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10 PR predictions for 2010

Posted by Danny Whatmough on 15th December 2009

The last ten years or so have been extremely disruptive for the PR and marketing industry. In 2009, we’ve seen the rise and public acceptance of Twitter, the death of numerous print magazines and a migration online by brands and consumers alike.

But what do we foresee in 2010? What will be the trends that we think will come to fruition? Here’s our top ten:

  1. Continued demise (and metamorphosis) of traditional media – there is no doubt that more traditional print media publications will disappear (including some very high profile ones). The media will focus on trying to generate revenues from online content (expect to see a lot more about paywalls…)
  2. Creativity will count – because it is so easy to publish content on the internet, being heard amongst all the noise is critical. Getting your message across is both an opportunity and a challenge for us creative PR people. PR agencies will ignore this at their peril
  3. More brands becoming publishers – in light of the first prediction, we think more and more brands will publish and distribute their own content, either as a corporate blog  or by supporting and creating a new breed of industry portals
  4. Distributed content – following on from this, creating (creative) content that can be distributed across the internet (and even offline) will be important for effective PR. With the rise of the social web, sharing is where it’s at, enabling this (and encouraging it) will pay dividends
  5. Real-time – Google’s recent announcement will only increase public interest in real-time content (think Twitter et. al.). Acting and reacting quickly will be vital
  6. Video, video and more video – we were amazed to learn recently that Salesforce use YouTube as their primary social media channel, but it makes perfect sense. Video is a fantastic way to simplify complex messages or information, so expect to see a lot more of it in the tech industry in particular
  7. Even more “social media gurus” hanging around – not necessarily a welcome one here, but at a time when it’s hard to move for experts in all things social, separating the wheat from the chaff is going to get even more important
  8. The PR/customer service dilemma – as more and more brands use social networks for PR and marketing, consumers will respond by making customer service demands via these channels. Finding a way for the two to co-exist will be a challenge
  9. Blogging to rise “from the dead” again – the ‘death’ of blogging is currently one of the web’s favourite themes. But, next year, those who were jumping on the blogging bandwagon will stick to the shorter form that is Twitter, while the ‘real’ bloggers, with something to say will take back their prominence and excel
  10. Even more stressed-out journos – it’s a tough time being a journalist at the moment. Shrinking numbers of publications and shrinking numbers of jobs are juxtaposed with the ‘real-time’ web and the race to publish online news before anyone else. Don’t expect this to change anytime soon. The days of long boozy PR lunches are well and truly over. Getting quality content to journalists and providing them with all the elements of a great story quickly and efficiently will be vital

What have we missed? What do you expect to see in 2010?

picture credit

Danny Whatmough