Silvia Albert in company has been working since the beginning with international clients, and its trajectory is linked to multinational companies from different countries, many of them English-speaking regions.
So we thought that our blog, our channel to transmit our work and our values, should also be aimed to that international audience. For this reason, we are starting a new English section in which we will analyze the trends and highlights of the PR industry from a global perspective.
We invite you to read us quarterly and share your opinions and views with us.
To inaugurate the new section, and as we are still almost starting the year, we would like to point out some of the major trends that we expect to see in the PR and Communications industry during 2014.
The Media are already Social
The majority of the media are now able to use the social media channels in an efficient way, and have already lost their initial fears. The New York Times social media desk recently analyzed their good moves and mistakes in Twitter and one of their main conclusions, which seems quite obvious, will be key in 2014: News rules. The audiences of newspapers, TV channels and radio stations are also their followers in their social media platforms: therefore, the staff in charge of these channels must work in concert with the news desks. Social media platforms, especially Twitter accounts, are already main channels when issuing the news, as many readers will turn to them in the first place to get quick information. From a PR perspective, we must have that idea always in mind when approaching a journalist: a headline that can be easily twitted has bigger chances of success.
In 1964, Isaac Asimov predicted quite accurately the smartphone era for 2014 in his “Visit to the World’s Fair of 2014”
Think Mobile
Smartphones are definitely the winners in the mobile revolution, being tablets the worthy second-best. In 2013, the worldwide smartphone market reached a new milestone with more than one billion units shipped in a single year for the first time. Large screens and, most important, low cost, are the top trends driving smartphone growth: that means the tendency will continue, being this technology within reach of more population. In countries like Spain the smartphone phenomenon reaches amazing figures: recent research reveals that Spain leads the ranking of smartphone penetration in Europe (66 percent), and one quarter of the 24 million internet users in the country are connected 24 hours a day through their mobile devices. The leading media are adapting their business to this reality, as we recently read with CNN’s plans to adapt their contents to the mobile audiences. The future is undeniably mobile, and so must be our way of communicating.
The return of the long-term thinking
During the last years we have witnessed a clear acceleration affecting most aspects of our life: work, business, leisure, learning, even relationships. This applies also to our job: clients expect immediate results, answers and solutions must be delivered quickly, some times without giving a proper thought. The global financial crisis has driven this way of thinking, and the instantaneous culture appeared to be here to stay. But a balance is always required, and although this short-termism idea is useful and sometimes necessary, a return to the long-term thinking and planning is necessary. Now that the worst part of the crisis is over, we must think on building stable and enduring projects and relationships. This becomes even more significant when working on influencer relations, where a long-term approach is essential. Ultimately, PR plans will not longer be based on monthly results or quarterly statistics, but look for durable effects and long-lasting achievements.
More information, less attention
The overwhelming amount of data and information that the average reader receives in a day makes it even more difficult to actually capture their attention. According to expert Ann Marie van der Hurk, the PR and marketing professionals will struggle to connect with information-flooded users. Companies will continue to look for ways to engage with customers while audiences become more and more fragmented. The key lies more than ever in identifying the really important information and adapting it as much as possible to the preferences of our target audiences; that implies working on its approach, format, timing and shareability.
