Mayekiso spoke to media update’s Adam Wakefield about the skills required in communications, the future of the media spokesperson, and what the best and toughest parts of her role are.

In your experience, what skills are key for a communications manager?  

Firstly, it is crucial that the business is understood well, whether it’s your client or whether you’re in a corporate, and I mean very well. Understanding the inner workings of the business are fundamental in being an effective communications manager.

It’s equally important to have a very good understanding of the eco-system in which the company you work for is operating in, so that you can understand what other factors impact the clients’ business based on what is happening internally as well as what is happening in the eco-system surrounding the business.

Know your companies’ competitors very well – a good understanding of what competitors are doing is vital. It is of utmost importance for the media and the company that there is good relationship with the media – from junior staff to the most senior journalists.  

Relationships can go a very long way when they are needed. In addition, understanding the media landscape – what are the trends/challenges that journalists/media houses are faced with – and how can these be used to your advantage when handling certain engagements with the media.

Which skills can be taught, and which skills can only be learned on the job?

I believe it’s a mixture of both in terms of what can be learned and taught. Understanding the business, the eco-system, and competitors cannot happen overnight, but for a media/company spokesperson, understanding the media landscape is a no brainer given we’ve been in the industry so long and it’s something I was told as, and learnt very quickly, an intern.

What is the role of today’s media spokesperson?

The media spokesperson is a conduit of information between the company and the media. Responsibilities are to relay a companies’ position on a matter. With that said, I believe that the role of a media spokesperson is slowly losing traction and the clout it had before.

We live in an era where people, customers, and audiences demand companies to be accessible – it’s no longer a luxury; it’s a necessity. So it is important for companies to let ‘real people’ within their companies talk to the media rather than ‘hiding’ behind the media/company spokesperson. It makes the message real – coming from a subject matter expert or CEO – and more tangible.

How do you prepare for the beginning of each workday?

My preparation for the next day begins the day before. I use the last 30/60 minutes of my day going through what I need to do for the following day and what I want/need the outcomes of that to be, so that when I get in, in the morning, I hit the ground running. Within that 30/60 minutes, I also reflect on what I did that day and if I accomplished all I had to accomplish and, if not, what I need to do to follow through on it, and whom I need to lobby in the business to achieve the desired results.

How much has social media changed your role as a communications manager, and what do you think a communication manager’s role with social media should be?

In my role, social media has played a big part in how we directly have conversations with people, customers etc. – it’s a very important channel to address various issues and share information about your company on social media that your audience wants and is valuable to them. This is important. Many companies fail by only churning out information they want to communicate on social media channels but that the audiences aren’t looking for, so it falls on deaf ears.

Again, it’s important to build relationships and understand what social media audiences want – it’s a channel that has bought companies closer to their audiences by ‘cutting out’ the middle man of traditional media. With that said, a company’s social media strategy must be concise yet fluid, as social media can also be damaging to one’s brand given the ‘lack of control’ in managing how information – sometimes false – can spread like wildfire on social media.

What is the best and the toughest part of your role?

Seeing the results of continued media nurturing, demystifying the business so that the media and South Africans can understand who the JSE is, and how we can help them grow their wealth.

Toughest must be when things just don’t go right, dealing with challenging issues that don’t seem to go away, no matter how much you reiterate and explain the same messages. That can be tough but it’s always a work-in-progress and we are always up to the challenge.

For more information, connect with Mayekiso on Twitter.

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Media is forever on the move, with it the job of the media spokesperson to get to grips with this changing environment. Read more in our article, The 360-role of the modern media spokesperson.