TMI: Pulse Check: The Media Landscape is Changing, Is Your Media Relations Program Keeping Up?

During our 25 plus years in business, we’ve seen our media relations practice grow and change thanks to the influence of paid media, the rise of social channels and the evolution of traditional newsrooms. In this fast-paced world of media relations, it can be tough to keep up with current trends; let alone predictions for what lies ahead. And 2018 looks to continue to bring new challenges and opportunities – below, we’ve rounded up five of the top media relations trends for this year and shared some ideas to give your media relations program a boost.

• It’s Time to Move Beyond Pure Media Relations Tactics. The thinning out of newsrooms present a unique challenge – and opportunity – for PR pros. Reduced staff means there are more “generalist reporters” in the business media. That means that brands – and their PR agencies – must get creative to get their stories told and find new ways to support journalists. This changing landscape also means there are new opportunities for brands to express their own knowledge of an industry through branded and sponsored content. The new model should be to support paid media and owned media with earned media.

• Harness the Power of the Influencer. Armed with the power of social media, micro-influencers are able to move the needle for product awareness and sales with a powerful and loyal niche audience – which could also become your brand’s audience. In the B2B space, influencer marketing is becoming an extremely sophisticated process, with rapid advances in influencer identification, relationship-building and measurement.

• When It Comes to Measurement, Don’t Lose Sight of the Big Picture. It seems like everyone has quantitative marketing ROI metrics on the brain. And that’s because it’s become so much easier to track “hard” numbers like page views and leads generated. But, no matter how long the industry waits for it to be realized, all of your PR efforts will never be able to be lumped into quantitative metrics. Building perception is hard work and it’s hard to quantify; so don’t let a limited view of measurement make you lose sight of the big picture.

• Power Positive PR Change with AI. When it comes to analytics, it’s time to embrace technology – not run from it. AI is already here and changing the way we live our daily lives. For PR, new technologies, software and innovation are working to give the industry more power and new opportunities for humans to interact, analyze and deliver value on data.

• Strengthen Your PR with Thought Leadership. Thought leadership is moving beyond the C-suite, becoming a company standard. It presents a unique opportunity to strengthen PR efforts by promoting expertise, credibility and trust. It also provides an opportunity for brands to “tell a story” and give reporters the in-depth insight on a topic that they may no longer have the time to source for themselves.

What changes are in store for your media relations program this year – will you be stepping up your thought leadership focus or expanding branded/sponsored content programs? Whatever your goals are, we’d love to help you reach them. Leave us a comment below or connect with us via Twitter @OutlookMktg, LinkedIn or Facebook – we’d love to hear from you!

You can also catch up on all of the latest key developments in B2B marketing and content on our blog. So, stay tuned for our future posts.

Author: Andrea Davis, VP, Message Development & Customer Validation Practice Leader