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Feb
8
Public Relations Trends in 2007
February 8, 2007 | Anita Campbell
The nature of public relations has been turned upside down by the increasingly online world we find ourselves in. An article about PR trends by Mike Nikolich of TechImage in this month’s Bacon’s Navigator Newsletter describes what to expect in 2007:
Social media will cause a lot of heartburn for public relations executives
Life used to be fairly simple in the public relations world. You worked with reporters, built relationships and placed stories about your clients. Social media, including blogs, wikis, MySpace and other tools, is changing that equation. It has reduced the influence of some media members, increased the influence of others and made influencers out of ordinary folks who never had a voice before. It has also turned the rather organized world of media into the Wild West. No one really has a handle on what it can do or how it can help businesses, especially in the business-to-business space. But it’s definitely a factor. My advice to you is to get smart, and get smart today.
Satellite radio, podcasts, vodcasts, etc. will make heads spin
This space is even more uncharted than blogs and other online media, but I believe it will spawn unlimited public relations opportunities for savvy professionals who understand how to place stories in these channels.
The status of online placements will continue to rise
When media first moved online, an online-only placement was viewed as being second rate, especially by those executives who grew up with traditional media. That perception has been slowly changing over the past few years and will change even more in 2007. Rather than being the “leftovers” or stories not fit for the print edition, online stories are coming to the forefront. Even surveys have been showing that busy executives turn to the Internet as their primary news source. Reporters’ blogs will also be taken more seriously, although it’s doubtful that they’ll have the same status among executives that full articles do. But wait until next year.
Opportunities for thought leadership will abound
This is not so much about expertise as it is about economics. Limited budgets and more media options are driving down revenue at most publications. Less revenue means less cash on hand for reporters. Yet the need for content is still there, which will drive the symbiotic relationship between media outlets that need articles and organization experts who are looking to establish a need for their products and services.
This is a pretty succinct description of the state of the online media world today.
I’d add the following: I think it is pretty clear that blogs add value to a media strategy. What they add depends on the blog.
In some cases, blogs are high-quality, niche publications of original content or thought-leader blogs, and provide excellent visibility and carry some prestige in their own right. In other cases the blogs are mainly amplifiers or echoes, that extend the impact of news reported in the mainstream media or on the thought-leader blogs. Both categories have value in their own ways.
