In each edition of PR News we highlight takeaways from select articles as well as important additions to the PR News Resources Center, available to paid subscribers at: http:// www.prnewsonline.com/subscriber-resources/
You can also access the Center by clicking “Resource Center” at the top, middle of the prnewsonline.com home page. To get ready for our Crisis Summit in Miami (see below), head to the Resource Center for a wealth of documents about crisis management.
Select Takeaways
- Social Media (pp 1-3):While some brands and organizations continue to balk at initiating social media marketing, one measure of its popularity—its U.S. and global dominance in Google searches for the term—makes such a strategy seem unwise.
- Predictions (pp. 4-10): Communicators will be forced to use metrics to demonstrate their influence on the bottom line or their organization’s mission. They’ll need to tie efforts to real value in dollars and cents.
- Organizations are going to have to develop the capacity to communicate more directly (and verifiably) with the audiences they most need to reach when an incident or PR crisis erupts.
- Trust and authenticity will continue to be critical to brands attempting so they can forge ties with their target audiences and get their messages heard. Regaining the public’s trust will be one of the communicator’s most pressing challenges in 2019, along with cutting through the clutter to get your narrative heard (see Roundtable, pages 11-12).
- Influencers will continue to be important to brands, yet the FTC will not only be scrutinizing influencers in 2019 but, as evidenced by its recent action against the PR agency Creaxion Corporation, it will be looking at all parties involved in deceptive influencer efforts, including the marketer, the agency, the publisher, and their respective owners. It will be especially vigilant with online testimonials that appear to come from ordinary citizens.
- The ethics surrounding AI will be a trending topic in 2019 as brands, educators and politicians grapple with the right way to communicate its implications to the public.
- AR will dominate tech-based storytelling, with brands touting their ability to provide inclusive experiences to fans who might not be able to travel to physical venues.
- Managing Change (p.14): A significant majority of Fortune 1000 executives (60%) feel insecure about their companies’ ability to face disruptive change. Four PR consultancies formed a partnership to promote agile and curious corporations, which they say fare much better when changes hit.
Editor’s Note:Don’t miss the final subscriber call of 2018 on Dec. 12 at 1:30pm ET. Hill + Knowlton Strategies’ crisis guru and managing partner Kevin Elliott will be our guest. He’ll talk crisis and take your questions. It’s one of the benefits of being a PR News subscriber, along with 33% discounts on all PR News events, including the Feb. 27-28 Crisis Management Summit in Miami Beach, FL. For more information: https://www.prnewsonline.com/go/2019-crisis-management-summit/