At the session “PR on the verge of PR” held as part of the 27th Russian Internet Forum (RIF 2023), experts in the field of PR, GR and marketing identified the main trends in modern communication and discussed the necessary skills for this. job.
According to Anna Ivanova, head of content distribution and technology at Rambler&Co, we live in a world where there is “no time to explain,” and therefore public relations professionals should not waste resources on creating long-term forecasts and complex hypotheses, but must be flexible in their strategies and adapt to the mood of the target audience. and should use A/B testing more often to quickly understand their needs.
Experts also believe that both business and government should develop their own brand media. For example, the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation turned Gosuslugi into a full-fledged information service, thanks to which more than 100 million Russian citizens receive up-to-date information on personal development opportunities and social support measures. Advisor to the Minister Maria Mezentseva noted that the department has long maintained its own telegram channel, where useful information for representatives of the IT industry is immediately published.
The third trend is mandatory information verification capabilities, constant monitoring of the media space, and rapid response to counterfeit products to prevent their spread. Another important vector in the work of public relations professionals has become anthropocentrism when a person with their needs is at the center of communication. There has been a trend since last year, both in the business world and among government and budgetary institutions, to work with targeted, “hard-point” people who, under the law of public institutions, must have accounts on social networks to communicate with citizens.
At the same time, as the RIF speakers emphasized, just maintaining a social network is not enough today. RIF speakers chose omnichannel as the fifth trend to be on the maximum possible number of sites to reach the full potential audience.
Another trend noted by the speakers is the emphasis on UGC, ie content created by the users themselves. They believe that content like this always has more engagement and more credibility. The next important conclusion accepted by all the participants of the session is that public relations professionals today should not be limited to the Internet domain.