How it used to be: The comms job market has been improving for some time, but mostly for organizations doing the hiring. Thanks to assumptions about AI’s competence as well as overhiring during the pandemic, employers had their pick and took advantage of it. Many communicators were going through weeks of interviews, only to find themselves back knocking on doors. 

How it is now: For the first time since 2022, the “buyer’s market” is swinging back. However, it is still on job-seekers to position themselves properly. 

We tackled these subjects a week apart on Cracking the Comms Code, and both panels came to the same conclusion: It’s past time for communications professionals to treat ourselves like a client and put our best digital foot forward. 

The first panel covered the state of the communications job market and changing expectations for comms professionals, featuring

• Brooke Kruger, Founder of KC Partners;
• Jessica Bayer, Managing Partner, Corporate Affairs & Communications Executive Search Practice at DHR Global; and
• Michael Feuz, Consulting Manager at ITR Economics.

The other panel looked at how comms professionals can use LinkedIn to stand out in the marketplace. This one brought together

• Mollie Johnson, Founder of Three Brooks Marketing;
• Brandon Watts, Director of PR & Communications at Storyblok; and
• Monique Kelley, Communications Consultant, Professor, and Author.

Comms Upstream

The communications job market is changing in part because companies increasingly want communications leaders involved earlier in important business decisions. Instead of making a decision and then asking how to explain it to employees, customers, reporters, or other stakeholders, the boss is now calling on communications leaders to help navigate those decisions in real time. That includes mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, regulatory questions, and complicated new challenges like artificial intelligence and data centers.

That is a different role from simply executing a communications plan, and it’s the one our entire function’s been demanding for generations. However, AI is the elephant in the room here. We have to show that it is a tool, not a strategic solution to all content problems. Put another way, producing more material does not necessarily make an organization communicate better. Someone still has to designate priorities, ascertain what is credible, and choose what is worth saying to whom.

The result is a growing premium on judgment. The communicator who can connect communications to the broader business brings more to the table than the skilled but downstream executor of what’s already decided.

Sell Yourself!

This is where LinkedIn comes in.

It’s not exactly new technology, but it’s become indispensable in the new buyer’s market. If you think LinkedIn is just about celebrations, à la Facebook, then perhaps you’re not using it right.

Start with how you’re engaging with other people’s content. Maybe you’re spending time giving accolades to your former communications colleague – and that’s fine some of the time. But most of your time should be spent putting your experience and insights to work engaging on the content of key recruiters, potential direct superiors, and old contacts who can help you find work.

What does that look like? One approach is to seek to add additional value. Instead of saying, “Yeah, great point!” say, “That’s a great point. In my experience, XYZ is also valuable.” Or, better yet, “That’s a great point. How do you recommend handling XYZ NICHE ASPECT of the issue? We handled it this way at Google.”

Etc. 

You don’t need to find a million of these people, either. Maybe you have a LinkedIn list of “only” 500 contacts and not 50,000. But those 500 followers, if you actually know them and talk to them, will do you tons more good than 50,000 “followers” who scroll past your posts to hit the next Sports Illustrated ad.

In other words, you don’t need to become an influencer. The more useful goal would be too obvious to state if so many communicators didn’t fail to notice it in front of our faces: to become recognizable to the right people. You need those prospective employers, clients, reporters, colleagues, and other professionals to know you before they’ll hire you — just like you’ve always told clients and executives.

Advertising? Not Exactly.

Communicators are particularly vulnerable to thinking our own content is advertising. “I don’t know how to talk about myself” is a phrase we’ve heard a lot when discussing using LinkedIn to find a job. And it makes sense, because we’ve spent our entire career propping up others.

But here’s the thing: If you’ve been successful for 20 years, there’s a reason. You have insights, experiences, and stories that people want to pay for. This means they’ll probably want to read or listen to what you’re saying.

Once you’re comfortable reacting, it’s time to plan. Producing content on other people’s pages is good; doing it on your own is even better. And this strategy is multidisciplinary: Whether you’re trying to get a job at a tech company, a healthcare company, or a food company, you should be creating content that’s only targeted to the recruiters, hiring managers, and hiring influencers in the industries and companies on your docket. 

This disciplined content strategy gives people a reason to remember you. A communications professional’s experience is full of useful information. There is no need to invent a profound new thought every morning when the news cycle is gift-wrapping you something to think about and react to in a value-add way. 

No Cramming

The trust reservoir is not just for crisis communications (though it definitely doesn’t hurt there). The hiring-market discussion and the personal-branding discussion ultimately arrive at the same place: Visibility is most useful when you build it before you need it.

If you start posting on LinkedIn the day you lose your job, you are starting from scratch. If you begin networking only when you need an introduction, you are asking people to help based on a relationship that may not exist yet. And if you begin thinking seriously about your professional reputation only when you are interviewing for your next position, you have missed years of opportunities to demonstrate what you know.

You don’t need to make another full-time job out of social media to get yourself out there. We generated almost $200,000 in revenue from three clients, two of whom hadn’t talked to our founder in a decade. But once they reconnected on LinkedIn, it was off to the races.

A sustainable LinkedIn presence is more valuable than an “overdrive” schedule that burns you out after three weeks. Consistent engagement, thoughtful content, and genuine professional relationships can gradually create something much more valuable than viral reach: familiarity and credibility with the people who may be interviewing you in a few months.

Build the Brand, Yesterday

Ultimately, there are two sides to the professional evolution our age requires.

Companies increasingly want communications leaders who can contribute to business decisions, not simply execute them. At the same time, hiring managers, prospective clients, and other professionals have more opportunities than ever to see how communicators think before they ever sit across the table from them.

You shouldn’t turn your nose up at LinkedIn, and you can’t ignore the importance of personal visibility. It does not require posting every day. It does not require chasing viral content. And it certainly does not require turning your LinkedIn page into a constant advertisement for yourself or your employer.

It requires knowing what you are good at, understanding who needs that expertise, and consistently giving those people a reason to remember you.

Communicators already understand these principles. We tell clients that reputation takes time to build, that relationships undergird the business, that audiences need relevant information, and that credibility comes from consistent behavior.

Surprise, surprise: The same rules apply to us! 

Proven Media Solutions is proud to share both panels below. It’s hard to feel alone when you’re looking for work, so we hope these insights help!

Instead, it requires niching down to each media gatekeeper — a massive challenge when there are a half-dozen ways to reach someone, and journalists are moving at the speed of 24/7 news. 

That was the common thread running through two recent episodes of Cracking the Comms Code.

The first brought together three senior communications professionals to discuss strategies to reach diverse audiences instead of sticking to one broad (but inefficient and ineffective) cohort: 

•   Robert Kuykendall, Director of Accounts at Proven Media Solutions;
•   Ryan Cohn, Chief Strategy Officer & Partner at Sachs Media; and
•   KayAnn P. Schoeneman, President & Co-Owner of Curley Company.

The second flipped the perspective, bringing in three reporters to shed light on how communicators can get reporters to care about your pitch in the first place:

•   Anastassia Gliadkovskaya, Senior Reporter at Fierce Healthcare;
•   Jeremy Lott, Reporter at The Epoch Times; and
•   Scott Carlson, Reporter at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The comms pros and the reporters came from opposite ends of the process to (more or less) agree: Good communication is about making what you say matter to the person hearing it.

Name the Audience

Ask your client or your boss, “Who’s your audience?” If he answers “Everybody!,” run for cover. 

One of the biggest mistakes executives can make is to treat an audience like a giant bucket. But a modest budget spread across five audiences — even if they’re all considered one bucket — will likely just get you five mediocre campaigns. Target your audiences carefully, and your resources will go farther.

Whole Foods doesn’t go after most buyers; the new product needs only 5,000 buyers in a country of 340 million people. Political candidates want only 50.5% of voters, and voters make up only a fraction of the constituency. 

Whatever the desired transaction, identify the audience with the clearest path to the desired outcome, and then work on hitting only that audience. 

“Media” Is Lame. “Journalist” Is Great.

Most pitches fail because they are too general. This means more than just avoiding email blasts. Get more specific about your recipient — down to the particular paper, or better yet, to the particular reporter.

Consider these four easy steps for research and targeting:

1. Figure out which outlets reach the target audience.
2. Zero in on the guy or girl at those outlets who reach the audience.
3. Background-check that journalist. What’s his beat, his niche? What’s he covered lately?
4. Identify the reporter’s style. How does she operate? Live interviews? Breaking news? Evergreen stories? What formats do her last five, ten, fifteen most recent articles take?

You don’t want to be like the uncle who asks his nephew, “How’s school going?” every time he sees him. Yes, fine, the kid is in school, but there’s more to him than that.

Journalists are the same. Before sending a pitch, look for patterns. Understand the questions he’s asking and the stories his publication considers important. Then ask whether your idea will find purchase in his head, and thus on his outlet’s pages. That’s how your pitch email gets a click and a read.

Zoom In, Zoom Out

Oftentimes a pitch email gets clicked because of an unconventional, niche subject. However, the pitch itself will work only if the niche that got the click is connected to a wider issue that person is covering.

Maybe you’re pitching a trade publication with a narrow focus, but the journalist is planning a wider-scale project down the line. Some beat and prior coverage research can reveal that, and you can tailor your pitch accordingly. Or your target outlet might have several different media, like print and podcasts, and your pitch fits only so-so into one but really well into another. 

Deftly laying out the broader context will help your target journalist map out the best use of your content for her outlet. Zeroing in on the hook or the unconventional angle or the exclusive information establishes that you have something to say.

Find the Eager Recruits

Another flaw with the “broadcasting” mindset is the rigid assumption that communication has to come directly from the organization. But why?

What if you can get people who aren’t officially part of the communications department to do some of the message distribution work? How about employees, partners, customers, franchisees? Industry experts? Other advocates? The world is our oyster!

Think about this from the reporter’s perspective. She doesn’t want a canned statement from the CEO. Give her a dozen testimonials from consumers whose lives were changed by the product, or an outside expert with a report that verifies your narrative, or a low-level employee who found his spouse at work. That’s fodder for a story – just ask the surrogates for presidential candidates.

The stories we’ve gotten into major media like Fox News Digital, USA TODAY, and The Hill are not from the $1,600 suits in the 32nd-floor boardroom. They’re people with personal takes with which audiences can connect.

In short, you don’t necessarily need to reach everyone directly if the people who command attention and respect are willing to carry the message for you. There are a lot of credible voices and trusted networks under the company’s top floor, and even outside the four walls. Use them! 

Bye-Bye to Spray-And-Pray

The journalist doesn’t care about making your client look good. He’s cashing a paycheck on his ability to tell a story his employer’s audience cares about.

Those who rely on spray-and-pray blast a message out indiscriminately, hoping someone will pick it up just by virtue of having heard it. Reporters delete that email. Communicators, on the other hand, go to ground. They pick out with precision exactly the kind of journalist — and then the actual, literal, flesh-and-blood journalist — who will make a good partner. Client benefits, outlet benefits, everyone wins.

Watch the most recent episodes of Cracking the Comms Code below:

“We’ve known Susan for over a year, and we’re excited to have her on the team,” said Dustin Siggins, founder of Proven Media Solutions. “She will play a key role as we expand further into serving the B2B space, especially in complex industries like healthcare and tech.”

Powell began her career as a teacher before serving multiple CEOs as an executive assistant. She moved into corporate marketing with two government contractor firms and a global transportation and logistics company, developing innovative strategies and processes each step along the way. 

“I’ve been an in-house leader for years, working with agencies – and now I’ll get to do it from the other side of the table,” said Powell. “After so long on the marketing side, I’m eager to see what I can bring to PR.”

Powell is Proven Media Solutions’ third client manager hire in the last 13 months as the company continues to scale its operations and service clients ranging from healthcare and insurance to public affairs and transportation.

Proven Media Solutions is a public relations and public affairs firm that specializes in putting people in the press.

The organizations that handle crises best have already done the work. They’ve built relationships across departments, empowered employees to communicate confidently, developed trust with stakeholders, and created processes that help people execute under pressure.

And best of all, they’ve trusted their communications team to play a key strategic role in all of it.

That’s the central lesson from a recent episode of Cracking the Comms Code, featuring members of one of America’s leading crisis communications programs in the country.

• Dr. Yan Jin, Professor of Public Relations at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication;
• Jason Anthoine, Senior Vice President and Managing Director at Arketi Inside;
• Jennifer Bowcock, Senior Vice President of Communications & Creative at RealPage, Inc.; and
• Chloe Clavert Hicks, Senior Social Media Content Strategist and graduate student at the University of Georgia.

The discussion centered on UGA’s Crisis Communications Think Tank, where students, professors, and corporate leaders solve real-world communications challenges. What emerged was the blueprint for an organization built to beat a crisis before it starts.

Not Every Fire Requires the Fire Department

One of the first lessons discussed was what should become standard practice in every communications department: define the term crisis before you think about particular crises.

A flood of angry comments on social media may feel overwhelming, but if the organization continues operating normally, serves its customers, and maintains stakeholder confidence, it may simply be having a bad day. A true crisis is more than the spasms of the social media outrage cycle.

Organizations can focus on only so much, and true crises deserve the lion’s share of their attention. Leaders who mobilize crisis teams every time criticism appears eventually train employees to overreact, exhaust resources, and lose perspective when genuine emergencies arise.

Panelists argued for a “continuous readiness” mindset. Crisis management isn’t an emergency procedure tucked away in a binder until disaster strikes. It requires communications, legal, finance, operations, and executive leadership to continually identify risks, challenge assumptions, and prepare for situations before they become headlines.

The Team Hears the News First

When it comes to warding off a crisis, organizations are too ready to overlook their most important audience: their own employees.

Workers answer questions from customers. Friends ask them what happened. Family members send them news articles. Even if they never speak to the media, employees become unofficial spokespersons the moment uncertainty begins.

That’s why internal communications can’t be treated as an afterthought. A polished press release accomplishes little if employees receive conflicting information—or worse, learn about company news from social media before hearing it from leadership.

To cut the wire on a company-collapsing game of “whisper down the lane,” leadership should bring multiple perspectives into the room early in the war-gaming process. Communications professionals, lawyers, finance leaders, product teams, and social media managers all view the same situation differently. Those differences in perspective safeguard against blind spots.

One such overlooked perspective brings in social media teams. These guys and gals aren’t simply publishing content; they’re gathering real-time intelligence. Every comment, direct message, and customer complaint offers valuable information about how audiences understand — or misunderstand — an organization’s response.

Companies that treat social media teams as strategic advisers instead of content distributors gain an enormous advantage during fast-moving situations.

Trust Isn’t Built During a Crisis

Long before the crisis hits, every company has an account with the “trust bank.” Every honest conversation with employees, every transparent customer interaction, every fulfilled promise, and every thoughtful decision becomes another deposit in the trust bank. When the time comes to make a withdrawal — and it will — leadership should make sure the account is well padded.

Executives often feel compelled to respond immediately when disaster hits. But sometimes strategic silence is the better choice. Rushing incomplete or inaccurate information can inflict more damage than taking time to understand the situation.

That’s not an excuse to cower under the mahogany desk. On the contrary, knowing when not to speak requires preparation every bit as much as knowing what to say.

The same principle applies to artificial intelligence. AI can quickly summarize thousands of comments, identify emerging trends, and help communications teams work faster. But today’s tools still struggle to interpret sarcasm, humor, and emotional nuance. Leadership absolutely must keep a “human in the loop,” because AI can’t handle the job on its own. Instead, combine AI’s speed with human judgment.

None of these systems can fix a disaster at the moment it’s unfolding. Every one of them needs to be in place, earning credibility for the company, well ahead of time.

The Best Crisis Plan Starts Long Before the Headlines

Crises are part of running an organization. The CEO may not show up at a Coldplay concert, but it’s up to you as the comms person to make sure you’re ready when the plague of locusts shows up out of nowhere. If it’s not one thing, it’s another, so companies need to make preparation and flexibility a part of their daily routine.

This means fostering a broader culture of readiness. It starts with acknowledging the trust bank’s existence and taking deep breaths to distinguish between a true five-alarm fire and a flash mob of loudmouths on X. From there, the rough-and-ready company makes regular trust deposits with customers, stakeholders, and employees; keeps everyone on payroll up to date; and consolidates the whole team, human and robot, into an elite crisis-crushing unit.

The strongest crisis response isn’t a perfectly crafted press statement written two minutes to midnight. It’s an organization that spent years preparing so that, when the pressure sets in, everyone already knows what to do.

That theme surfaced repeatedly across two recent episodes of Cracking the Comms Code. Communications leaders from healthcare, technology, agencies, internal communications, and media relations  —  including Jasper Hamill, Lindsay Lapchuk, Alan Shoebridge, Keith Berman, Jennifer George, and Meredith Klein  —  explored what AI is really doing to comms, not what everyone fears it’s going to do.

Put simply, AI is dividing the people who create content from the people who create business value. The winners will be the communicators who do both — but are known primarily for the second.

Content vs. Counsel

The first panel focused on the content side of the AI era. Shoebridge argued that there’s now a strong inverse relationship between content (abundant) and strategic counsel (scarce). The “A” in “AI” doesn’t stand for “adviser” – the robot won’t tell you (or at least won’t do a good job telling you) what should be communicated, when, to whom, and why it matters to the business.

That’s where Shoebridge said the best communicators will stand out. They’ll move beyond trying to outrace AI systems and move to where humans do their best work – talking to other humans, understanding problems, and creating solutions.

Part of counsel is knowing the content strategy, including what narratives hit home the best. It’s easy to use AI tools for content creation, so the next frontier is learning (quickly) to use them well.

Hamill argued that the premium now sits on exceptional stories, memorable headlines, and interviews that uncover insights experts didn’t realize they had.

How do you get the AI to do all that? It starts with asking better questions.

Instead of broad prompts, experienced communicators ask for specific moments, decisions, or turning points. That gets them the gem in a piece of content to develop into a story that hits home.

And, finally, yes, you do have to know what AI search is up to. Lapchuk explained that customers, investors, job candidates, and journalists increasingly begin their research with AI tools. Every organization already has an AI reputation, whether it is managing one or not.

The strongest communications teams are working alongside SEO, sales, and product marketing to understand the questions buyers actually ask and to ensure AI systems have accurate information about their companies. Earned media, executive thought leadership, customer stories, and owned content all contribute to the information AI uses to generate answers.

Companies can’t control every AI response. They’ll have to work twice as hard, then, to influence the information that drives those responses – starting with counsel, then finding outstanding narratives, and then making sure those narratives spread properly. 

The Right Counsel Earns Trust – and Budget

The next panel barely mentioned AI, but elevated the “counsel” conversation to its highest strategic levels.

George urged communicators to tie their work to acquisitions, restructurings, market expansion, and other major business decisions instead of communications outputs. She said asking the finance squad for help did wonders for her business education and, later, her career as a comms executive. 

Klein encouraged professionals to think like business leaders who specialize in communications rather than communicators trying to learn business. That’s the only way to ensure that the C-Suite listens to you, on everything from forward-looking predictions to urging them to ditch the tie and go with an authentic approach to executive messaging. 

But trust doesn’t always come with all of the necessary tools. The Wall Street Journal article about CCOs storming the C-Suite had a number of shortcomings, including what George called an “unfunded mandate” where a single high-paid person is doing the work of five. Sure, the title and cash are nice…if you don’t burn out.

So start quantifying your work. Measure your workloads, calculate the cost of poor communication (you can be creative about this), and demonstrate how effective internal communications improve productivity and reduce risk. When you have data to leverage, you can act like the finance department and make a business case for your work, and the resources it deserves.

And, finally, Berman argued that if you want to be trustworthy, speak candidly. He’s been in external and internal comms, and since employees are a company’s most powerful asset, speaking candidly (and intelligently, armed with the data) is the only way to ensure that you are seen as equal to the longstanding members of the C-Suite. 

Enjoy each panel discussion in full below.

The real goal is becoming someone the C-suite instinctively calls before the biggest decisions are made. That happens only when communicators stop thinking like messaging specialists and start thinking like business leaders.

That was the recurring lesson across two recent episodes of Cracking the Comms Code. In one discussion, I was joined by

•       Ellen O’Brien, founder of Hudsons Media;
•       Conrad Bellehumeur, a veteran chief communications officer now working in fusion energy; and
•       Sarah Graham, cybersecurity lead at Kickstand.

In the other,

•       Lainie Keller, a longtime pharmaceutical communications executive;
•       Alex Dudley, VP of Communications at Cognizant; and
•       Erin Weinstein, Managing Director at SKDK,

explored what it takes to position executives for success.

Six accomplished communicators  —  in healthcare, cybersecurity, technology, government, public affairs, and energy  —  came to more or less the same conclusion: Speaking C-suite isn’t a “nice-to-have” anymore. It’s a core competency.

Build Trust Before It’s Needed

Every panelist, regardless of industry, kept returning to one idea: Trust comes before influence.

O’Brien noted that communicators are often brought in simply to execute instead of being given time to build relationships with leaders. But it’s those relationships — developed long before a crisis hits — that transform a communications professional into a trusted adviser.

Bellehumeur said the same pattern has followed him through government, transportation, defense, and energy. Trust under pressure might work in a pinch, but it’s not what you want fro leaders over your career long-term. Instead, you want the people who matter to remember that you’ve consistently helped them solve business problems before those problems bled over into messaging.

Weinstein offered the flip side from the agency perspective. Clients often hire outside advisers for one reason: to hear what nobody inside the organization is willing to say. Honest counsel, even where it goes against the company grain, is what builds executive confidence.

If executives hear from you only when they need a press release, you’re a vendor. If they call you before making a business decision, then you’re an adviser.

Trust is Built on Learning the Business

Expertise is a no-brainer in every career, including communications. That’s how you get in the door. But it’s not enough anymore to keep you in the room.

Bellehumeur shared his “five keys” for becoming an executive adviser:

•       understand strategy
•       know the operating environment
•       build relationships across departments
•       speak the language of numbers
•       volunteer beyond your communications responsibilities

Alex Dudley took that even further: Be a business person first who specializes in communications — not a communicator who happens to work for a business. Saying you’re “bad at math” is disqualifying. The best communicators read the 10-Ks and earnings releases, understand the balance sheet, and know where revenue comes from. 

Lainie Keller added that business fluency also helps communicators know when not to respond. Sometimes — maybe often! — acting gets attention, customers, and revenue. But the communicator elevates himself into an adviser when he also knows how and when to remain silent for the business’s long-term health.

Learning the business is how we helped a client develop quality KPIs. They first came to us with a lot of useless measures like pitch volume. By the end of the conversation, we turned it around to them to answer questions like:

•       Did the USA Today op-ed help the sales team?
•       Was the Financial Times interview repurposed by business development?
•       How much content time did earned media save because placements could be repurposed on the blog and in newsletters?

Questions Earn More Influence Than Answers

The best advisors usually arrive with questions. Call it “ask, don’t tell.”

Sarah Graham applies the same mindset in cybersecurity. As buyers shift from CISOs toward developers and CTOs — and increasingly use AI tools to research vendors — she constantly asks where audiences actually spend time and how communications should evolve. This is especially important when trying to help technically sound CEOs who are small today but want to scale, because it helps keep everyone focused on success. 

Dudley emphasized another question communicators often skip in a crisis: Who is actually affected? Before speaking, determine whether the primary audience is employees, customers, investors, or regulators. Maybe it’s someone else entirely.

Keller suggested organizing audiences into three buckets:

•       core stakeholders who must align
•       critical stakeholders who require active management
•       contextual audiences worth monitoring

You can’t be lazy about this. The right answer is going to be different in every situation.

Internal Communications Is Business Strategy

Another remarkable point of agreement across both panels was the importance of internal communications. Employees have become ambassadors, skeptics, influencers, and fact-checkers. That’s all wrapped up in the job now.

Keller argued that organizations should tell employees first whenever possible, while assuming that anything communicated internally could become public within minutes — in other words, as O’Brien observed, today’s internal conversation can quickly become tomorrow’s headline.

Dudley described employees as the organization’s authenticity test. They know whether leadership’s words match leadership’s actions.

Bellehumeur stressed that employees trust direct supervisors far more than CEOs several levels removed, making manager communication one of the most important tools in any communications strategy. We’re talking about a lot more than just keeping HR happy here.

C-Suite: Think, Speak, Lead

Across both conversations, the message was consistent: Communicators who earn lasting influence are doing more than simply writing better messages. The next level is that they understand the business. They ask smarter questions. They build trust before it’s needed. They connect communications to growth, risk, operations, finance, and strategy. And they’re willing to tell leaders difficult truths when everyone else is simply nodding along.

Speaking C-suite has to go beyond learning executive buzzwords or faking it ’til you make it. You have to do the work, which starts with learning to think like an executive before you ever speak like one. That will get you in the right headspace to understand that your goal is not to ask politely for a seat at the table. The people already sitting there will get up and come to you, because they can’t afford not to.

Watch each panel below.

In a trilogy of Cracking the Comms Code episodes, we convened industry experts and thought leaders to explore how PR professionals can level up their skillsets to drive the greatest possible impact. Here’s what they told us.

Elevating your PR skillset

Our panelists agreed that although sector knowledge can be a genuine advantage in specialized fields, core skills matter more than narrow experience. PR professionals with strong fundamentals — writing, storytelling, media relations, audience awareness — will always be in demand across industries. What matters is whether you’ve handled similar challenges, not whether you’ve worked for an identical company.

Bringing the right mindset is just as important. That means showing up curious, coachable, and prepared to ask the right questions so you can learn quickly. Understanding how your client’s business works is critical. PR professionals need to know what leadership cares about, how the company makes money, the challenges it faces, and how communications can move the needle.

When speaking with decision-makers, avoid slipping into jargon. Translate your value into business language. Tactics like placements and outputs are only part of the story — what matters is how they connect to a broader strategic goal. The role of a strong PR advisor is to guide leadership and speak credibly to the C-suite. Dig deeper into this conversation with Amanda Coyle of Resilere Partners, Ted Merz of Principals Media, and Executive Communication Strategist Trish Nicolas.

Getting it right from the start

Too many PR campaigns fail before they’ve even begun. Teams build in isolation, protect the “big reveal,” and then wonder why nothing lands. The smarter approach is simple: Test early. Float ideas with a small group of trusted reporters, gather real feedback, and refine before committing.

Relationships matter here. They won’t save a weak story, but they do provide signal — faster replies, honest reactions, and a clearer sense of what will resonate.

Execution then becomes about removing friction. Make the reporter’s job easy. Offer your spokesperson, but also offer multiple angles. Package assets in a way that works for the particular reporter you’re courting. Coverage is far more likely when you’ve laid the groundwork.

It’s also important to think beyond attribution. Getting your client named could be “a good start” instead of the victory. Shaping the broader narrative — and being included as a credible voice within it — often matters more.

None of this works without a clear understanding of the client’s business. PR decisions should reflect commercial reality, internal politics, and leadership priorities. Talk to senior stakeholders early, and make sure your ducks are in a row before you make a push. Many “PR problems” are, in reality, internal clarity problems.

When engaging media, keep it sharp. Pitches should be brutally concise. You don’t need to be comprehensive to garner interest, and you don’t need company boilerplate. If the first line doesn’t land, nothing else matters.

Finally, operate in the world as it is today. There are fewer journalists, with more noise and tighter competition. AI is accelerating output, but the quality isn’t keeping up. That makes targeting, relationships, and judgment more valuable. Chris Piedmont of Slide Nine, Adam Brooks of Candor, and Chase of METATHEORY break-down some of their tips and tricks for PR practitioners here.

From activity to outcomes

The shift PR agencies need to make is straightforward: stop obsessing over doing things, and instead obsess over accomplishing things.

That sounds simple, but it’s harder in practice. It means validating ideas early, aligning internally, executing cleanly, and focusing on influence over volume. Clients won’t be impressed if you tell them nothing but how busy you are. They care about what changed.

The starting point is clarity. Define success upfront in plain terms — revenue, reputation, influence — and work backward. Explain your impact in business language, or else you won’t make the case.

From there, strip out the noise. Drop jargon and long reports. A clear one-pager linking actions to outcomes will outperform any bloated deck. And remember whom you’re really serving: not just your day-to-day contact, but the C-suite above them. If your contact can’t easily explain your value internally, the chopping block is just down the road.

Execution works only when it connects to the wider business. PR amplifies marketing, sales, and positioning. Or at least it should. When it doesn’t, results will always fall short. In this panel discussion Lynda Carlisle of CS-Effect, Melissa Havel of Turnitin, and Ashley Dennison of CommsConsultants.com share their expertise on driving real client outcomes.

Truth-telling and meaningful metrics 

It’s also critical to be honest about what PR can and can’t do. You can’t guarantee coverage — and pretending you can erodes trust. What you can guarantee is consistency, direction, and a steady build of presence over time. That shift from chasing hits to building momentum is where many teams founder.

The same applies to targeting. Reach is easy to inflate and largely meaningless. Relevance is more elusive, and far more valuable. A small, engaged audience that reacts is worth more than a large one that barely knows you. Step away from the vanity metrics and measure what actually matters: message pull-through, meaningful engagement, and inbound signals.

At a higher level, the role itself needs to evolve. Strong practitioners act as partners. They push back, refine ideas, and stay close to the market. They provide activity, certainly, but the real value lies in their judgment.

That becomes even more important as AI accelerates output. Everyone is tied now in the race to see who can produce the most, but there’s still competition for who can think the best. Used properly, AI helps you move faster, not think less. Average content is now abundant. Insight is not.

In the end, everything comes down to one question: Did this PR campaign change anything that matters? Unless the answer is yes, clients have every right to be unhappy.

Watch each panel below.

Communications leaders know this because they’ve watched in horror as their carefully crafted LinkedIn posts are mocked in the comments or inadvertently sparked a social media pile-on after sharing what seemed like an innocuous, brand-safe message.

(Just ask McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinksi, whose simple effort to chow down on his company’s food didn’t sit well with a lot of observers.)

With trust so hard to win and massively easy to lose, creative communicators aren’t just looking for spokespeople on the board, in the company’s Slack channel or through an Indeed job posting. Instead, they are finding the right people whose voice will resonate with ordinary people: physicians who spend their days saving lives, parents whose sick kids are made sicker by bad policy decisions, entrepreneurs who have built – or rebuilt – their businesses brick by brick. 

These individuals can tell stories that customers understand and believe. But they aren’t easy to find, and their message isn’t as simple as a Yelp review or a corny ad. 

Elevating third-party voices is a powerful way to build trust while reducing the risk of turning C-suite executives into lightning rods. Here’s how to do it.

1. Pressure-test the narrative

Before seeking outside voices, make sure the story itself can withstand scrutiny. That means clarifying objectives, challenging internal assumptions, and, at times, telling clients or leadership that their preferred message will not land.

Start with alignment: What is the goal? Who needs to be persuaded? What evidence supports the case?

When we helped place everyday Americans in national and top state outlets in 2025, campaigns did not begin with pitch emails. They began with difficult conversations, rigorous research, and refining a narrative that an independent person could stand behind without compromising their integrity. 

If the story only works when delivered by a paid executive, it is not strong enough.

2. Find voices with real standing

The most effective outside voices are not mouthpieces with clean-cut success stories. They are people whose lived experience aligns naturally with the issue and who hold credibility with the intended audience.

That might mean individuals directly affected by policy, business leaders with firsthand market experience, or someone with a relatable human story. A plainly told account from someone without a grand title often carries more weight than commentary from someone with the letter “C” in their job description, because audiences assume they are less self-interested.

Sourcing these voices requires a disciplined search process. Identify individuals whose backgrounds genuinely support the narrative, conduct thorough interviews, and confirm alignment before drafting anything. The aim is credibility rooted in reality, not over-orchestration.

3. Build for multiple audiences

Once you have the right voice, approach the process like a journalist, not a marketer. Conduct an in-depth interview with the person to ensure they are on board with:

• The organization behind the curtain.
• The narrative you’re pushing.
• Their story’s alignment with the narrative.
• Putting themselves into the public eye.

Record the conversation, then transcribe it. Identify the emotional core and supporting evidence, before shaping the media content to work for four audiences: your organization, its stakeholders, the author, and the media gatekeepers (op-ed editors, reporters, producers, etc.) who will decide whether to feature this voice.

This is where many efforts fall short. Content may please the client, but ignore what editors actually run. Or it may lean heavily on data while flattening the author’s voice. Strong placements require disciplined editing, revision, and fact-checking. The same rigor applies whether targeting a national newspaper or a trade outlet. And remember that, often, regional publications deliver meaningful impact with lower reputational risk.

4. Train for discipline, not performance

A credible third-party voice is powerful, but unmanaged authenticity creates the risk that someone will fly off the handle, take advantage of their 15 minutes of fame, or have a tangential point of view that undermines the entire narrative. 

This is why media preparation is so important. Clarify the core message. Define off-limit topics. Rehearse responses to difficult questions. Align on key facts. In a crisis, independent validators can counter misinformation more persuasively than paid representatives – but only if they are properly prepared.

Preparation ensures that authenticity strengthens your position rather than undermining it.

5. Build relationships before you need them

Third-party credibility should be treated as infrastructure, not a one-off tactic. Develop relationships with experts, community leaders, and customers well before controversy emerges. 

After campaigns conclude, review what worked, be honest about what didn’t, and refine your approach.

In today’s information environment, narratives move quickly. Organizations that perform best can mobilize trusted voices without hesitation. That only happens when the groundwork is already in place.

This article was originally published as part of a sponsored partnership between Proven Media Solutions and Meredith & The Media.

Proven Media Solutions explored how AI is altering the media landscape and driving the emergence of a new answer economy across two episodes of Cracking the Comms Code, featuring:

• Five Blocks CEO Sam Michelson, Scale Without Chaos founder Samantha Riel, and Zen Media founder and PR strategist Sarah Evans on AI’s impact on the PR industry.
• Meredith & The Media founder Meredith Klein, Friday Reporter Public Affairs founder and host Lisa Camooso Miller, and Sources of Sources founder Peter Shankman on what’s next in corporate comms. 

Here are the most important takeaways.

Visibility is being rewired

Perhaps the most counterintuitive insight was also the most commercially important. Despite widespread industry assumptions, the sources shaping AI-generated answers are often not traditional earned media.

Practitioners tracking thousands of prompts across major large language models are finding that owned content, such as corporate websites, structured brand information, and even open press releases, shapes responses the most. Earned media still matters, but it is operating more as a reputational validator than the primary informational input.

This distinction changes how communication value should be sold and measured.

If audiences are asking AI tools to synthesize recommendations or explain markets, they may never click through to coverage at all. It might not be enough anymore for an organization to be mentioned in a piece of earned media. Instead, the organization needs to be “front of page” as the answer to the question searchers are asking.

In practical terms, strategy must evolve from media placement to something closer to answer engineering, which means mapping the questions stakeholders ask and ensuring authoritative brand content exists to address them.

Productivity gains are buying back time

AI is making certain work faster and more efficient. What’s good about that is the time communicators now have on their hands to take care of higher-level tasks. But it also means higher expectations.

On the one hand, teams are already using AI to turn live conversations into content pipelines, transform messy strategic thinking into structured plans, and accelerate operational decision-making. On the other hand, an employee who once generated $120K of annual value may soon be expected to deliver multiples of that. 

On both hands, the takeaway is that AI amplifies the need for human judgment. Used well, it gives thinkers and doers the bandwidth to think and do, with good results up and down the company. Used badly, it takes over uniquely human functions and industrializes mediocrity at every level.

The most effective practitioners treat AI like a junior colleague – training it, correcting it, and refining outputs. Organizations expecting one-line prompts to replace expertise may find that AI-hallucinated strategies are simply fancier ways to put themselves at the back of the line.

Corporate crises now burn hotter and faster

Attention cycles in corporate communications are collapsing, meaning crises can erupt and disappear within minutes — or go on a long rampage, and someone has to know which kind we’re dealing with from moment to moment.

In a media environment where a geopolitical conflict, a viral customer complaint, and a celebrity meme can appear in the same social feed, audiences process outrage differently. Often, they move on fast — even before corporate responses clear legal review. This creates a paradoxical new discipline: knowing when not to respond.

Strong organizational values remain the most reliable compass. Companies grounded in consistent messaging and clear principles are better able to weather episodic storms. Preparation is therefore less about predicting specific events and more about stress-testing core positions in advance. 

Clarity is still king — both in how crises are handled and in how organizations present themselves both to outside consumers and inside team members.

Trust is fragmenting – again

Perhaps the most provocative shift involved in the AI answer economy is social rather than technological.

Audiences are increasingly bypassing institutional voices in favor of smaller, more familiar ones: local journalists, niche creators, subject-matter experts, and micro-influencers embedded in real communities.

Research and practitioner experience both suggest that local media retain disproportionately high trust. A recommendation from a neighbor or respected specialist may drive more behavior than a national campaign reaching millions. Meanwhile, mega-influencer credibility has eroded as it’s become harder to hide that the big guys are just trying to sell something.

For communications buyers, this creates a difficult recalibration. It’s cheap to reach the masses but more expensive than ever to persuade them.

The craft is still everything

One important point to remember is that the same skills that drove success in the 20th century remain relevant today. Narrative still matters. So do third-party validation and consistent positioning. What has changed is the mechanism through which these strengths are discovered and acted upon.

AI-mediated discovery will reward organizations that carefully and thoroughly stock their content libraries. Corporate volatility will reward those with pre-agreed value frameworks and faster internal decision pathways. Fragmented trust will reward communicators who cultivate authentic advocates rather than chasing vanity metrics.

Above all, the impact of communications must increasingly be demonstrated in business terms. Board-ready metrics like visibility in AI outputs, influence on purchasing pathways, and contribution to revenue will shape future budgets — so professionals need to be prepared to chase these numbers and prove their achievements. 

A new brief for buyers – and the industry

For organizations investing in communications services, the takeaway is not that PR has become obsolete, but that the definition of effective PR has expanded dramatically. We need more than just coverage, more than just speed, more than just scale.

Buyers should now demand strategies designed for how information actually moves: integrated owned-and-earned ecosystems, measurable visibility in AI discovery, influence rooted in credible voices, and productivity models aligned to real business outcomes.

For communications professionals, the message is sharper still. AI is exposing where the discipline was never applied rigorously enough. The opportunity ahead is enormous, but only for those willing to stop optimizing for impressions and start competing to become the answer.

Dive deeper into the full conversations in the videos below.