Targeted communication strategies are crucial to helping organisation deal with a constantly changing political economic and social landscape, says Sylvia Karakatsani, corporate communication manager at GNORA Communication Consultants. In an interview with Politis on 18 September 2016, Karakatsani noted that an increasing number of companies and organisations in Cyprus are recognising the need to boost or protect their reputation and profile.

GNORA, which this year marks its 13th anniversary, was recently named national champion in the European Business Awards 2016-2017. This is an area GNORA is particularly committed to and an award in this category testifies to its success in meeting clients’ needs, she said.

Fundamental to the corporate profile and reputation of any business is effective communication, and this is where the GNORA team can deliver by helping clients across the spectrum of their media relations, be it crisis management media monitoring or the digital world, she added.

Prospects for communication companies are favourable, with the sector emerging relatively unscathed from the economic crisis and more and more companies recognising the importance of adopting direct and indirect communication strategies to achieve their aims, she said. “Particularly in the new, changing and competitive environment, each company faces to challenge of boosting its reputation and developing a relationship built on trust with its customers, the mass media and the consumer. If this communication its systematic, targeted, transparent and substantial, then it will be effective. And correct handling of the media will make it completely successful”, she said.

Karakatsani noted that online and social media constitute a new challenge for all companies, particularly communication companies because though they create significant opportunities they also pose risks. “In a world where information is readily available and the public can freely and publicly express their opinions, communication professionals must evolve and cater for the needs of the day by offering immediate, targeted communication actions,” she said. They must also be in a position to anticipate potential problems and act proactively.

Indicatively, she noted that a significant number of communication crises that GNORA has handled recently have emerged from the new, and not the traditional media. This is because many companies, while present on social media, have still to familiarise themselves with their use and are unaware of the risks. They therefore find it difficult to respond quickly and effectively to comments, complaints or requests from the public. A mistaken or delayed reaction can generate a tsunami of negative comments and lead to a communication crisis, that is why due care must be paid to the content of messages intended for the public and particularly in handling negative comments, she concluded.

With Sylvia Karakatsani – General Manager at GNORA Communication Consaltants

The article was published in Politis, 18/09/2016.