New-age career options rapidly emerging in communications

In the field of mass communications, new-age career options are rapidly emerging.  Today, with the entry of digital space and media, the nature of emerging career options are many and varied. The scene was different, previously. Earlier, one took off with basic career options in advertising, journalism and public relations - which were restricted to simple client servicing and designing creatives for print/TV ads, developing press releases in public relations and reporting in journalism.

Now, the scene has changed – mainly, with the appearance of digital communication. 

It’s becoming critical to reaching out to markets that are highly segmented and fragmented (specially with the use of the internet), expanding from metros to Tier 2, Tier 3 towns. This market ‘need’ gives rise to yet another need for trained professionals, who know how to use the digital space effectively. The digital platform, therefore, has opened up options in digital marketing, PR & journalism, net advertising, content writing, digital creativity and so on. 

Digital Marketing

FMCG organisations engage consumers through unique, aggressive marketing strategies. Today, they have moved into digital marketing. We have online retail today, and we find there are many more products offers for garments, jewellery, gadgets, furniture, hosiery, leather goods, books and others. Ordering online is surely picking up, with time constraints in consumer purchasing.

What are the work areas that have surfaced? Digital marketing requires work on social media sites. Planning campaigns, facing competition and responding keeping your brand upfront is urgently required. Participating in online discussions also requires intelligent knowledge of relevant issues and discussion points. One must keep abreast of critical inputs and parameters, which are offered by competitors and then respond effectively.

Content Writing 

Content writing has become yet another career option in capturing consumer responses.  Writing for social media on sites like Facebook and Twitter to keep a campaign alive, is required. 

Besides, there’s work like - maintaining blogs, putting up posts and comments, tweeting and more. It is definitely a new kind of content, and offers new challenges to writers, who may want to work from home. Content writing also involves in-depth research on the subject areas of concern; hence online research and analysis offer an opening for those keen on its applications in this manner. 

Net Advertising

Advertising is all about breaking through the clutter and creating high product recall. Creativity is critical. Net advertising requires a unique type of creativity, because of limited space and multiple options in ad placements. So, breaking through the clutter requires a new way of thinking. Needless to say, this requires knowledge of appropriate software too. 

Digital PR

To increase their online presence, Digital PR is an online marketing strategy used by businesses. Like digital marketing, Digital PR has moved an earlier offline activity into the online universe. Moreover, PR's move into the digital realm in the last decade has indeed, created new opportunities. 

What does Digital PR do? These agencies network with journalists, bloggers and influencers.  They also send online press releases to gain high-quality backlinks, social media mentions and improve their Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Digital PR becomes far more interactive, where the consumer participation in the PR activity (and their responses) can be tracked in a shorter time span; and the participation is being carried out across multiple markets at the same time – creating greater impact. Digital PR is also rapidly being used by political parties, as we can observe today. Eventually, it will of course, require a detailed understanding of the party concerned, their political ethos so that an online campaign can be evolved. 

Digital Journalism 

Digital Journalism is a powerful communication tool that has taken off. For all those who want to pursue online journalism as a career, it becomes a great career option. Stories on the net are not always the same as those that appear on print, and even the length of news stories is different. 

Net journalism offers its own challenges. Professionals do not get time to go through the newspapers anymore; so they turn to the internet for a speedy reading of relevant business/political headlines and quickly utilise these inputs on a day-to-day basis. 

Website Development

Website development and management have also picked up. This is because entrepreneurial ventures have come up, launched by those who have the creative technology and knowledge of computer software packages to do the designing. They can intelligently follow a client’s brief and represent them in the digital space; and they can also develop websites for various clients. 

Of course, the website developers have to obviously study similar sites, before planning for the new site, for specific clients that they are servicing. 

Event Management

Another interesting option is event management. This has picked up enormously, in the recent past. Corporates have more image-breaking product launches and CSR activities (sometimes even inside malls), to break the clutter (and also to be present in a safe and clean environment). All events require employees for both planning and operational activities. Both are clearly distinct jobs, with the former needing some basic experience in event planning, whereas even a fresher can join operations in different departments. 

Sales promotions by FMCGs have become the order of the day, where corporates are attracting consumers. There are many small entrepreneurial creative boutiques that have sprung up; and they offer services in merchandising a brand with creative inputs (and may also include production, delivery services – all in a package deal). In this case, knowledge of designing and related software is required for designing the promotional items, and production may be outsourced. For merchandising – pens, T-shirts, pen drives, CDs or any other item can be easily done. 

Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising has come into its own now, especially with innovative media being used. For instance, the use of staircase railings at malls, washrooms, the elevator, the theatre seats, inside the metro station – outside the metro pillars, tables at restaurants (doing joint promotions) etc- are all samples of outdoor advertising. 

This also requires knowledge of the legal aspects for ad placement, costs involved in production, placement & designing of these ads. All these areas have become specific career options. 

Film Marketing 

The marketing of films has dramatically changed to become more systematized and programmed. Although there are at present, no courses available that teach the basics of film marketing specifically, it is definitely a career option that requires trained professionals, who understand managing big budgets and those who are creatively inclined to think of new and innovative ways in doing co-promotions/co-branding and/or theme-related marketing communication targeted at the film being promoted (or it may be under consideration). 

Lastly,  it can be seen that the emerging new media has opened up many new career options. Here, it is important to point out that the student has to understand the basic difference between a job and a career. He or she has to study the aptitude and appreciate his or her own personal attitude and then acquire technical knowledge and skills to fulfill that inner urge, or the dream to either join a reputed organisation and evolve or start one’s own business, after a few years’ experiences

About the author

Ramola Kumar is the Dean of DSC -The Delhi School of Communication, Saket. She has over 35 years of rich academic experience.

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha