Social media has already changed the way that a customer or a client can access a company but now it is beginning to alter the roles communications professionals relate to their own organisations, says Kantar Media. The monitoring firm has produced a report that details the changing roles that the marketing and communications directors will play in the ‘PR 2.0’ world.

The rise of social media has aligned communications far closer to marketing whilst simultaneously intensifying the responsibilities of the original position. Meanwhile the directness of social media has meant the marketing division has lost some of the control over the process after which it is named. Consequently, the marketing director now must find a way to convert the direct access that the communications department has over the customer base into sales. It’s less about accessing eyes and ears and more about maintaining the interest of those eyes and ears; ‘evolution not revolution’ as Kantar Media puts it.

The result of this is a closing of the ranks between the communications and marketing departments. This is particularly true of the marketing director and the communications director who will need to work closely together in ‘new’ roles. They will have to be able to orchestrate their respective departments into creating something that becomes a coherent piece of communication upon release into the ether of the internet.

Whilst the battle lines have long since been drawn for the hearts and minds of the social media using majority, the departmental lines in the office must now be crossed. In the ‘PR 2.0’ environment it will be the communications and marketing director’s who will be at the forefront of the new era for communications. They must find a model that unites their departments and puts their expertise to best use to cope with the new era: the age of social media.