5 Ways Technology Can Make Your PR Stand Out
Public Relations has come a long way from simply having great content, these days good PR requires the backing of great technology to make sure you are standing out in the crowd.
We look at five technological innovations that are giving PR practitioners the cutting edge and explore how you can include them in your own PR practice.
1. Online Tools
Online editorial tools have been around a while and play a major part in helping to organise and manage PR officers’ workloads. This software allows you to keep a running to-do list, take notes, write up long pieces of text and synch calendars and other apps.
You can even use tools, such as Evernote and Boomerang for managing and organising your email inboxes. PR Manager, Debbie Butterworth from Writemyx agrees: “These tools have found a way of helping us at every stage of a PR campaign. They are intuitive and functional and a must-have for PR professionals”.
2. Artificial Intelligence
Not just the stuff of the future, AI is here and it’s becoming a useful tool in the worlds of Marketing and Public Relations. From bots which help you complete your shopping online to sophisticated data crunching systems that “read” your customers’ habits, likes and sentiment offering you a more tailored approach to all aspects of your PR work.
Embracing AI now is the key to avoid getting left behind in the future. Rather than fearing AI, PR practitioners need to get to know all that it has to offer and prove that they are one step ahead of all the rest, incorporating it into their work.
3. Big Data
Linked closely to AI, big data is simply all the information available from the internet that is scoured for insight into potential customers’ routines, habits, social media hang outs and so on.
As customers understand that organisations research big data, they expect PR campaigns aimed at them to contain exactly the right information and products for them.
Big data and the AI that helps mine it has become the centre point for audience segmentation over the last few years. As Mark Ranger, a Tech Consultant at 1Day2write and Academic brits, says: “Any company worth its salt is using AI to scour big data for information about its customer base. PR companies too are making use of the insights it draws out to plan specific campaigns and give themselves the edge over other organisations”.
4. Social Media
Almost extinct now, the traditional PR campaign does not solely rely on the written word to make its campaign points any longer. With the rise in social media sites and their increasingly popular position as news hubs, PR professionals are focussing much of their campaign time and money on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
With readers getting more and more of their information from on-the-go mobile apps, PR campaigns are hitting the likes of Facebook through banner ads and well placed social media postings.
Failing to consider social media is a nail in the coffin for PR campaigns and is increasingly the first part of any smart PR strategy.
5. Email
Yes, of course email has been around for quite some time but far from reaching its sell by date, email has experienced something of resurgence. It is still favoured by most companies as the chief form of communication when talking to customers.
Currently PR managers can send only slightly personalised emails en masse but as technology grows so mass emails will become increasingly more personalised and contain much more high spec information such as high res video and other functions. Far from fading away they will become even more relevant to PR communications. Expect to see huge advancements in email technology and its pairing with big data and AI over the next few years.
Staying ahead of the game and up to date with the latest technology is exciting and keeps your PR strategies fresh and even more relevant. Don’t miss the boat, hop on and watch these latest trends as they grow and bring your practice into the 21st century.
Guest blogger Joel Syder is a public relations specialist and writer who works at Origin writings. He loves writing articles that excite him and his readers and loves helping to bring out the best in people in the world of Human Resources.