PR pros must innovate and rethink how they execute their public relations programs. These aren’t just current PR trends. These are communication imperatives.
Why this matters:
The media landscape is changing. The news media is shrinking, outlets are converging, and journalists are using new platforms like TikTok to distribute news. The competition for customer attention is fierce, and most companies struggle to stand out. This also matters because PR has relied only on intuition. Relationships. Press Releases. These still matter, don’t get me wrong. But you need to do more to prove the value of public relations.
To stay ahead and be innovative, you must constantly keep up with current trends in public relations. It’s a fairly easy way to see what’s happening in PR and marketing. In 2023, three major digital PR trends will shape public relations, and they all start and stop with data: data-driven storytelling, media analysis, and creator marketing.
Data-Driven Storytelling: More than a Headline
Data-driven storytelling is the future of all public relations trends. It’s not new, but important. This needs to be more than just a talking point or a bullet point. We must stop discussing it just as trends in public relations and start executing it as a best practice.
Data is the key to successful public relations in 2023. By making it actionable, PR professionals can craft more impactful and memorable stories than traditional methods. Data helps understand your target audiences better, enabling you to create engaging and informative stories while also providing insights into customer behavior and trends.
By analyzing data from social media platforms such as TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter, you can gain valuable data insights into your target audience’s interests, behaviors, preferences, etc. These insights can help tailor messaging in a way that resonates with them on an emotional level. You can use this data to develop campaigns with maximum reach and engagement potential.
Once you have identified the narratives, topics, and themes your audiences care about, it’s time to use the insights to create your content. This includes everything from content posted on social media, blog posts, headlines, press releases, bylines, and all owned content.
Finally, analytics tools like Google Analytics will help measure your content performance. This can be used for both earned and owned media content. For earned media, you can track referral visits from target outlets where you’ve secured coverage. Or, if you don’t have tracking links, you can see if there’s an uptick in branded search based on when certain outlets published the article.
For owned media, you can track total website visits, referral traffic, page views, and conversions.
Go Deep with Media Outlet Analysis
More advanced analytics will include a media landscape analysis, which can provide details on high-impact media outlets, coverage themes, journalist influence, and more.
A basic media outlet analysis it’s not just a PR trend but a strategic approach that should be included in your PESO PR and earned media plans.
For example, the first step in identifying high-impact media outlets is determining what you want to analyze. Is it a vertical like supply chain or healthcare, or is it more topically based like digital transformation or the future of work? Once you nail the topic, the next step involves blending three data points together–the volume of media coverage, media engagement, and the reach of the media outlet.
Once all the media outlets are plotted into one graph, the data will show which ones drive the most topical coverage, generate the most engagement, and have the highest reach. Depending on your business size or how many topics are relevant to the markets you serve, you’d want to do a separate analysis for each topic. The coverage volume and engagement will change even if the same media outlets appear in different analyses.
This is the first step in building your media list.
Another important factor when analyzing the media is understanding the core narrative drivers. it’s one thing to say that the Wall Street Journal drives a lot of coverage about the economy. That’s a given. It’s another thing to say that when the Wall Street Journal covers the US economy and the job market, they generate more engagement than when they write about the GDP. A topical analysis will uncover the trends and themes the media is interested in writing about based on coverage volume.
Finally, measuring success is key when evaluating traditional media outlets. Tracking metrics such as coverage volume or message pull-through can get insight into which media outlets drive results and should be prioritized. At the same time, those performing poorly should either be dropped or improved upon, depending on the situation. Ultimately, this data-driven approach helps ensure that PR efforts are being used effectively and efficiently so you can achieve maximum ROI from your earned media campaigns over time.
Go Big on Creator Marketing
The creator economy is booming and shows no signs of slowing.
Creator marketing is an effective approach to reaching new audiences in 2023. It involves working with influencers or content creators to promote products or services through their channels through paid partnerships or organically engaging with them.
By partnering with the right creators, you can reach a large, untapped audience, increase brand awareness and build your brand’s reputation. Content creators have large communities that are highly engaged and interested in what they say about certain topics, making them perfect partners for brands looking to partner with 3rd party, influential creators.
Here’s a very basic example.
Suppose a fashion brand wanted to reach more consumers in its target demographic of women ages 18-25. They would use an influencer discover platform to find a creator with an audience that matches that demographic. They would negotiate a rate for sponsored content (Instagram Reels, Stories, TikTok videos, etc.) posted on the creator’s channels. This would allow the brand’s message to be seen by thousands of potential customers while providing credibility from a trusted source – something traditional advertising cannot offer.
Another benefit of collaborating with B2B creators is the ability to generate organic conversations around your product or service online. By collaborating with content creators who already have an established following, you can encourage viewers of these videos/posts/stories, etc., to engage further by leaving comments and asking questions which will help build relationships between your brand and potential customers as well as boost visibility across social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram where conversations happen quickly due to the use of hashtags.
Creator marketing also allows brands access into new markets that may not be accessible via traditional advertising methods such as TV commercials or radio spots due to cost constraints – meaning there’s no need for expensive production costs when creating content for digital campaigns. This makes it easier than ever before for companies looking to expand their customer base without breaking the bank on costly ad buys.
Finally, measuring success from creator marketing campaigns is relatively straightforward compared to other forms of promotion since most platforms provide detailed analytics tools which track engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments. This allows marketers to see how successfully each campaign has reached its intended goals, such as increased sales.
Creator marketing has become an essential tool for PR professionals, allowing them to reach and engage their target audiences in new and innovative ways. Now let’s explore how social media strategies can help you take your PR campaigns to the next level.
Most content creator trends today are focused on monetization. But brands must learn how to partner with them first and integrate them into their programs.
Final thoughts on the 2023 Digital PR Trends
As we look ahead to 2023, it’s clear that PR trends are changing. Data-driven storytelling, creator marketing, and media outlet analysis are strategies to help brands stay competitive in the ever-evolving landscape.
What are you doing to stay ahead of the current PR trends? With digital analytics, public relations, and social media becoming more intertwined daily, it’s important to have a strategy that allows your brand or organization to capitalize on these emerging opportunities. Investing in solutions that offer actionable insights can help you keep up with the latest trends affecting B2B tech PR.
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