Which public relations trends can help your growth and development?
These aspects of the job can be tough to master, yet they can help you get a running start toward the industry’s future.
Here’s what’s in store:
1. Promoting expertise at all levels
In the past, only top-tier executives were put forth as an organization’s industry experts. Now lower-level employees are offering their insights.
This has multiple benefits. First, it helps your brand to target a wider, more diverse audience and distribute more content. Second, when top executives leave your company, they don’t leave a knowledge vacuum.
[RELATED: Join us at Zappos HQ for our Role of Communications in Creating Best Places to Work Conference.]
Help those at all levels to grow and nurture their own personal brand. Encourage them to write thoughtful content and create social media profiles that show off their expertise.
2. An overall rise in PR spending
According to a joint report from the Association of National Advertisers and the USC Center for Public Relations, spending on PR will change. More specifically, marketers plan to increase internal staffing and overall spending on public relations over the next five years.
This is due to the evolution of PR over the past decade and the increased importance it has had for marketers.
Think of some primary PR components that make it so valuable to a business's growth. Digital communications, for one, has never been more important for business, and PR is at its center.
Another big component of business growth is social media. You can't be in business today without a social media presence. PR provides the strategy and content to amplify your social media presence.
3. A growing reliance on specialty PR firms
Many boutique PR firms specialize in specific aspects of public relations, such as launch PR and reputation management. If you’re having a problem in one of these areas, you will want a skilled authority calling the shots.
Don’t be shy about calling in extra help on occasion. Using adept professionals during key moments of your company’s development could save you from PR disaster.
4. A shift toward digital
When one survey asked about major PR trends for the next five years, digital storytelling, social monitoring and big data topped the list.
To align your PR and marketing with this changing world, use digital storytelling to engage your audience.
Help outsiders get to know the people within the company, and inform them about what sets you apart from you competitors. Share your passions and your struggles. This kind of narrative will endear you to prospects and keep them engaged in your story.
Become a master at social monitoring with apps like Hootsuite and Mention. Be the first to see negative conversations about your brand, and be ready to address problems before they get out of hand.
Use big data to adjust your content and strategy to reach more of your target audience. Big data can show you what topics and problems are trending in your industry, so you can be among the first to address it. Use it to deliver your own insights on emerging topics before your competitors have a chance to react.
5. Providing alternatives to ‘dark social’
Social media and its influence have become an integral part of PR, and savvy pros use tools such as BuzzSumo and Hootsuite to use online platforms.
Beyond them lurk communication methods such as text, email and chat apps, which are nearly impossible to monitor.
Organizations must create, own and manage their own digital property. By developing a proprietary platform, you can build a library of unique and valuable content. This will heighten your audience’s engagement, keep them coming back for more and give you visible results.
6. Quantitative versus qualitative measurement
People find comfort in seeing specific numbers of page views, “likes” and rates for measuring the success of their PR. but how do you gauge growth in brand trust or awareness? This is where PR pros must draw the line between quantitative and qualitative measurement.
Quantitative metrics might be easier, but they do not give an accurate or full-scale picture of public relations ROI.
We are seeing a shift toward qualitative measurement. PR has made great strides in measurement with tools like AirPR and TrendKite.
Wendy Marx is president of Marx Communications. A version of this post first appeared on the B2B PR Sense blog.
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