Stephen Waddington discusses several trends in public engagement and public relations for 2018. First, he argues that public relations is becoming recognized as a management discipline due to increased professionalism in the field. Second, social media is maturing and becoming more visual, while platforms copy features from each other to engage users. Third, practitioners can use the large amount of data generated on platforms like Facebook to identify audiences and understand their motivations. Fourth, tools now enable practitioners to make sense of vast amounts of data and have conversations, though they need to consider data provenance and ethics. Fifth, storytelling across media remains important for cutting through clutter and inspiring conversations.

1. Public engagement
in 2018
Stephen Waddington
@wadds

2. #1 Professional status: public relations
There’s a growing shift to
public relations becoming
recognised as a management
discipline.
The drum beat of
professionalism in public
relations has been getting
louder over the past decade
and has accelerated since
the Bell Pottinger scandal
this year (£).
My view is that 2018 will
prove to be a breakthrough
year for the professionalism
of public relations as a result
of a concerted effort on a
number of fronts.
Source: Stephen Waddington

3. #2 All of the life is on the internet
Social media is maturing. It
is becoming increasingly
visual and in the moment.
Short video messaging is
the current vogue.
Platforms are copying
features from each other in
a bid to engage users for as
long as possible.
This emerging media
environment faces
challenges with fake news
and transparency.

4. #3 Identifying audiences or publics
Two billion monthly
Facebook users generate a
huge amount of data. The
platform has become a
powerful planning tool.
But it’s not alone. Every
post, click, like and
comment that we leave on
a social media platform
leaves an audit trail.
Public relations and
marketing practitioners use
this data to discover and
identify audiences and
publics, and understand
their motivation.
Source: Facebook Business

5. #4 Listening to conversations
The application of data in
public relations isn’t a new
trend. What is new is the
scale of data in public
relations and the growing
availability of third party
tools that enable us to
make sense of it.
Practitioners need to be
aware of the provenance
of data and the ethical
implications of using it to
inform insights.
Source: 25 things we learned analyzing billions of Tweets

6. #5 Tell me a story
The craft of telling a story
across different forms of
media, and engaging a
public, is more important
than ever. It’s critical to
cutting through a cluttered
media environment.
Creative and content, the
keys to good storytelling,
are frequently overlooked
elements of public
relations. They lie at the
heart of inspiring
conversations, and
storytelling.
Source: @MyDoncaster

7. #6 Shift to newsroom workflow
Public relations operations
have become more like
traditional media operations
in the last decade.
The simple fact is that public
relations practitioners don’t
have hours to respond to an
issue. It’s difficult and not
always perfect but the
organisations that are
sufficiently brave, win.
The skills, technology and
workflow used in media and
public relations are
converging. Frequently
people switch between the
two disciplines.
Source: How to build a newsroom or press office for the modern media environment

8. #7 Performance public relations
Measurement should no
longer be an issue within
public relations. But
outdated practices mean
that practitioners remain
wedded to old forms of
measurements.
Measurement is hard and
so the public relations
business has developed
proxies for measurement.
We’ll be taken serious as a
discipline when we provide
meaningful measurement
that is aligned to the
organisations that we
serve.
Source: AMEC

9. #8 Communities as media
Community is a much
abused and maligned word
in this social media era.
Create a Twitter hashtag,
or build a Facebook or
LinkedIn group, and people
will come.
Except they don’t. The
internet is littered with
failed community building
efforts.
Successful communities,
online and offline, are co-
created around a shared
purpose.

10. #9 Leadership becomes social
Executives that are serious
about leading a modern
organisation will invest in
their social media footprint
in 2018.
10 years ago executive
profiling meant targeting
features in the broadsheet
and trade media.
Today’s modern executive
is more likely to seek
support in optimising their
social networks and
content.

11. #10 Influencers: relationships vs reach
Public relations in practice
is evolving from media
relations to influencer
relations, and then from
community management
to social business.
Each new form of media
from Snapchat to YouTube,
and Instagram to Twitter,
has given rise to a new
breed of influencers.
Media relations has shifted
from pitching traditional
media to working with
these individuals across all
forms of media.
Source: Influencer relations: the latest war between marketing and public relations

12. #11 Artificial intelligence normalised
Artificial intelligence was
the shiny new thing in
public relations in 2017.
I’ve been using artificial
intelligence since I used
WordPerfect 5.1 in the
early 80s. In fact it’s never
been bettered as a word
processor.
But we’re starting to feel
the impact of machines in
at least three areas:
content production;
content distribution and
publication; and workflow.

13. #12 Fake news and brand misplacement
There are two main
purposes for fake news.
The first is propaganda and
the second is profiteering.
We’ve only just started to
understand how social
media can be manipulated.
In 2018 we need greater
disclosure from social
media platforms, more
academic research, and the
introduction of legislation
to start to deal with this
issue.

15. Thank you. Questions?
This deck was prepared for a workshop session with NHS
comms directors hosted by NHS Providers in London on
25 January, 2018.
If there’s anything that I can do in my role at Ketchum to help
your organisation address any of the issues highlighted,
please let me know.
Stephen Waddington
Ketchum
stephen.waddington@ketchum.com
@wadds