Four predicted public relations trends in 2014

1. Lisa Kaslyn, Chief Creative Officer
Prosper Communications
ProsperComm.com

2. 1. Integrated campaigns
Gone are the days when sending a simple press release to
the print media was enough to get attention to your cause
or brand. With the world attached to their smartphones,
tablets and social media platforms, public relations
campaigns need to utilize these new media forms of
communication. Press releases remain a staple of the
publicists’ toolkit, but with the hammer you need the nails to
hang your news across search engines, social and
traditional media where consumers are researching,
shopping and acquiring their products and services.

3. 2. More personal storytelling
You have an extremely short amount of time to grab your
followers’ attention and people will make a purchase or
support a cause that resonates with them personally. In
sales, you always hear that people will buy from those they
know, like and trust, so carry that over to your public
relations campaigns. Stating statistics may cause your
audience’s eyes to glaze over, but telling a story brings
some humanity to your cause or brand. The more people
can relate to your story, the more likely they will support
you.

4. 3. Content marketing
On the web, the mantra “Content is King” has definitely
taken hold among the business community, but there is a
slew of low-quality and over-curated blog posts and web
pages everywhere online. As a result, Google keeps hitting
us with stringent updates to their algorithms. As such, the
mantra for 2014 adds an adjective: “Great Content is King.”
Those organizations who continue to produce good,
relevant information that their prospects find valuable and
useful will continue to gain followers. But don’t be fooled
into thinking that written content is all that matters.
Supplementing copy with rich media, such as videos and
graphics, is statistically proven to drive higher engagement
and a slight edge in search ranking.

5. 4. Improved analytics and data
Return on Investment (ROI) is important to any business
and the ways of tracking and measuring your public
relations efforts are improving by leaps and bounds. It’s
much easier to obtain real-time data using social media
metrics and other measuring tools so you can quickly make
changes to a campaign if you’re not seeing the desired
results. For each PR tactic used, you should review the
number of visitors to your website, leads generated from
content and email marketing and conversions through the
sales process. Using free analytics supplied by Google is a
perfect way to get started.