Four PR Trends

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By Grant Wright, CEO

Looking at past trends in an evolving industry can be a poor predictor of future trends—whether you’re talking about the stock market or the PR field.

Witness Facebook (a 9-year-old), Twitter (a 7-year-old), Instagram and Tout (both 2 year olds). These are among only a few of the game changers that disrupted the publishing industry. Each is a relative toddler by traditional business standards, and not that many years before their existence I don’t recall anyone predicting them. But their global impact on the human condition is already established.

The trend impacting the PR industry, therefore, is not which new social tool will take off, but that game changers are now the norm. Expect and anticipate them.

Here are four things (among many) I see near through long term impacting PR.

The Story Stays

We like a good yarn. Stories have been told throughout human history and they’re not going away anytime soon. So while the delivery method may continue to break speed records in the unprecedented data age we’re now in, if there isn’t a compelling story to whatever the communication is, it won’t leave the station.

In creating your communications, think about your story. How compelling is it or could it be, and why should others care? And if you don’t have one, then either create one or rethink your communication strategy for most effective resource use.

Multimedia Explosion

We are a sensorial species, and with the written word there’s a terrible lack of engagement of the senses. True, imagination can help make up for that. However, the way I imagine Utopia and you do can be very different, meaning there’s a significant control loss of the intended message. But what if I could not only tell you a story, but also engage you in it by your five senses? Instant communication around the planet is now possible with video covering sight and sound that will only increase. But I think it’s only a matter of time before technology allows for an online cook ‘book’ to not only convey with what and how something’s made, but also how it should look, feel and even smell and taste.

Additive Manufacturing

 …aka 3-D Printing will change everything, and this means for PR too.  I think 3-D printing is truly Roddenberry’s Star Trek replicator come to life like the cell phone, and why I see it profoundly impacting PR is that currently the world’s societies are built largely around traditionally manufactured goods and related services – shoes manufactured in China are consumed in the USA; medical implants created in New York are used in Canada; an airplane is created and assembled from many different places; etc. Things today are still made for us and we don’t make things for ourselves. PR supports all of this ‘traditional’ world commerce that in the next decade will dramatically change with the advent of 3-D printing for the masses. Like intangibles such as information value decreasing with increased accessibility, so will the value of physical goods change. As it does, PR will change as well, becoming less about conveying a compelling call to action to buy consumer products, say, and more about strategically helping communicate things like B2B opportunities, services expertise, key events, experience opportunities, and political and societal agendas.

Local & Smaller

It’s well established doctrine for good communication to know thy audience, and reach them where they are. With billions of us now having our heads buried in our smartphones more than we’d like to admit, guess where audiences are? Sure, we’re still driving down the freeway ready to notice a billboard, pouring over that quaint thing called a newspaper at Starbucks occasionally, and watching commercials whip by as we watch our favorite DVR’d show.  But increasingly we’re more interested in our immediate environs – our local neighborhood - than otherwise. So as opposed to a broad shotgun approach, PR will increasingly need a precise rifle approach tailored to local geography and interests. And in doing so rely less on large real estate like a full magazine, in-depth television reporting or a regional newspaper spread, but instead plan for consumption to be increasingly on a screen just four or five inches wide—that if it’s showing a picture of a rose, soon enough will probably smell just as sweet.

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Twitter demographics shift

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I'm on the wrong side of 40, but up until March, my age made me part of Twitter's 'in' crowd: 35-54 year olds.



Boomers and gen X'ers were the most likely demographic to be on Twitter. But something happened in April that caused a massive influx of millennials. Comscore released data showing this trend. Look at the top two tiers in the chart below and how they're getting squeezed from April through July.
What happened to cause this shift? Some are suggesting it's the Ashton Kutcher effect. In April, the young celebrity began a Twitter battle with CNN: the first to reach one million followers would be declared the winner (and malaria nets would be donated to Africa so there was a feel good element to this silly competition).


No word on whether malaria rates have fallen at the same pace as Twitter use has risen. But as Twitter grew from 9.3 million users in March to over 50 million users in July, the type of user has shifted and more brands and spam accounts are now joining the ranks of the Twitterati, for better or for worse.

Think you're following 1,000 Tweeps? Actually it's closer to 40.

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Twitter's supercharged adoption rates have taken it from nine million unique visitors in March to 17 million in April.

But recent scrutiny of Twitter adoption rates have turned up two interesting results:

• 60% of users who start an account abandon it within a month. (Source: Nielsen)
• 10% of its active users are responsible for 90% of the Tweets. (Source: Harvard Business School)

Based on these metrics, while my account might indicate that I'm following 2,000 people on Twitter, I'm actually following more like 800 (40% of 2,000). And, 10% of them--80 people--are responsible for 90% of what I see. The other 720 folks are responsible for a smattering of Tweets.

To see if these numbers bore out, I reviewed an hour of incoming Tweets and counted closer to 150 individuals and news feeds of which no more than 10 people or outlets were responsible for multiple Tweets. This is not scientific by any means, but it tells me I'm following users who are twice as active as the average. This is what I'd expect to see since I tend to follow other communicators and journalists; however, it still illustrates the point that only a small percentage of followers are consistently contributing to Twitter.

What do these trends mean for communicators and their clients? Well, for one, it means Ashton Kutcher does not have 2.1 million followers -- he has 840,000, max of which 84,000 would fall into that most active 10% and who are, therefore, likely to be on Twitter at the moment he sends a Tweet. And now the question is whether that's the 84,000 who really care what Kutcher has to say? (And could it be that high? ;-)

But enough about Kutcher. What this post is intended to illustrate is that amassing large audiences is not as important as targeting and attracting followers that care about and share your interests.

And, in that respect, social media is no different than all forms of communication that preceded it. The first commandment remains 'know thy audience.'

If you're being followed by 1,000 people, keep in mind that 600 of them are no longer using Twitter because they didn't get it. Of the 400 remaining, only 40 of them can be expected to really engage.

So take stock and identify who those 40 people are, find more like them, serve that audience as best you can, and consider cutting loose those who may be cluttering your communications rather than adding to them. Approach your social networks with the same discipline you use to build a direct mail or media list--you want the highest response rate possible so pay close attention to your followers' profile.

And if you're someone who is an above average user on Twitter, help newcomers and encourage them to stay by engaging with them, recommending TweetDeck and other tools that improve the experience, and so on. Think of it as your community service.