Evolution of the PR industry - outlook for 2017

In a world where connectivity pulses through the bloodline of business, PR and communication professionals are finding themselves, not surprisingly, at the very heart of a company’s central nervous system.

Whether in-house or outsourced, communication is central to every aspect of business, including sales, customer service, managing suppliers and third party relationships, media relations, customer reviews and even human resources. 

It used to be commonplace for communication professionals or marketing managers to be hired for a specific project, perhaps to boost sales or change a negative public perception, before it reverted back to ‘business as usual’. However, if your business is still operating this way, you will be on the back foot and your competitors will be in front!

More and more business owners and managers are appreciating they can’t do everything themselves and may find themselves either overwhelmed by, or oblivious to, the gamut of communication channels and activities there are to maintain.

When businesses approach Elevate to guide and support their communication activities, we find in many cases, they are surprised by the scope in which we can help. More often than not, the business has identified one or two areas they’d like to improve, and after chatting with us, they realise how important other channels are to their business.

You may be astounded at the specialty areas PR and communication professionals will likely be engaged for over the next twelve months.

Along with traditional media relations, crisis and issues management, stakeholder engagement and event management, I predict we’ll be seeing a stronger swing in video, social, content and marketing.

Video killed the radio star (and photography!)

Video relived its heyday in 2016 and it’s unlikely to slow down over the next 12 months.

They say a picture speaks 1,000 words, so you can only imagine how many words a 30 second moving picture is worth! Videos take the audience away from a standard static screen into a virtual reality, where we can see movement and hear sound – just as if we were face to face. It engages us, and that’s a key word to remember in 2017.

Businesses need to know how to not only reach their customer, but to engage them. Video doesn’t have to incorporate state-of-the-art equipment and green screens, although that’s certainly going to lift the professionalism of the final piece.

You can get started with video content simply by using your mobile phone and investing in a tripod. With some minor techniques and tips to maximise the video quality, you could be on YouTube in no time! You could also be seen more in your customers’ social media feeds and keep potential customers on your website longer – that’s a lot of metrics worth vying for.

More and more, communication professionals are being asked to manage this activity rather than seeking a separate agency that specialises in videography.

Social media is not a selling platform

Social media is definitely a place businesses realise they should be, but there’s still education needed to maximise visibility on the platforms themselves.

It’s a great first step for a business to be on the social media platforms that their customers are on, but many believe they can just overtly promote their products or services in every post or that every page ‘like’ means a set of eyeballs on that post.

It’s a challenge for us as professionals to educate businesses on both social etiquette and how to improve measured results. There’s a fine line between Facebook being an advertising platform (it’s essential to pay to have posts seen) and a social community (posts that overtly sell are less likely to be shown).

That’s where we come in as professionals in social strategies and content planning. We look at your audience and marry content that will engage followers and be ‘liked’ by the social platform, as well as recommend those sales or key message posts that should have some spend behind it to really target key audiences which drives customers to your website for sales.

Social media management isn’t something you dabble in once a week - it requires a well-executed campaign and ongoing monitoring that can be very time consuming, so you need to allow capacity and resources to fulfil this; which is why businesses will continue to outsource to professionals in 2017.

Content is king

Having a website does not mean you’ll pop up in search findings when people ‘Google” information relevant to your business. Google is a complex technology that uses ‘spiders’ to jump into websites to find the most appropriate answers and then relays the best answers to the searcher.

The problem with this is there are millions of sites to crawl which means the chances of coming up on the first page are next to nil. Google plays favourites on how to determine which websites are worth sharing with their searchers. One of the ways to increase your website visibility is through content!

It must be fresh, engaging, relevant and not duplicated from another site. This means to increase your ranking on the one online platform that really matters, you’ll need to spend 2017 writing regular articles or blogs. You may want to talk about your products, comment on a news article that day or share good news stories, but either way, it’s a lot of writing. It also has to weave in your key messages and a call to action.

This is another space that Elevate has been supporting businesses in over the past few years, as you simply cannot afford to dismiss effective content writing across your website and other marketing pieces.

Marketing

There is an emerging practice where business owners and managers are seeking to combine the full suite of marketing and communication activities into one bucket, which is being handed over to communication agencies.

In 2017, PR and communication professionals will adapt to the changing scope of our specialty. Activations and events such as media stunts or eye-catching pop up customer kiosks have started making their way into agency promises, crossing into traditional experiential marketing. We’re also increasingly being asked to align businesses with social media influencers and relevant industry personalities.

Businesses need to be sure their communication agency is capable of undertaking such tasks and providing measurement of these activities. When done well, it makes sense to combine these projects to ensure all messaging and target stakeholders are aligned with the overall strategy.

As the year comes to a close, it’s an opportune time to review ‘the year that was’ in your business and plan for ways to improve sales and customer engagement, become more efficient and enjoy the fruits of your labour in 2017. We invite you to contact Elevate to discuss your communication needs to ensure all activity is aligned with your business goals and objectives and achieve results that make a difference.

For an obligation free discussion on how a strategic communication program can assist your business in 2017, please contact Mel Deacon on (07) 3180 3666 or mel@elevatecom.com.au