How The Future of Digital PR is Audience Centred
How The Future of Digital PR is Audience Centred
By Lucy Harris, Intern at Kai Communications
Digital PR is a marketing strategy that uses digital channels and online platforms to manage, protect, and enhance online reputations and brand identities to ensure they maintain a positive perception in the public eye and crucially to amplify and extend the reach to engage with target audiences.
In the wake of lockdown social media users’ habits have changed, with a rise in the number of people using social media to the figure of 4.76 billion in January 2023. With this being predicted to continue rising over the coming years to reach 5.85 billion by 2027, PR professionals need to be getting it right to engage ever-growing audiences.
The future of social media in PR is set to focus on the increased emphasis on personalised and interactive content. By targeting audiences and meeting their needs relationships can be built and loyalty and trust forged leading to long-term successes and interactions. With social media users increasing by over one million each year looking ahead is vital.
For success in connecting and reaching online audiences making relevant content that will resonate with them will be essential. Putting out clear, accurate, and concise content leaves little room for misinterpretation, and enables the capturing of attention and engagement.
Here are some suggestions for how to get ahead of the curve and target your audience from the beginning.
1. Multimedia content - Visual and interactive content on multiple social media platforms is important to engage a wider audience. Being able to target audiences across social media platforms simultaneously increases engagement and reach. With short-form content also rising in popularity different social media platforms can target different niches. With TikTok becoming one of the fastest growing social networks since 2020, with a user base of 672 million in 2023, PR professionals must be able to engage with multiple platforms.
2. Personalised and targeted messaging - Online data, looking at analytics, and insights are important to be able to deliver personalised messages to specific audiences. Being able to address audiences by their name, tailoring content to their preferences or directly responding to feedback to provide customised solutions builds stronger relationships and opportunities for engagement. However, remembering transparency is crucial in terms of data collection and privacy.
3. Authenticity and transparency - Ensuring trust is built is crucial to retain loyal audiences especially amid the continual rise of fake news and misinformation. It takes much longer to debunk a false claim than it does to verify a true claim. Genuine relationships need to be built with audiences to enable the brand or client to come across as positive, personable, and ethical.
4. Influencer marketing - Using micro-influencers to connect with local and loyal audiences is a very useful tool. Micro influencer campaigns have already been found to drive engagement up by 60% and are more likely to be open to long-term partnerships which can continue to draw in engaged and reliable audiences.
