By JENNIFER MOONEY

Paul Simon once sang, “These are the days of miracle and wonder.” Bruce Springsteen just released his first studio album in years – dedicated to the plight of common working folk. President Obama’s re-election was filled with the lyrics penned by The Boss.

We, the people, named you both our bosses, the working person’s senior managers. We acted. We voted. Democracy won. Advocacy and activism prevailed. We waited in long lines for the right to be heard.

We live in a movement-based society. This is refreshing to many, frightening to some, and apparent evidence that what our forefathers created/wanted/demanded works.

This both complicates and breathes life and opportunity into the communications paradigm. Gone is the ease of top-down mass communications. This is possibly why local broadcast news and print media suffer:

We don’t want to tune in at 5:00 PM to see what happened “today” and then wait until the newspaper hits the driveway at 6:00 AM to see what everyone thought about it.

We are over one source, one voice, top-down, listen up. 

We have rights.

And advertisers know well:

Few content seekers rely heavily on the “old” one-way delivery.

People have options. We get to consume entertainment and information on our own terms. We also get to engage, ask questions and contribute to the story.

If you happen to be an editor or a news director, then you no longer determine when the public gets the story. Citizen Journalist may well break it from his/her smart phone. And he/she can deliver the news without the support of advertising sponsors.

This complicates the financial story.

Without attitude, without malice, without sensationalism. Without makeup. Not camera-ready.

And without a script.

For truth and freedom seekers, this is freedom of the press and first amendment rights as it was likely intended. For advertisers, this is fear-inducing. For agency leaders, delivery has become equally about which channels to use and which media resonates.

Some of us have worked in multiple corners of this challenging trajectory.

We are the citizen, the company who must sell, the agency that must solve and the PR person who must position. Today requires us to be nimble, agile and meet the public on its own terms.

Public relations has arrived. 

The proverbial pie has not been subdivided; it is, in fact larger.

We PR types are generous folks. We seek to connect the public to the truth. We join you in whatever creative approach engenders engagement. And while the business end determines success based upon prosperous transactions, we know that there are a few steps between here and there.

The voter, buyer, mom, dad, teen, executive, factory worker, doctor, lawyer, teacher, solider and nurse first self-educate. And they are skeptical. They use the wee hours of the day to troll information in their nightwear. They survey friends and neighbors. They read, they listen, they learn.

And if the communications professional has done his/her job, then they indulge.

For whatever reason, the public chooses to believe “earned” media and question what they deem paid. They also kind of have, like, the goods and services that those they respect use. They focus on a certain kind of truthful influencer.

And when the consumer deems great value, they evangelize.

Enter the movement.

While our daily existence might not always be about “peace and justice”, it is about making daily life a bit more livable. 

When that pumpkin taste makes us all happy, we engage with the label that delivered it to us. When those hand warmers make that frigid cold front almost bearable, we tell our neighbors. When that new car breaks down on day three of ownership, we go on Facebook and sully the image.

We write, we speak, we connect.

While this may all have a “lean forward” attitude to it, W. Somerset Maugham called it decades ago:

“Only connect,” he wrote.

Then. Now. Always.

Those communicators who listen well, read lots and participate in the world around them have met their match; those who isolate and create may need to rethink their profession.

Life is lived outside of our workspaces – and, far more intimately, ourselves. Public sentiment is observed and absorbed when we congregate real-time. This is outside of the realm of focus groups.

In these times, each day is different, exciting, filled with opportunity and frustrating. And if you are willing to wait in line to be heard, then you do get to vote.

And it does count.

And then you tell all of your friends!