Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Ragan's top predictions for 2013

Happy New Year, everybody! I hope everyone had an amazing and safe New Years Eve! I personally cannot believe that another year has gone by. As we all get closer and closer to receiving our degrees, I thought it would be beneficial to explore Ragan's predictions for social media and PR in the upcoming year. A lot of the predictions cover various topics I have blogged about this year and many seem extremely plausible. Here is a look at the top six:


  • Facebook will take a backseat to LinkedIn
    • LinkedIn has been carefully expanding its capabilities this past year. It has accomplished many beneficial innovations and companies are noticing this. It is somewhat of a more professional network than Facebook and according to Ragan.com, many companies will use it to encourage conversation and connections with influencers. One of the newest features is an "endorse" option, somewhat similar to that of a like button on Facebook. However, this option allows a person to endorse another's particular skill set rather than something like a status or picture. It makes sense that LinkedIn will be utilized by B2B companies as well as others for new marketing strategies. 
  • Unexpected entities will go social
    • Due to the success of this year's election coverage on social media, it comes as no surprise that other topics of the government world will begin to be something a person can check while browsing their Twitter feed. People are expecting increased amounts of transparency and it seems as though the government will deliver by allowing their citizens to keep up to date on political conversations in 2013. 
  • Reporting standards will rise
    • A lot of talk this year has been about how everyone can now be a journalist. Whether stories begin on Twitter or from a personal blog, news stories occur in all shapes and forms. However, due to inadequacies in details, PR Daily is confident that the general public will now require more adequate coverage. Although speed is important, accuracy most definitely trumps that and reputable journalists will be in high demand this upcoming year.
  • PR will win the social media battle
    • Many different corporate disciplines execute and use social media in their every day endeavors. However, 2013 will be the year that public relations officially takes the cake for being the leader of social media. Companies use social media for various things, such as customer service, marketing, and branding. It has now become obvious how integral a part social media is and the effect it can have on a brand. Having said this, many companies are realizing that they need support in adequately executing it and are looking to PR professionals for support.
  • Visuals will be the new go-to for content
    • The market which will exist in 2013 will be a crowded one. Therefore, PR pros will need to jump on the bandwagon and give the public what they desire, and that is visuals. Whether it be the rise of infographics or the increased popularity of photo-sharing and Instagram, it is evident that people are drawn to pictures rather than lengthy paragraphs. Our world has always been a fast-paced one and 2013 will only keep on with that trend.
  • PR will be highly dependent on the mobile world
    • I am sure that you have heard this past year that press releases are becoming replaced with 140 character tweets. Can a company give a full lowdown on a situation through a Tweet? No. But it sure can alert the public as to what is going on, and for some that tweet just may be the right amount of information. Smartphones are quickly becoming the most popular way both professionals and ordinary people receive their news and the technologically savvy PR pros have already caught on to this. According to Ragan, "delivery is key but brevity is still queen". This ultimately means that the message will be delivered to the right audience in a succinct and requisite way.
In closing, I wanted to include an infographic depicting "what peaked in 2012" or the most popular searches done on the web. Here is what the public was most curious about this past year:

Picture via PR Daily




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