Social media expert heads to public relations summit in Iran

Stuart Bruce is a keynote speaker at the International Symposium of Public Relations, which is taking place in Tehran next week.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “I’ll be talking about what public relations means in the 21st century.

“How public relations is about reputation and has always been defined by what you do, rather than what you say and that today greater transparency and scrutiny means you’ve got to behave better than ever as spin and publicity won’t cut it anymore.”

Mr Bruce, a social media expert, will be appearing alongside senior PR professionals and academics from Dubai, Estonia and India.

Up to 300 delegates are expected at the conference, including Iranian business and civic leaders as well as emerging market members of the International Public Relations Association.

A senior political figure from the Islamic republic is scheduled to deliver the opening address.

In his speech, Mr Bruce will look at how artificial intelligence can be used in public relations and examine how technological advances have brought in new channels for spreading information.

The use of social media helped galvanise protesters across the Middle East in the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.

Mr Bruce will also tell the audience how PR managers can process and harness “big data” to gain insight into markets and audiences.

And he will underline the age-old tenet that a good reputation is earned. “What an organisation or company actually does is what forms its reputation, not just what it says and communicates,” he told the Yorkshire Post.

Mr Bruce will also cover the measurement and evaluation of PR to argue that it affects everything from sales and recruitment to share price and profits.

Mr Bruce is the former managing director of Leeds-based Wolfstar, a forerunner of the specialist social media agency.

He has advised companies including PayPal, Unilever, First Direct and HSBC.

Mr Bruce is also a Labour Party supporter and led the communications effort for Andy Burnham’s leadership bid.

His visit comes as relations appear to be thawing between Iran and the West.

US president Barack Obama’s historic phone call with new Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani last month was the highest level contact between the two nations in three decades.

But Israel and many in the West suspect that behind Mr Rouhani’s charm offensive is a drive to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies it is seeking a bomb.

President Rouhani was elected in June with a pledge to scrap the politics of confrontation to ease Iran’s international isolation.

Diplomats said yesterday that the country has indicated a readiness to scale back uranium enrichment, suggesting it is willing to compromise.