It seems that every PR trend article these days leads off with AI and how it can streamline the work of PR pros and allow one to better analyze and report on media coverage.
Putting AI in the spotlight is certainly understandable, as its newness among the general public (just two years ago!) makes it that shiny new object that’s fun to analyze. Plus, it’s intriguing to see how others are using it.
The fact remains, however, that AI is merely a tool for public relations, and no substitute for solid strategy based on each client’s needs. AI cannot replace the unique ideas and creative thinking that emanate from human beings who are motivated and engaged in furthering a client’s goals, whether to generate brand or product awareness, protect their reputation, or establish themselves as thought leaders.
All this being said, let’s dive into trends we’re seeing in the PR industry, while not spending too much time on AI. Ultimately AI helps organize work to get to goals but cannot be relied on too heavily to determine goals or the best tactics to achieve them.
Trend: PR Keeps Growing
Business, education and non-profit organizations are investing more in public relations programs than ever before. PR agency revenue worldwide leaped by 57 percent from 2017 to 2022, to about $19.7 billion. The U.S. alone accounted for about $11.5 billion. And that doesn’t include internal corporate PR departments. One estimate predicts that agencies and in-house PR spend more than $100 billion per year globally.
One reason for this growth is the newer analytics that illustrates the value of PR in promoting brand awareness, introducing products, establishing thought leadership, etc.
Additionally, consumers are increasingly turning to social media for their news. This may mean they’re seeing more “real” stories shared by media outlets, but they’re also seeing more “fake news” and clickbait. Brands, as a result, are being vigilant in their joint PR-social media efforts, ensuring that they are as authentic as possible (more on this later).
Trend: Better Analytics
The impact of PR has traditionally been difficult to measure. Sure, we’ve long had the ability to track audience figures, ad value equivalency and sentiment (positive, neutral, negative). But as media monitoring services evolve, PR pros can now get insights on brand awareness and favorability, social media engagement and quality web traffic.
The engagement piece is particularly helpful and involves looking at the amount of sharing or interaction with your messaging on social platforms. Whereas with traditional journalism, we look at media placement (number of articles or releases published), we can now expand the measurement to include the number of “likes,” “shares,” “favorites” and positive comments of these stories on social networks. This provides the message amplification that we want. Therefore social engagement has become a crucial PR metric to track.
Access to data and analytics can support your decisions or signal it’s time for a different strategy. This helps improve PR result over time.
Trend: More Thought Leadership
There’s no better way to build an audience with a limited budget than to engage company leaders and experts in a thought leadership program. This can include writing articles on their behalf or producing recorded interviews, and sharing these pieces widely on social media as well as pitching them to industry, business or consumer editors and podcasters.
Establishing your brand with thought leadership can accomplish many goals: brand awareness, building trust among the target audience, and illustrating dominance or influence in a particular market.
When written creatively and strategically, this content will stand out when compared to AI-generated language, which is easily spotted and decreases trust.
LinkedIn is particularly effective for CEO communications. These posts will draw attention and readership simply for the fact that the CEO is sharing his or her opinions and ideas. People want to hear directly from an executive, and they expect it to be authentic.
Trend: Being Authentic
More than ever, today’s consumers and purchasing decision-makers want the brands they engage with to be transparent in the way they communicate their values. People want to do business with companies they feel they can trust, that show empathy, and that deliver on promises.
Experts say this may be the result of the rise of “fake news” during the pandemic, which made people less trusting of online information. Now, people expect brands to go beyond “marketing speak” and be authentic.
Another factor driving the need for authenticity is related to the use of AI to analyze target audiences and create “personalized” messaging for them. While this tactic may save time, it is often missing that human element that creates a real connection. People can often see right through it. This includes journalists who are reading your pitches. Personalization of messaging will deliver the best results when it truly is personalized.
If you’re interested in learning more about PR trends, analytics or authenticity in messaging, feel free to reach out to Terri Waters: [email protected]. She will respond with an authentic message that is developed in her own brain.