The “Digital Revolution” has majorly impacted and continues to impact virtually every aspect of business. The Media and Communications industries specifically have evolved and essentially “converged” in the way they are now being used to address the requirements of Public Relations.

This unprecedented blurring of the lines for the media, marketing, and communications industries has brought about a completely new way of approaching messaging to customers. There are a few key trends that have emerged over the last few years and are the basic tenets of successful PR professionals today.

Quickly adapting to the changing environment and changing customer needs is something which PR Agencies and professionals need to keep as their top priority to have a strong 2018. It is not enough to merely be aware of these trends there needs to be a concerted effort to, genuinely, build them into a broader service offering. Showcasing how you or your agency has evolved your service to leverage these trends is critical to attracting new and retaining existing clients.

SPEED TO YOUR AUDIENCE

With the advent of live video feeds, immediate responses on social media and constant news notifications the change in the speed at which an organizational message is delivered has increased manifold. The traditional approach of running press releases through a cumbersome dissemination and distribution process and waiting for traction are over. Using online news dissemination platforms, social media pages and live feeds are the need of the hour. A PR professional needs to be equipped the technology and content end of how to use these options and ensure the message is heard as the news is created, real-time and instantaneous messaging has the highest impact and gives the opportunity to the audience to engage with the brand.

Coverage of events can lead to the much-needed interaction your brand needs with its audience. There are many avenues which you need to keep in mind and offer to your clients when pitching an effective PR strategy.

Facebook Live and other Streaming Platforms

Using Facebook Live and other live streaming platforms is a sure shot way of being visible Real Time.

Live commentary and Question handling

To add to your live stream, keeping a twitter commentary running to encourage conversation is also a very handy option.

Webinars – Best of both worlds

Live webinars help you combine the benefits of both being present live and also then creating great video content to continuously post across all social media platforms.

Fast Press Release dissemination

Using an online platform to reach multiple news points and journalists for Press Releases and other content is also very powerful to generate visibility overnight. Content consumption is at its peak, and you want to be able to utilize all the distribution strategies you can get.

DATA AND ANALYTICS

Historically PR has been accused of not being entirely accurate and have a clear form of measuring ROI. With all the digital tools now at your disposal accurately measuring ROI is simple. Accurate measurement of ROI has a large impact on clients, who understand that their PR efforts need to be data-driven and based on genuine metrics. The data-driven approach can help your strategy and focus areas to maximize impact, and that is why it is important to determine the right metrics for your campaigns and continuously monitor their outcomes.

By establishing clear metrics, targets, and expectations, PR firms can show how they can meet and exceed the perceived value they bring to the table.

Since PR as a service has become much bigger than just issuing Press Releases or dealing with the media, the data-driven approach helps you allocate the right resources, time and effort based on what works best and also helps in adjusting the strategy as you go along.

MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

Fighting through the noise is the single biggest challenge in the online space. To differentiate your messaging, multimedia content, is essential. From simple graphics and visual copy to elaborate animated videos, each of these options is what will help you carve out a specific brand identity for your clients.

Without the brand identity, recall value for the end user tends to become extremely low. Looking at millennial and even Generation Y behavior, there is a trend to identify more with the brand and its ideologies then simply the product or service they offer. For effective implementation of your PR strategies nurturing the right skill set and operational machinery to constantly roll out high-impact, engaging and valuable multimedia content is a must.

While these trends have been around for a while, they have recently taken on a very large portion of what PR Agencies need to use as effective strategies. Remaining updated on the nuances of each of these trends, finding the right tools to expedite the use of these strategies and showcasing it to your clients in the form of hard data is going to be the most important success factor for 2018.