Threat vs. opportunity in digital

When organisations think digital (especially for PA purposes) there’s always too much focus on threats:

1. We’ll avoid the digital space because we might put our foot in it by saying or doing the wrong thing.
2. We need to understand who matters in the digital space because someone might be a threat to us.
3. We need to have a full-on online content and SEO strategy so we’ll dominate the search rankings and keep threatening stuff at bay.

1 is a miserable excuse in anyone’s book. 2 and 3 are pretty valid. But why focus just on threats with all the opportunities on offer?

1. Embrace digital as it’ll make your intelligence-gathering and research more complete, easier, cheaper and faster.
2. Embrace digital as it’ll allow you to be in more places where your audiences are present (including policy-makers.)
3. Embrace digital as you might find supporters willing to back you up.
4. Embrace digital as it might make it easier for you to manage relationships.
5. Embrace digital as it’ll make it easier for you to tell your side of the story (and quicker.)

In short, are you selling digital within your organisation or your client? Think more happy thoughts, not just impending doom.