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is the political conversation moving from X to Bluesky? And how do you deal with this as a Public Affairs department?

Three trends that will characterise Public Affairs in 2024. Hear more on The Persuaders' podcast.

In Public Affairs, stakeholder relations are key and you need to work with these in a coordinated and strategic manner. Learn how a stakeholder relations management system can support your work.

It is always important to remember that every decision in the world is made by people - individuals with different levels of influence and importance. And if you want to raise awareness of your agenda or sway a decision you need to know the mindset of these people - and compare them to each other. This is where stakeholder mapping comes in as a simple but proven tool for Public Affairs professionals that creates a comprehensive overview of mindset which is also understandable for other people in your organization.

Maybe you have heard of the 4 P’s of marketing introduced in the 1990’s to create a more simple and tangible framework for marketing professionals. And inspired by this philosophy and more than 500 conversations with Public Affairs professionals, I (Anders Kopp Jensen, CEO at Ulobby) have derived the 5 P’s of Public Affairs to provide a similar tangible framework for Public Affairs professionals.

In recent years an overwhelming amount of tools have become available for making the life of marketing and sales professionals easier. But when it comes to Public Affairs, the field of choices is more limited. Tools and technology usually account for less than 10% of a Public Affairs team’s budget - a clear contrast to the marketing department where 20-30% on average of a CMO’s budget is used on tools and technology. But the times are changing and in recent years more relevant Public Affairs tools have become available, but the budget for technology hasn't necessarily followed that development. Therefore it is very important to prioritize what tools are ‘need to have’ and which ones are ‘nice to have’. We therefore present the three need-to-have tools we have identified through talks with Ulobby’s many Public Affairs clients

More and more companies understand the importance of having strategic balance in how they compose a team. This holds true for the Public Affairs departments as well which historically have suffered from too much hiring through network instead of through a broad view on complementary competencies. The most common title in Public Affairs is of course PA-manager, but we are beginning to see a much more differentiated view on PA in many successful organizations. We have therefore identified 7 roles that all hold a place in the competent PA-department. Note, that several roles of course can be held by one person, but they will often assume the relevant role required by the situation.

As a Public Affairs professional you have many tools available to create attention on a relevant issue or assert your organisation's influence. But often we see PA people getting stuck with a few of their favorite tools and thus miss out on new opportunities and tactics. Therefore we are going back to PA basics and will in a series of four articles present you with the 20 essential tools for Public Affairs work. The list of PA tools is extracted from Ulobby CEO Anders Kopp Jensen’s book The Public Affairs Engine - please note that the tools are not ranked in any particular order - their usefulness always depends on the situation and the nature of your organisation.

How would you describe the perfect competencies for a Public Affairs professional in your organization? For many this is a difficult question, as Public Affairs can comprise a broad range of tasks - each defined by the individual organisation. But through more than 500 conversations with Public Affairs and Government Relations professionals Ulobby CEO Anders Kopp Jensen has identified the 5 core skills most sought after in a PA professional. Presented here in an abstract from his book The Public Affairs Engine:

Working in the intersection between government and business creates a myriad of complex challenges. Ethics is of course an important issue to discuss with your team and reflect upon. Poor ethics, resulting in a shady morality, have been an increasing problem in the past few decades. But PA and lobbyism today still have an image problem. Movies like “Thank You for Smoking” or hit series like “House of Cards” confirm the stereotype or assumptions about people working in the cross-section between business and politics. Even just using the words, “Public Affairs” or “lobbyism”, at a dinner party or in public, can sometimes call for attacks with accusations such as “corruption” or statements like “Ihr seid doch alle gekaufte lobbyisten” as someone wrote in German on Twitter when promoting this guide, which probably doesn’t need any translation.

A new year equals new perspectives. 2020 was a very special year for everyone - including for the public affairs industry. But what will 2021 bring for Public Affairs which have significantly proven its value and is in higher demand than before Covid-19. Ulobby CEO Anders Kopp Jensen has given it some thought and here presents 3 trends he believe will characterize Public Affairs in 2021:

As many Public Affairs professionals will know, the PA department can have many different tasks to handle, some which may not even be core for a PA function. This depends of course on the organization, the raison d’être for the PA function and how many people will be working to execute the tasks. However, every good PA department starts with a plan - and in this extract from his book “The Public Affairs Engine” Ulobby CEO Anders Kopp Jensen gives his 2 cents on the four essential parts of such a PA-plan.