PR Trends 2021
Public relations is a field that is utterly instrumental for commercial entities. While business is all about turning a profit, any given company ultimately depends on people. Therefore, the ability to communicate with and influence those people is of the utmost importance. Trends in PR has taken numerous forms over the years, but it’s continuing to evolve. Here are the public relations trends you’ll need to keep your eye on in 2021.
Market Research
Information has long been important to business owners and marketing executives looking for a way to create “sure thing” strategies. Market research has been the foundation of this pursuit for scientifically engineered business strategies, and advancements in modern technology continue to complicate matters, for better and for worse. The explosion of data available to corporate interests has expanded wildly throughout the digital age, so much so that new methods of storing and processing all of that data have had to be developed in order to make use of it all. However, the latest trend in market research provides a way to sift through all of the data more efficiently. Sentiment analysis is a recent development in artificial intelligence that enables an AI to sort through social media posts in order to determine how the public feels about a given business. This works via advancements in machine learning and natural language processing, two topics that have pervaded talks about artificial intelligence for awhile now. Consumer feedback is one of the most crucial pieces of information a business can get ahold of, and sentiment analysis promises this information at an unprecedented scale with the greatest possible guarantee of honesty and accuracy.
SEO PR Trends
Search engine optimization has been a growing force behind the scenes of modern businesses since the advent of the internet as a consumer service, but it has taken on a life of its own in recent years. SEO is the process of making a company more highly rated when consumers search for relevant terms, as well as the arsenal of tools that are used to make that happen. SEO is such a valuable tool in the digital age, because Google is often the first resource consumers use to find what they’re looking for, and that makes SEO a major priority for business of all kinds. When you consider the similarity of purpose between SEO and PR, the logical next step is combining the two. The gist of SEO PR is fairly simple, because it is the use of press releases and other PR campaigns to accomplish the goals of SEO. This most often means that PR representatives will design campaigns with link generation in mind and work with media outlets who will meet those needs reliably.
Influencers
Celebrity partnerships are nothing new, and even influencers are a known quantity for marketing and PR purposes. Both of these PR tools are also well known and understood from a cultural standpoint. However, what constitutes an influencer has changed, and PR experts are reevaluating the true value of the big name influencers. Influencers can be a huge get for a marketing campaign, because they can have truly staggering audiences. This is the primary reason that they are being prioritized over traditional celebrity endorsements. However, an influencer that is too famous tends to create the same problem as depending on mainstream celebrities. Micro influencers, internet personalities who have achieved a degree of fame without entering the mainstream, are now being seriously considered as a viable option for PR purposes. Micro influencers have a smaller audience than their more successful counterparts, but they are also more attainable as a result. Moreover, an influencer with a smaller following is likely to have a more intimate relationship with their fans, and that can potentially increase the efficacy of their involvement with marketing.
Public relations are always changing, especially as technology continues to advance and evolve. Each of these trends exemplifies that evolution perfectly, as each one depends on the advancement of technology and culture. These trends will become the new normal in 2021, but there will always be another iteration just around the corner.
