A Few Media and Public Relations Trends for 2014
2014 is here already and, as usual, things in media and public relations are changing. There are a few hot new trends emerging in the industry that we all need to pay attention to. Recent conferences featuring Brian Solis, Jay Baer and Mack Collier highlighted these themes, among others, as being important to media and public relations in 2014.
Use your superfans to do marketing for you
One of the most effective ways of growing your business is through referrals. You get referrals from your biggest fans and happiest clients. Your media and public relations campaigns need to focus on really connecting with these fans. The more they feel that you care about them, the more likely they are to find new clients for you and generate referrals for your company. Knowing your fans and connecting with them effectively is far simpler than trying to convert the fans of other brands.
Giving up control
Mack Collier has the opinion that you need to give up control of your brand in order to really get control. Media and public relations experts often feel very protective over their brands and want to keep control. There is no way that you can control your fans though. What you should be doing is giving those superfans that are generating referrals the means to promote your company. Fans love to share content and videos on their own channels – so give them something to share. Do not leave them to create their own, rather provide them with your content in such a way that they feel like they need to share it.
Plan for the long term
In order to get the nitty gritty part of media and public relations right, you need to know what the long term picture should look like. Decide what you want your content to reflect about your business and how you want your business image to look in a few years’ time and then create the content accordingly. If there are big events that you plan to attend or host, start talking about them early, build a little hype. Do not try to create hype the week before the event – that is simply too short notice!