ID Africa’s Iretomiwa Akintunde-Johnson shares insights on how PR professionals can leverage data to tell better stories

Iretomiwa Akintunde-Johnson, Lead PR & Communications Adviser at ID Africa – a pan-African communications advisory firm –  has called on public relations professionals to improve their data storytelling and visualisation skills. She highlighted this in ‘Data Literacy in PR Report’ a publication by Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), the world’s largest professional PR association, representing more than 35,000 professionals in 82 countries worldwide with a mission to create a more professional, ethical, and prosperous global PR industry.

The report, which is a series of essays from 11 leading practitioners, aims to elevate the understanding of best practices in the use of data in public relations. The essays explore how data informs strategy, decision-making, creativity, execution, and measurement while also explaining how insights can be developed from data and used as a foundation for content and storytelling.

Speaking on the report, Stephen Waddington, Chair, PRCA Innovation Forum and Managing Partner, Wadds Inc., said that a huge volume of data has been created by media and organisations as a result of digital transformation. He added that audience and consumer engagement had also improved as a result of the use of data.

Waddington said: “It has also provided practice with the means to plan, measure and demonstrate its value. Data Literacy in Public Relations has been written for practitioners by practitioners and addresses each of these areas.”

In her contribution, Iretomiwa highlighted that PR practitioners are highly skilled storytellers as required in the area of communications. However, there is an increased demand to use data to provide insights into the dynamics of a campaign.

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Iretomiwa leads a team of advisers at ID Africa, a BHM company which helps consumers, brands, organisations, and governments make sense of the world’s most promising continent, Africa.

The Lead PR & Communications Adviser commented “Practitioners need to improve their skills in data storytelling and visualisation – not least because it doesn’t come naturally to everyone. More importantly, those that do will be better placed to win support for more investment in public relations activity and will be able to build more successful and value-enhancing public relations programmes.”