Marie-Laure Ryan stresses that every medium possesses a unique combination of features (Ryan 2004: 19). Digital technologies provide storytelling with a combination of four peculiarities – the Big Four: integration, accessibility, connectivity and interactivity (Herbst, 2004a). The two most important for Global Relationship Management are Connectivity and Interactivity. Connectivity Connectivity means that the building blocks of devices, technologies, applications, media assets, etc. are connected with one another and communicate (key word: supersystem of systems; Herbst 2014). Connectivity with and within the digital realm has increased dramatically in recent years. Three examples:

  • Media Convergence is the consolidation of traditionally distinct disciplines like print, tv, radio, digital (Jenkins, 2006).
  • Devices and Technologies: people mail with their phones, go online with their televisions and listen to radio online. Mobile end devices like smartphones and tablets open up new user scenarios and multi-screen experiences via apps and digital utilities like Location Based Services.
  • Social Networks and Sharing Platforms enable new forms of communication where every individual can access, forward, rate, comment and themselves create content. Marie-Laure Ryan talks about networking computers in physical space in order to bring users together in virtual environments.

Connecting with the space outside the Digital Media: the digital realm is increasingly connected with the spaces outside of digital media. Users have three possible modes of navigation: first, the haphazard pursuit of links through which the user drifts; secondly, goal-oriented travel along a certain path and thirdly, a concrete search for a particular piece of content undetermined by a particular path. Interactivity Interactivity is closely tied to integration and connectivity. Many authors see interactivity as the essential difference to traditional storytelling: “interactivity is repeatedly cited as the feature of digital media that most clearly distinguishes it from older, non digital genres.” (Ryan 2004, 2006; Aarseth 1997; Alexander 2011). Interactivity can either be described as selective, from clicking on a link, or productive, from participation in a story plot with dialogue or gesture (Ryan 2004: 339). Accordingly, PR in digital media entails a very active user in contrast to classical PR, which consists of an active narrator and a passive audience. Users in digital media aren’t required to wait until something happens, rather they can make something happen. The digital PR user can influence the relationship directly: users can reach into the communication and help shape it. The question is as follows: does the user select a story (human interacts with machine) or tell a story as user-generated content? (human interacts with content). Organized and collective consumer movements against a company are a part of the risk of interactivity. The examples in recent years of how interactive critical discussions have gravely damaged corporate images are many.