Ronn Torossian On The Future Evolution of Public Relations
According to Public Relations executive Ronn Torossian, while the world is constantly evolving, and given the trends of the increased use of technology along with globalization, it’s not always clear to see where the public relations industry is headed. Although it’s certain that a great press release and a personalized pitch to a journalist aren’t going to be enough to get results anymore, there are plenty of other tools and software that can help companies stay in front of the target audience while the markets are changing.
Although the public relations industry has always been responsible for managing relationships and reputations for companies, the industry itself actually has its own problem managing its own relationships and reputations. However, over the last decade, the industry has been making notable attempts to improve itself and its public reputation through various efforts. It’s important for the entire public relations industry to continue focusing on what PR professionals can deliver for their clients in terms of professional, communication, and organizational capabilities. When the industry is able to focus on these foundational elements it’s going to ensure that more PR professionals start embracing the importance of professional qualifications, training, and long-term learning through professional development. Although there are very small barriers to entry into the public relations and communication industry, it’s important for the professionals in that industry to continue increasing their expertise through future development so they can be a lot more able at meeting the needs and wants of their clients.
Technology
Ronn Torossian says Technology has been rapidly evolving in the last few decades and the public relations industry has been largely shaped by that evolution. With many customers moving to the digital sphere, companies have had to follow them. That means there’s going to be a bigger highlight on digital content in the future, while the world is going to see an overall decrease in print content. That means public relations professionals need to focus on different digital platforms and start building relationships with digital media outlets as well. There is also going to be a change in how public relations professionals are able to approach journalists and outlets in this digital space because of the advancement of technology. To stay on top of the latest tools and technologies that are being developed, public relations professionals and agencies have to delve further into these advancements and learn how they work, so they can best utilize the ones that will be the most beneficial to their clients. Although there isn’t a single ideal platform available currently, it’s important to keep track of the most useful and popular ones, as one might appear in the future.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Everyone that works in the public relations industry knows that they need to stay on top of the latest trends. That means both general businesses, as well as PR agencies, need to start investing in various new strategies, such as the ones that have been largely used by the marketing industry. One of the most important ones, that has also been increasingly important and popular as of late is search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, every public relations professional these days needs to have a basic understanding of search engine optimization to help clients rank higher on search engine results pages, reach the target audience in an organic manner, and expand the growth of their clients. One of the best ways to stay on top of everything for public relations professionals it’s by learning new skills. Although SEO is a relatively complex skill, learning and understanding the basics can greatly help PR professionals improve their clients’ websites and create SEO-friendly content for them.
Ronn Torossian On Customers
According to Ronn Torossian, these days, the public relations industry tends to be focused on creating and publishing content that’s going to directly engage with the customers. Additionally, customers have started playing a much bigger role in the way that businesses have started approaching their target audiences, which means for most companies, becoming customer-focused is now essential. In the past, the best set of skills and tools to be able to simply reach a wide audience was reserved for journalists and media outlets. However, there has been a big change in this mindset since the Internet started to become a lot more accessible, which has resulted in a necessity for fresh and new talents across a number of relevant industries. Although public relations professionals are still working hard at creating branded stories and messages for their clients and reaching their target audiences, these days, the best storytelling skills come from journalists, influencers, and bloggers. Furthermore, companies also need to pay attention to the needs of their customers and start operating in a way that caters to those needs. The way that public relations can help in that regard is by creating content that’s going to ultimately generate positive feedback from the target audience of a business. That means when creating public relations campaigns, PR professionals will need to start focusing both on what the target audience of their clients wants to see, as well as what the influencers, journalists, and bloggers want to talk about. One of the best ways that they can do that is true service purchases or opportunities for partnerships and collaborations.
Visual content
Although this is something that has been happening quite a bit over the last few years, visual content is going to become even more important in public relations. Since the pandemic started, content has become a lot more condensed and shorter, both for text-based content, as well as videos. It’s clear that the future of the public relations industry is going to be based on a lot of visual content, including photos, images, infographics, and even GIFs. In addition to that, public relations professionals will also have to keep up with the digital viral trends, as well as popular trends in general to be able to create visually appealing content that will grab the attention of the target audiences of their clients.
Analytics
To get a better understanding of the demographics, psychographics, interests, and values of the target audience of clients, public relations professionals need to rely on useful analytics tools such as Google analytics. The platform can also help PR professionals better understand which media outlets and journalists are going to be relevant for the clients, and create appropriate pitches that will be tailored to those journalists and outlets. Additionally, through Google Analytics, companies can also figure out which outlets tend to generate the most website visitors to their business websites. Companies that utilize analytics platforms can also find the region or the location of those website visitors to find out where the business gets the most attention or customers. Although Google Analytics is one of the most popular analytics platforms available to businesses, there are a number of other sophisticated tracking tools that are frequently overlooked by many. That’s why it’s important for companies and PR agencies to choose the best one that’s going to show the information that the clients need to focus on. Additionally, with companies being able to collect data in a number of different ways and from a variety of sources, they’ll also need to figure out which platforms they can use to process and implement the insights that are generated from that data. All of the data that companies collect also needs to be turned into trackable and targeted campaigns, and companies can also get the benefit of making real-time adjustments to their campaigns to generate better performance and results.
Relationships
One of the important jobs that public relations professionals have is making connections and nurturing meaningful relationships on behalf of their clients. However, it’s important also important for PR professionals to be measuring those relationships instead of simply the coverage that they are able to generate. This is one of the best ways to figure out which relationships PR professionals need to focus on and make them a lot more meaningful. Additionally, those meaningful relationships need to be developed on the basis of generating positive results for both of the parties that are involved with them. Since there is strong competition in practically every industry, and the potential for creating and nurturing relationships has evolved with the use of technology, it’s important for companies and PR professionals to ensure that every relationship they focus on is going to be beneficial for both sides. Otherwise, those relationships will end up being irrelevant, as well as wasting time and effort, because they won’t be generating positive results for either party.