PR trends in 2010
At the beginning of a new year, I am always wondering what will happen in the next 12 month, especially in the world of Marketing. I was searching for 2010-trends when I found an interesting blog about PR (http://www.davidwmullen.com/2009/12/17/four-pr-trend-predictions-for-2010/). The author brings up four points which he considers as the most important ones for the next year and I think he has some great points!
PR or advertising?
The first idea I would like to present is the blur of PR and advertising. But what is exactly the difference between those two terms? In brief, advertising is aimed at sell’s increasing whereas PR means communication with stakeholders. (If you would like to know more about Marketing and PR, you should have a look on http://www.buzzle.com/articles/difference-between-marketing-and-public-relations.html). The author argues that there are many ways to get in contact with customers, and they should be part of the campaign and interact with the company’s brand. Thereby, advertising campaigns and communication ways melt one into the other.
Analysis of the company
The second point is that PR people often do not know exactly what the client’s businesses are, due to a too quick analysis of them and their industry. The author’s opinion is that PR experts will have to study in detail what the company is doing for giving better advices. However, I am not sure that the PR experts’ mission will be so relevant for the company’s strategy. PR is PR and not a strategic consulting, isn’t it? In my opinion, Public Relations will keep their one and only mission, the question how to represent the company face to face with stakeholders. Sure, they need to know the company, but hasn’t it always been like this?
Social Media as the main trend
Finally I would like to join the last two point together. The author deals with the importance of Social Media, which is for me the most relevant change in the near future. Social Media represents some really important Marketing tools, and PR can benefit from them as well. Twitter, Facebook and Blogs are as meaningful for PR strategies as TV and print medias. However I perfectly agree with the author that Social Mediawill not be the “cure-all” for a company’s success. It could be beneficial to use them, mainly by analysing the forecasted trends as described on http://www.proactivereport.com/c/pr/pr-trends-in-2010-the-future-of-pr/, where you can see that numerous peolpe are interested in Social Media and and Networking.
In addition I found an interesting video about the importace of Social Media for Marketing in 2010. Have a look if you want to learn more about it!
Other trend visions
I especially liked the author’s four points, because they open a lively discussion. It is really interesting to read what other people think about the article, to get an idea about what PR experts and other PR interested peolpe say about his trend visions and give their own opinions. Keith Trivitt thinks that relationships is an other key factor, whereas Arik Hanson assesses mobile marketing. We will see in the next months how PR tasks will evolute, and if Social Media will maintain it’s success as most people predict.
January 12, 2010 at 4:17 pm |
Thank you Ann-Kathrin for this post !
In my opinion PR is already very important, and will become even more important in future.
I personally think, that PR can help faciliate the customers life by helping him to make his choice between a very large amount of buyable products. Good PR will just convince you to buy exactly this product and not the product of your main competitor !