As technology advances quickly in 2017, PR experts must adapt quickly to the innovation that has emerged. We’ve broken down the top PR trends that you’ll want to know about in order to be a cutting edge PR expert.
Top PR Trends in 2017:
- Utilizing Live Videos on Social Media for Your Clients:
As social media continues to become a staple within our society, live video will play an important role in 2017. According to Carla Marshall, the editor in chief at Tubular Insights,”Cisco predicted that 75% of the world’s mobile traffic will be video by 2020″. Live video has reached and targeted millions of viewers on Facebook, Periscope, Instagram and YouTube. With our society becoming more visual, live video will dominate 2017. Utilizing influencers to do live takeovers is a great way to connect a brand with your Instagram audience.
- Influencers Become Contributors to Your Brands Message:
More and more consumers look to social media influencers for ideas and input before investing in brands or companies, a successful form of word-of-mouth marketing. This trend has gained a huge uplift in 2016 and continues to grow. Finding a blogger or social media guru who is authentic, contributes to your demographic, and who’s audience will connect with your product is a great way to boost exposure for your brand or product. Well known and trust worthy influencers have delivered these results for brands over and over again. These factors alone bring influencers to the forefront for marketing and Public relations industries, having a strong influencer marketing program is key for a successful 2017. Check out our 4 important pieces for your influencer marketing campaign. Old Navy is a perfect example of influencer marketing. The every-day blogger is connecting their followers with Old Navy establishing them as the every-day brand.
- Detailed Analytics Provided for Free on Social Media Defining Your Clients Audience:
Analytics are a great way to measure your client’s success. Collecting and knowing your data is important for pitches. Thanks to the ever-growing digital landscape we are able to measure the impact of PR campaigns, through social media sites and Google. While there are paid analytic tools like Sprout Social, most social media gives a detailed, free reporting within the apps. This is a time efficient way to examine the engagement, results and reach of campaigns. With the help of analytics you will be able to provide clients with insights that go beyond the typical scope. For example, Twitter’s integrated analytics provides information about consumer buying interests and occupations. Check out Andrew Bragdon’s Twitter analytics breakdown.
- Digital Pitches That Give a Personal Touch in a Fast-Paced Setting:
Having a personalized digital pitch to your client is one way to stand out and leave a mark against competitors. Creativity plays a huge role in today’s world; standing out from the rest is important when pitching to reporters and editors. Display creativity shows individuality. As we adjust to the fast paced content on social media, we expect to look at something and immediately absorb the message. Traditional pitches are heavy text based but as we advance, we’re noticing the need for simplicity and straight-to-the-point pitches. PR professionals need to leverage tools that can help them get their pitch across quickly and effectively in 2017. - Podcasts Make for a Wonderful Advertising Platform:
With the popular success of NPR and Radiolab, podcasts are becoming a huge advertising platform with a big impact. Podcast are able to capture audiences attention and keep them enagaged in the lastest gossip, news and stories. Millions of listeners tune in everyday on popular platforms like Itunes, soundcloud and spotify three different platform with a wide range of audiences in different demographics. With shows lasting 45 mins to a hour, listeners are able to enjoy their content while hearing the lastest ad for Target, Old Navy, or small business. Music is being replaced with podcasts on morning commutes. According to Media Kix, Over 50% Of marketers & agencies are considering advertising on podcasts within the next 6 months. Ad spend on podcasts was estimated to be around $34 million dollars. Why should you make podcasts a part of your marketing and advertising platform in 2017? There are so many podcasts to be a part of that can truly tailor to your client. For example, if your client is releasing a new book there are specific podcasts that bring on guest authors. If your client is selling a beauty product, advertising on a women’s lifestyle podcast is a great place to advertise.
These are just a few trends to look forward to as we go further into 2017. Check out our blog for additional PR trends.
This blog post was written by our Social Media Intern, Semsarah.
