If you’re in marketing, PR or own a business – it’s an understatement to say that the past two years have been challenging. How do the uncertain circumstances of COVID-19 and the back and forth of the post-pandemic affect Digital PR? 

How to Shift and Keep Up with PR Changes in 2022

1. Keep producing unique content 

Creating your own original content is key. But, with so many platforms and choices, where do you share your content?  Look at ecommerce opportunities on social media, particularly Instagram and Facebook. The rise of short-form video platforms like TikTok also give PR professionals new platforms to reach your audiences.

As you lead your PR and marketing team, it’s also important to focus on clearly communicating, especially as news organizations reduce their reach at an increasing pace. Circulation for print newspapers has gone down 6% as the pandemic accelerated the downturn of the already declining industry. Instead of relying on the media, focus more on sending messages directly via email, social media, automated media, and PR AI tools.

2. Expand your reach for talent

Hiring has been problematic for many industries, including PR and marketing. Instead of hiring someone to work in your office, why not hire a digital nomad or remote worker? Many experts like me, work remotely. About 1 in 4 according to recent statistics.

The benefits of expanding your talent reach are straightforward. It expands your pool of qualified candidates, plus – it opens up new possibilities with expert staff in multiple time zones. Hiring remote workers makes talent a top priority because it eliminates the need for potential hires to relocate or to live close enough to your office. “The times they are a changin.” 

3. Business and PR goals should be aligned  

Public relations activity is much easier to measure when you monitor the relationship between your investment and ROI. The days of blindly blasting a pitch to the local and national media, hoping you’ll get picked up in a news story are fading fast. The amount of new business isn’t the only area to look at. What are some of your other goals? 

Two other areas to emphasize are corporate social responsibility and public accountability. A growing trend is to watch companies amp up their DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) efforts. If you’re a big, medium or small-sized firm, improving diversity and inclusion should be on your PR to-do list in 2022. Your audience is paying attention to your social PR and what you’re doing online. 

4. In-person events or a mix of hybrid?

The ability to hold in-person events will return eventually, if it hasn’t already – in bits and pieces. But with most, if not all, events going virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic / post-pandemic, which events should stay online? Do the benefits of having in-person events outweigh the costs, or are funds or efforts better allocated somewhere else?

Returning to in-person meetings and events create stronger connections with the media, your target audiences, and the results you’re looking for. As much as you may crave in-person events, virtual events still offer enhanced availability and a feeling of safety for participants. 

5. Automation and AI will be more prevalent

It’s hard to imagine spending a day online without interacting with AI. While PR may never be fully automated, automation and AI can help improve the social PR process.

Certain tasks, like media monitoring and pitching the media, have already been automated, as well as compiling a media list — one of the most tedious tasks of the job. Software can also help you gain and visualize data on how an audience feels about a brand. 

There’s also AI and its role in tracking search engine keywords, traditional media coverage, social media and influencer content. Take a test drive in leading automation tools and see how much time you’ll save versus manually getting the job done.

6. The metaverse brings a new dimension to PR

The metaverse is another revolutionary development for the PR world. It’s basically a virtual-reality space where you can interact with others in a computer-generated environment. 

It is too early to tell how well the metaverse will catch on as it becomes more mainstream, but it’s yet another way PR and marketing teams can make connections with audiences.