Public relations are a proven strategy to help drive awareness and engagement with your business. But with an ever-changing media landscape and the omnipresent news cycle, knowing the latest PR trends isn’t always easy. Check out these five PR trends for 2019, and how you can leverage them for success in the new year:
•
Increasing role of digital and social influencers. The increasing role of digital and social influencers when it comes to PR cannot be ignored. Consumers are turning to blogger, YouTube and Instagram personalities for insights and inspiration. These influencers often develop their own niche spotlight and are often seen as more believable and relatable to their audience. Especially in the B2C market, this can help drive consumer awareness and interaction.
•
For 2019: The targeted focus and audiences of influencers, the cost-effectiveness of a digital medium and the flexibility in ways to share your product, service, etc., make this tactic one worth exploring.
[caption id="attachment_247948" align="alignleft" width="265"]
Michael Masseur[/caption]
•
The “feel-good” story is not dead. Human-interest stories and feel-good moments will continue to have a place in the media. Emotionally, we need the lift. The key to success is connecting your human-interest pitch to a larger theme or current affair that will help add context and relevancy to your story.
•
For 2019: Identify your human-interest stories by theme, key messaging and audience. How does it relate to something larger – nationally or even locally? Understand why it matters and how it’s impacting the readers of the media outlet you are pitching.
•
Relationships are still king. Significantly, a great deal of PR is based on relationships, particularly with the media. Knowing the beat of each reporter, developing a cordial rapport and even adjusting to their working style (Do they prefer phone call or emails? Word docs or PDFs?) will help you draft well-thought-out and targeted pitches.
•
For 2019: Do your homework. Make an effort to converse with reporters, ask how they like to be pitched, find areas of common ground.
•
Measurement is expanding. Historically, the efficacy of PR relative to business objectives has been difficult to measure, but that is changing with analytics and PR measurement tools. Digital tools such as Google Analytics can help you connect spikes in website traffic to PR activity. PR monitoring tools such as Critical Mention can provide coverage, impressions and estimated content value for digital, radio and broadcast media. Still, other tools such as Meltwater combine each of these elements into a comprehensive view and can even track when a user reads a news article and then visits your website, creating a strong correlation between coverage and user engagement.
•
For 2019: See which tools are right for you. If measurement is new to you, start with Google Analytics. If you are looking for more-advanced metrics, explore PR-specific tools or talk with your marketing agency to see if they may already offer them.
•
Intersection of PR and social media. We had an intriguing conversation with one of our clients recently about the helpfulness and potential liabilities of social media and PR. While we advocate that social media is more of a PR “pro” than a “con,” it surely must be leveraged strategically and be monitored in full. Great social media engagement can be yet another “proof point” in your pitch for media coverage. On the other hand, knowing how (and when, or even if) to address instances of controversy or opposing opinions can be the fine line between preventing your next PR crisis or igniting it.
•
For 2019: Review your social media strategy in the context of your PR one. Do they align? Are roles and triggers clearly defined? What is the internal communication process? Identify positive opportunities and potentially negative ones for PR and social media to work together on.
Giselle Mahoney is an account executive at RDW Group, with offices in Providence and Boston. Michael Masseur is the director of public relations at RDW Group.