In the last 10 years, changes in the way news and information are disseminated and received have outstripped the predictions of even the most imaginative futurists. As a result, the edges of the communications disciplines—communications, marketing, and public relations—are softening, overlapping, and blending. What's emerging is a new role, framed to meet a rapidly changing environment.

The three communications niches are no longer neatly separated and defined. They flow into one another just as a person can fluidly move from email to social media or from website to printed collateral. Information moves with the speed of a click, and communicators can no longer afford the cumbersome restrictions of titles connected to marketing, corporate communications, or public relations. Today's professional must be able to understand the influence of different content channels and be able to adapt appropriately. What's more, an association's organizational structure must support this kind of approach.

Effective communications deliver relevant content to people when, where, and how they want it. Those responsible for conceiving, crafting, and sharing that information should think and function differently than in the past, as should their organizations.

Information moves with the speed of a click, and communicators can no longer afford the cumbersome restrictions of titles connected to marketing, corporate communications, or public relations.

This is where the hybrid marketing-communications-public relations professional comes in. This new role requires the ability to perform across multiple disciplines, such as analytics, automation, content marketing, and mobile and social networking. This professional can provide integrated solutions for an association, something that used to require multiple agencies or in-house professionals.

Defining the Role

There is no single model for this role and no end to the variety of titles and defined disciplines it may encompass. So it's no wonder the hybrid communicator is, as yet, a rare thing.

Because of newly emergent disciplines, like content marketing and strategy, relationship marketing, and social media strategy, the work of hybrid communicators can be difficult to define. Association leaders must be able to clearly articulate what hybrid communicators look like in theory and inside their own organization. Note that this role doesn't need to belong to just one person.

Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, said at the May 2016 PRSA Strategic Collaboration Conference in Chicago, "The converging roles of PR and communications with content and marketing is creating rapid demand for new strategies, skills, and expectations. Communications professionals who fast-track their ability to adapt and evolve, as earned and owned media intertwine, will gain a competitive advantage in their roles in the new world of participation marketing."

Making Change

The evolution of the role happens through collaboration, learning, sharing, exchange, change, and above all integration. It starts with understanding how each part of the communications process works separately and together.

Steve Radick, VP, director of public relations at Brunner, a Pittsburgh-based marketing and advertising firm, recommends rewarding integrated behavior and creating ownership teams for campaigns and initiatives. For example, a tradeshow interaction can turn into a white paper, Instagram videos, tweets, or news releases.

And, according to Adam Singer, an analytics advocate with Google, shared key performance indicators (KPIs) rarely exist across departments within an organization. In order to integrate the communications roles, he recommends sharing and analyzing metrics across departmental silos to bolster the impact of messaging.

For example, when assessing the strategy for promoting attendance at your association's flagship event, an email campaign may be considered a success if every recipient opened the email. But would it still be successful if no one signed up for the event through that email? This is a situation that could benefit from sharing performance measurements across departments.

Evolution in Association Communications

Associations need to be open to trying integrated teams and shifting staff roles and structures. This change means letting the digital world be your lighthouse.

The 2016 Economic Impact on Associations Report by McKinley Advisors [PDF], says that associations are increasingly shaking up their products and staffs: 46 percent of associations say they've expanded programs and services, and 36 percent have undertaken a staff reorganization. Jay Younger, managing partner and chief consultant at McKinley Advisors, adds that those staff changes often involve brand-new positions. "You have all of the classic functional areas as meetings and membership and marketing and finance and HR, and all of the things that associations probably will continue to have," he says. "But I've seen a lot more emphasis on digital now in new positions."

And M+R titled its 2016 Benchmarks Study, "Benchmarks X," referring to the challenge of determining which of various communications channels have the largest impact: "When our world and our industry change so quickly, our biggest challenge is often identifying which 'X' to pay attention to."

In other words, if we are stuck in silos, which undermine the very concept of fluid communication, we allow unnecessary impediments to limit the nimbleness and fluidity that can open up authentic communications between an association and its members.