Last week on the Zilker blog, Paige discussed digital marketing trends for 2018. Although PR doesn’t move quite as fast as digital marketing, there are public relations trends we publicists will need to keep in mind for 2018!

Podcasts aren’t going anywhere

More and more podcasts are gaining popularity with crazy loyal followings and they are among the important public relations trends to be aware of. This increased popularity gives lead time on podcasts a lot longer.Consider moving the popular podcasts you’re pitching to your long-lead lists, rather than short lead, where digital media traditionally has lived.

More videos

Last week Paige mentioned the importance of video content and how it has become the norm on social feeds. As more and more news outlets move to post more video on their feeds, PR folks need to think about how the stories we are pitching fit into this. Any time you can connect a story to video content, that gives the reporter that much more reason to use the story.

Analytics

With SO much data at our fingertips, 2018 will be the year of more and more PR pros learning about Google analytics and figuring out how to integrate them into their campaigns. It’s time to reverse the stereotype of PR folks being bad at math!

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing and paid placement has grown a ton in the past two years — obviously! But now, algorithms are changing like crazy and paid placement is becoming more regulated. It’s hard to say what will become of influencer marketing in 2018, but it’s something to keep a close eye on for sure.

SEO

SHIFT Communications reports that in 2018, “SEO and PR continues to blur as more SEO practitioners realize the need for human storytelling, and more PR practitioners quantify their work in SEO terms.” I couldn’t put it better myself, and integrating SEO into my campaigns is one of my biggest goals for the year.

These are the public relations trends I’m keeping top of mind for 2018. What are yours?