Trends and Digital PR

As a franchise public relations firm complete with social media consultants, we always keep focused on social media trends to ensure we stay current.  With more and more people logging on to the multitude of social media sites available we, as social media consultants, must make sure we can keep up with the growth and the changes.  With the pressing growth of social media, digital PR is changing rapidly.  The social media growth and overall saturation amongst our culture ultimately means that the way we use social media as a franchise public relations firm will need to reflect that growth and change as well.  What does this growth in social media mean for franchise public relations firms providing social media services like us?  Here are a few things to keep in mind as the growth in social media only continues:

People are getting their information directly from social media

More and more people are reporting that they are getting their information or daily news directly from social media.  This means that they are completely bypassing the news and going straight to social sources to get the late and breaking news of the day.  Can we blame people for that?  No, we really can't.  The minute something amazing or catastrophic happens millions of people jump on their phones, acting as reporters, giving friends and family the rundown on the event.  What does this mean for public relations professionals?  It means we must reach these people where they are seeking their information.  This means if they are turning to LinkedIn, Google+ or the like for their information, we must put ourselves and our clients there right where they can see it.  The growth of social media only means that this trend is only going to continue, so we must as PR professionals, make sure we are taking notes.

Social media and customer service are starting to go hand in hand

As time goes on we are seeing more and more consumers voicing their customer service-related woes directly on social media.  Years back customers would typically contact a company's customer service representative to by phone to complain about a company's products or services, but now people simply take to their social media page and vent for all to see and read.  This can be a reputation killer for a company, there's no doubt about that.  This means public relations firms must become excellent counselors for clients and teach them how to conduct themselves online.  People are voicing their opinions daily on any and all brands, but it is up to the brand to decide how they are going to act on that.  For public relations professionals this has opened up all new services to provide for clients such as online media relations and online reputation.  As more and more people take to social media for venting purposes, public relations professionals will have to keep monitoring and building client's reputations by monitoring and positively utilizing social media.

Marketing coinciding with public relations

While the communications fields such as promotions, advertising, marketing, journalism and public relations typically are all somewhat joined at the hip, the growth of social media has only tied the fields together more so.  This means that public relations firms and public relations professionals must be hip to the marketing game as marketing is bleeding its way into public relations more and more as time goes on.  Digital PR has become its own branch off of marketing these days, which consists of online content creation, conversation monitoring and tracking, and online relations.  Where does marketing come in?  For PR professionals it comes down to recognizing where PR ends and marketing needs to begin.

As a franchise public relations firm we know how vital it is to stay on top of all the trends and without a doubt, we know how crucial it is to ride the digital tidal wave.  For comment or questions regarding trends and digital PR, feel free to leave us a comment below or contact us.