat about the future. “I freelanced for a while recently and I've seen how different agencies have operated during Covid, offering support to more junior employees, who may be struggling with limited resources. “If you ask for support, I’m very confident most companies out there will offer you that. Younger staff will be pleasantly surprised because there are lots of things in place to help.”
Case study: Felix Henderson, (27), co-founder of full-service agency Look After Group:
"When you start a new business from scratch, especially with a team early in their careers, building personal relationships with journalists is massively important. And it's sort of nigh on impossible to do that in a virtual setting instead of meeting for a coffee or bumping into them somewhere in an event. It feels forced to say ‘let’s jump on a zoom call for half an hour just to have a chat.’ It's completely unnatural.
"Over the past two years Covid has meant a further acceleration to the digital takeover, but I don't think we're at a stage yet where it's going to completely negate physical interactions.
"I'm really keen that as a business, myself and our team really focus on getting out there and making up for lost time, meeting face to face, making connections and building relationships.
"It's inevitably going to be about hard work, effort, dedication, and seeing how many people you can meet. It may be old school in that sense, but I think it still carries massive sway today.
"In some ways, I think people have sort of lost the appetite to take an hour and a half to meet one person over lunch. So we've invested less time in trying to force one-on-one interactions and tried to prioritise going to places that people are just going to be attracted to because it’s a bit like it was before.
"Covid-permitting, we have started to hold press events, product launches or trade shows, that kind of thing. And all I hear when I go to those sorts of situations is “Oh, my goodness, how nice to be able to do this again”.
