This article originally appeared on PR Daily in August 2015.
The convergence of PR, social, content and search creates new opportunities—and some new challenges—for PR practitioners.
What are the broad implications and how should the industry respond to deliver even more value to brands and clients? To seize the opportunities, we first need to understand the driving forces. Let’s consider three key trends.
The shift from PR to media intelligence
Marketing, branding, advertising and PR all claim the right to oversee media intelligence. No surprise, considering total market spending increased more than 7 percent from 2013 to 2014, making it a $2.62 billion industry.
Consider a basic example. More often than not, traditional news stories carry over to social media. Similarly, traditional outlets almost always pick up trending news on social media. Even beyond media relations, PR professionals have a responsibility to fully understand all media implications and discern the insights that can be gleaned from the data.
With such direct implications on PR, you can easily make the case that leading media intelligence operations should fall under the purview of PR. That said, media intelligence can’t become siloed. The insights have implications across the full enterprise, so the leaders of media intel must create cross-functional roles and processes to get the right insights to the right people within the organization, empowering everyone to make data-driven decisions.
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The PR pro’s expanding toolbox
Digital and social media have blurred the lines between marketing and PR functions, creating a need for more integrated communication roles. As a result, the PR umbrella has come to encompass paid, earned and owned media, including social media and content marketing.
Now, content marketing campaigns can amplify key messages. When you get a story placed, make sure it reaches and resonates with the right audience through a targeted social advertising or content syndication campaign. (That’s right. PR pros require awareness and management of advertising buys. Welcome to the new PR.)
This expanded toolbox opens the door for PR pros to drive their messages, reach larger audiences, and deliver stronger results. Fail to consider these new opportunities, and you’ll be doing a major disservice to your company or clients.
The tech factor
The underlying force spurring these changes in our industry and related markets is the proliferation of technology. Just look at all the startups popping up to address various pieces of the market. Yet, for every success story, many other companies don’t make it. Why? These startups lack the depth and breadth to meet the needs of today’s communicators who require a comprehensive solution, not a bunch of one-off tools that don’t talk to each other.
Clearly, new tools present new opportunities. But, that doesn’t mean we suddenly have access to more hours in the day to get everything done. Technology is the differentiator between communication departments that do more and those that just try to get by.
By embracing the right technology solutions, you can improve data collection and analysis. Then, you can increase efficiency, make better PR recommendations, and have a bigger impact on the bottom line.
Peter Granat is the CEO of Cision, overseeing the executive management team across operations globally. For more than 20 years, Granat has been instrumental in the development of innovative products and services to enable effective communication between the PR, marketing and media communities.
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