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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Public relations is enjoying a bit of a resurgence these days as a method of raising a brand’s visibility.

75 percent of marketers say they plan to increase PR spending over the next five years, says a report conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the USC Center for Public Relations at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

In spite of this rise in popularity, PR isn’t nearly as effective when a client has misconceptions about how it works.

Here are a few common client misconceptions about PR:

Some companies believe they can hire a PR firm to come in and magically wave a wand to get them the visibility they so desperately want. We in PR know it doesn’t work that way. For the relationship to be most effective, the client needs to engage with the agency or consultant. Without input from the client, both proactive and reactive, the effort may not go very far. If you don’t have the time to engage with your PR team, now may not be the right time to engage in a public relations effort. It’s a two-way street – not a one-man show.

2) Results from a Dedicated PR Effort Happen Overnight

In reality, it takes a little longer. As with content marketing, SEO, or any marketing strategy, results from PR can take some time. If a client believes that one press release or campaign is going to blow up and go viral, you may want to direct them to another firm. It takes an ongoing, consistent effort to achieve the kind of results most clients want. Be sure to set expectations up front, so there are no misunderstandings later.

I was talking with a colleague recently who said something along the lines of, “PR is a gamble.” There are PR pros who will tell clients this up front—and some who won’t. Clients need to understand that the results of a PR effort are NOT guaranteed. It’s not like buying an ad, which means you know what day it will appear and what it will say. Because earned media relies on journalists who are pulled in many directions, there’s no guarantee that a story will appear or what it will say. It’s a PR pro’s job to open the door of opportunity for the client. What happens after that is somewhat out of our hands.

“An interview is simply that – an interview. It’s not a promise of a published story,” said Teena Maddox, Senior Writer for TechRepublic,

4) PR Pros Control What Journalists Publish—and When

Yes, per #3, PR can open the door to opportunities—but what ends up in the finished story isn’t up to us. Sources can be cut as a story evolves. Stories can be killed due to breaking news. There are elements of the publishing process that are simply out of PR’s control.

Clients need to understand this, so they don’t enter a PR engagement believing that public relations pros have complete control. We’re on the media outlet’s timeline – not the other way around.

5) Clients Just Sign off on What PR Pros Provide

This goes back to engagement. If a PR pro sends a client a document, he or she expects feedback – not only approval with no comments. This happens far too often. It makes us wonder, “Did the client even read what we wrote?”

Clients need to invest the time to read what we send and provide input. Or sometimes, we may need to bounce ideas around. Or we may want the client to proactively send us an industry article they saw that might pertain to an angle we may be thinking of pitching.

The point is, a healthy relationship should go beyond rubberstamping what the PR team provides.

Before digital media, PR and marketing were classed as separate departments with their own goals and practices - but those days are over. The lines between PR and marketing are blurring and the departments are slowly becoming one. It makes sense, after all, PR and marketing are forms of brand awareness, as such, this is a goal that is shared by both teams. PR doesn't work in isolation, so neither should PR pros. In order for PR campaigns to be a success, they need to approach with omnichannel marketing in mind. 

Dispel Client Misconceptions About Public Relations with Education

PR can do wonders for a company that’s ready to engage and understands the value PR can provide. For the best success with your clients, be sure to have an open dialogue and educate them about what PR is—and what it isn’t.

Even if you can’t ensure clients have suitable expectations of what PR brings to the table, you can ensure that you’re up on industry expectations of a modern PR pro by downloading our ebook on the topic.

6 Common Client Misconceptions About Public Relations

Picture a world where everyone on your public relations team has the information they need to be successful. Everyone has clear PR goals—and set timeframes for achieving them. They all track key performance indicators (KPIs) to calculate, quantify and optimize their programs and measure PR to prove its ROI. Everyone knows exactly where their projects stand.

This world is no longer a fantasy. But taking advantage of this brave new data-fueled world requires identifying the right KPIs, using tools that measure PR performance, then presenting results in clear, convincing reports.

It can seem overwhelming to zero in the right KPIs, gather the data you need to track them and show how your PR activities are contributing toward the company’s goals. Start by looking at your business goals, and breaking down what you need to do to get there. As you progress and compare metric results over time, you’ll gain significant insights into what’s working and what needs refining.

Four Steps to Align PR KPIs to Business Goals

Although the idea of setting PR KPIs can feel a little intimidating at first, it isn’t that complicated once you document what you’re trying to achieve with your external communications, how those efforts positively support your business, and how you can measure ROI from that support. We’ve broken down how to do this into four steps, with the questions to ask yourself along the way to identify your KPIs and public relations metrics.

As the saying goes, you can't manage what you can't measure. It's important to link your public relations goals back to the wider business goals if you're to have control over strategic elements that affect the direction of the general business. Furthermore, aligning what it is you do with that of the c-suite will help you get buy-in.

When identifying the business goals you want to influence with your public relations strategy, ask yourself, what measurable outcomes are your efforts designed to increase? Market share? Web traffic? Positive brand sentiment? Brand awareness? Attendance? Enrollment? Donations? Are you entering a new market or launching a new product? Or are you maintaining or growing an existing business and product line?

Decide what is your top measurable priority? Here are some ideas: 

Tip: Learn more about brand reputation measurement.

Now think about how your efforts in PR contribute to specific business goals through media outreach, awareness building, and customer engagement. For example, perhaps your brand has recently gone through a PR crisis and sales have slumped as a result. If your goal is to change brand perception and reduce brand reputation damage, you might want to tie this back to customer engagement. If you measure customer engagement and see it start to rise again, this would suggest your brand is recovering, plus, it has a more direct line to retention and sales - two goals the c-suite are likely to place a lot of attention on.

Step #4 Align Accomplishments to Business Value

How can you connect and calculate what you’ve outlined and measured above to concrete business value? Profit.

It's important to document what public relations can both do and measure and compare that to what the business is trying to achieve. This will help you decide which measurable KPIs are the most important.

For a simplified KPI example, using the above framework, let’s look at building awareness for your brand through thought leadership. You’ve identified specific themes to emphasize in your outreach. Your goal is to increase media coverage associating your brand for a thought leadership boost.

If you know from experience that it typically takes three interactions with a reporter before you get a reply to your pitch, and you typically need to reach out to 10 reporters to get a month’s worth of coverage, your monthly outreach quota would be 30 outreach attempts. If your hit rate gets better over time, and your goals stay the same, you’ll be able to lower your monthly outreach quota and dedicate your time and resources toward other KPIs.

In addition to internal KPIs, which measure how you are performing against yourself over time, you’ll also want to benchmark the results you found from PR measurement against those of competitors and aspirational brands. This is important as it gives you an accurate picture of the possible results a company in your industry can attain.

KPIs are worthless if you don’t have the right tools for tracking and measuring progress. The combination of tools that your communications and marketing team uses is known as your “marketing technology stack,” and choosing the right ones involves making big decisions. Historically, PR measurement was a difficult process, but thanks to advances in technology such as AI, machine learning and predictive analytics, PR measurement is no longer an uphill battle.

PR measurement tools, like Meltwater’s comprehensive media intelligence platform, will deliver the data you need to track essential metrics. As you dive deeper, you’ll want to get yourself familiar with the tools other departments are using and the overlapping goals that you are all supporting. This will help break down the silos between departments and allow you to offer a more holistic customer experience as a result.

Tip: Read our case study with The Direct Marketing Association that is using Meltwater to measure PR ROI to see the Meltwater PR Suite in action.

Shared Communications and Marketing Goals

The communications and marketing teams will likely have several shared goals, such as:

Generating, nurturing, and qualifying leads

Driving marketing-sourced or influenced revenue

Reducing sales cycles and increasing deal sizes

Retaining clients and building strong brand advocates

These are all things PR can influence and measure ROI from.

However, when you understand what’s important to your colleagues—and they better understand what’s important to you—you can then align KPIs accordingly and share the metrics you need to track them. For instance, PR might traditionally focus on media coverage and the number of brand mentions. But the modern PR pro understands the importance of measuring how coverage has both indirect and direct implications on leads, including generating web referrals, and SEO increasing domain authority. When the PR team demonstrates through clear metrics that they are supporting business goals in this way, it helps move PR from being a “nice to have” to a driver of business growth.

As you start measuring performance, you’ll want to determine an initial baseline number as the starting point for tracking each KPI.

This baseline represents the results you expect given normal operation. Instead of looking exclusively at industry standards, compare your latest monthly, quarterly, and annual results to your results from a similar time period. Choose whatever intervals make the most sense to your organization. As your results improve, you’ll want to push yourself to even greater heights—with the data to prove your results!

How to Measure PR ROI: Align KPIs to Business Goals

As the market undergoes digital transformation, communication experts in the higher education sector are constantly faced with many challenges. That’s why we’ve turned to our clients in the higher education sector to share their best-practices and most effective communication strategies.

From alumni relations to internal newsletters and newsjacking: discover 8 effective communication strategies for the higher education sector!

Most educational institutions build strong media relations in the countries they are based in. However, it is also important to consider the local press in other countries or regions.

Every year, thousands of students come to the Middle East to pursue their higher education. Including international and other regions’ local media in your strategy is a great way to attract foreign students.

“Last summer we launched the Purple Canada Tour where students drove cross country in a purple van spreading the word about Bishop’s and doing random acts of kindness. With every stop, I’d use the influencer database to pull a list of local journalists, and then reach out to set up interviews. As a result, we gained exposure and brand recognition in cities that had never written about the university!” 
Chantal Sneath, Chief Communications Officer, Bishop’s University

Alumni are a strong medium of media coverage for educational institutions. Their work and accomplishments contribute to the overall reputation of the university.

However, its often a challenge for schools to maintain strong relations with their alumni and manually track their news features.

Many institutions use Meltwater to help them automatically pick up all articles which mention their alumni. Keeping the alumni informed of their press coverage can also become a new means of building a stronger Alumni relations strategy.

“Alumni are the university’s ambassadors to the world and it fills us with pride to track their news in the media in combination with the university’s coverage.”
Manuela Gutberlet, Public Relations Manager, German University of Technology in Oman

“I let our alumni know when their name has appeared in the media. If the coverage warrants it, I’ll put the link on Twitter. It’s all part of the brave new world of alumni relations!”
J. Michael Moore, Director of Media Relations, Emory University Goizueta Business School

Keeping track of such news also allows the school to relay important achievements of their alumni.

“One of our alumni became the President of St. Lucia, and we had absolutely no idea because he’s no longer in touch with the university. We learned of this through media monitoring, which was the only way we could have had access to the Caribbean publication that made the announcement, and then we posted the news to our social media channels!”
Chantal Sneath, Chief Communications Officer, Bishop’s University

Research published by schools is one of the most popular topics in the press. While each school has its own lines of research, the marketing team can collaborate with faculty to identify new angles of research in response to current trends.

“We are among a handful of schools that continuously innovate. We are proud to advance the field of education, particularly through the digitization of training and strengthening our international partnerships. We use Meltwater to identify possible angles for coverage, distinguish ourselves and stay in touch with our community. For example, we have seen marketing appear this year as one of the most influential topics in the online press.”
Boris Galinat, Head of External Relations, KEDGE Business School

The communication department must then work on promoting the research work of its professors, for example by identifying journalists who are interested in the topics researched and by personalizing their approach.

“I use Meltwater to find journalists who are likely to be interested in the research that I’m in the process of promoting. For example, I can search for journalists who are discussing particular antibiotics within their articles, and create lists of contacts for each particular field. I then create a bespoke pitch for each journalist.”
Clare Bebb, Media Relations Manager, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Finally, it is important to share the results of your campaign with the faculty, to both celebrate their accomplishments and to also help them understand the public opinion around their publication.

“Meltwater lets me share metrics on what’s worked for book promotions. I can use the success of one professor to guide the efforts of another. This allows me to reach out and give back to educators, so I’m not only going to them when I need something.”
J. Michael Moore, Senior Media Relations and Online Producer, Emory University Goizueta Business School

Newsjacking, or the art of utilizing current and trending news for promotion and increased visibility, also works in higher education!

By reacting to highly-discussed news, educational organizations can create a buzz around them in the media landscape. This can be done by publishing research related to the topic or by organizing an event.

“Presidential candidate Ben Carson was speaking nearby in Dayton. A former brain tumor patient of his is on staff here and we asked Dr. Carson if he’d like to visit. We used Meltwater’s keyword search to interest CNN, NBC, Fox News, and international media in covering the reunion. Footage of Dr. Carson at Cedarville University still appears on TV!”
Mark Weinstein, Director of Public Relations, Cedarville University

Some professors are recognized for their expertise in specific topics, and are regularly solicited by the press to give input on current events.

To shed light on the expertise of their faculty, some schools have created their own blog, where professors can express themselves and share their expert opinion and research. These articles are then taken up by the press.

“NSU teachers are often interviewed by the local, national and international press, but we are not aware of most of these interviews. One of our professors does media almost every day and is covered in top tier publications! Our monitoring allows us to identify and leverage this for major media attention.”  Marla Oxenhandler, Associate Director of Public Affairs, Nova Southern University

As a higher education institution, your social media accounts are not only followed by current students, but also alumni, prospective students, parents, journalists, professors and other educational institutions.
In short: a diverse audience! Which also means large numbers of messages to respond to, if you are looking to be able to satisfy them all.

Some universities successfully analyze their different communities, and which social media channel they are more active on. Once the different audience groups are identified, universities can build a social media strategy for communicating with each group.

“Becoming aware of our audiences has been a real issue in our digital communication. We were able to build our messaging on social media based on the different profiles of those who follow us. This has completely transformed our overall communication strategy and has ultimately allowed us to boost our reputation. INP Toulouse is now one of the top 10 schools active on Twitter.”
lorence Lauriac, Director of Communications, INP Toulouse

In the field of public relations, we are accustomed to speaking to journalists and influencers, so much that we often forget about the importance of internal communication.

Maintaining consistent internal communication allows you to keep all your employees informed of your work and the media coverage your university is receiving. It is also one of the most effective ways to showcase your efforts and achievements as a communications department.

A periodical internal newsletter could be the perfect solution!

“My internal stakeholders get this great looking, professional newsletter that makes them say, “Wow, this is impressive, keep this coming!” They see us as a trusted resource for delivering timely news, that’s such a positive thing for our department!” Mark Thomas, Communications Officer, Birdville Independant School District

The higher education sector is not immune to crises, which can be caused by many factors. It is therefore important to media monitoring and alerts that will help your organization in anticipating crises.

“We had an issue dealing with racist emails sent out to our student body, and we received the first alert at 10:30 at night. That initial alert allowed us to immediately research and do proactive damage control. Alerts help us calm fears by providing facts and approaching situations with a level head. The ability to receive alerts based on location and proximity to the campus ensures we’re the first to know if something big is happening.”  Nikki Sunstrum, Director of Social Media, University of Michigan

Boost your communication strategy with Meltwater

Whether analyzing your online reputation or finding relevant journalists for your upcoming campaign, Meltwater can help you achieve your communication goals.
Ask for a personalized demo of our platform and never miss anything that is said about your brand! Fill out the form and we will contact you.

8 Successful Communication Strategies for the Higher Education Sector

Although public relations wasn’t officially a profession until relatively recently, the practice has been around for thousands of years.

In 50 B.C., Julius Caesar publicised his military exploits in the first known political campaign biography to convince the Romans that he would make the best head of state—a practice which is still used by political candidates today.

Before the rise of the most powerful PR professionals, there were some ancient personalities that influenced and shaped the PR industry.  

So who are the first PR influencers worth mentioning? 

Ptah-Hotep (2200 BCE) was an Egyptian literary who wrote the book The Maxims of Ptah-Hotep focusing on the importance of communicating with people. 

Socrates (470 BCE - 399 BCE), one of the founders of Western philosophy, was of the opinion that effective communication should be based on the truth. 

Aristotle (384 BCE - 322 BCE) whose work Rhetoric dealt with the art of persuasion and shaping the public opinion. 

In 50 BCE, Julius Caesar (100 BCE- 44 BCE) publicized his military exploits in the first known political campaign biography to convince the public opinion of Romans that he would make the best head of state – a practice which is still used in mass media by political candidates today. This document is regarded as the first public newsletter.

The PR industry wouldn’t be what it is today if it wasn’t for its pioneers and significant events that laid the foundation of public relations as a notable profession. 

But let us start from the beginning, that is in 1440 when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. It caused nothing less than a cultural and social revolution, enabling the sudden widespread of propaganda, journalistic activity, and printed material such as books, pamphlets etc.

Around 140 years later (in 1584), Sir Walter Raleigh decided to do some advertising and sent reports about the beauty of Roanoke Island to England to persuade more settlers. Despite his efforts, his attempt was far from being a success as it turned out that the land was swampy. 

In 1773, Samuel Adams, considered the Master of Propaganda, orchestrated public relations for the Revolutionary War, while 3 years later, Thomas Paine wrote the pamphlet Common Sense encouraging people to fight for an egalitarian government. When Amos Kendall became the press secretary of President Andrew Jackson (1820), he was quickly regarded as the one causing public relations to become a career. 

Basil Clark is regarded as the first PR professional, establishing the first UK PR agency Editorial Services in 1924.

However, PR became a profession when Ivy Lee started working as an advisor of John Rockefeller in 1903. The publicity expert was responsible for Rockefeller’s reputation boost after a crisis caused by a series of strikes in the coal mines. Ivy Lee is also believed to be the author of the first press release. 

One of the most important names is the field of PR is Edward Bernays, the Father of Public Relations and author of the influential book Propaganda. Being the nephew of Sigmund Freud, his PR strategies were greatly influenced by his uncle’s theories on behavioural psychology. Edward Bernays was of the opinion that political propaganda used by the governments during WWII, could also be used by corporations to influence the customer and consumer in a more subtle form. 

Businessman Henry Ford started using PR in the 1930’s to publicize his company and boost sales.

As you can see, only through the effort of numerous people who dared to try new approaches, we can speak of public relations as a meaningful profession.  

PR is a very broad topic, therefore it makes sense to focus on the most important aspects, one of them being inventions enabling the development and progress within the industry. 

History mentions numerous inventions that caused major changes in society, however, we will focus on the ones relevant for public relations. 

Daguerreotype (1839): First commercially successful photographic process

Tesla coils (1897): Electrical resonant transformer circuit. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity.

But what affected the modernization of PR? Once again, the answer is innovation.

It started with the birth of the Internet (1969), followed by the phenomena that the world wide web became accessible to the public (1991) and Hotmail was defined as the first web-based email service (1996). 

Soon after, in 1999 to be more precise, first bloggers emerged and were finally able to share their content on Blogger, the first free blog publishing platform. 

5 more years have passed before the world witnessed the explosion of social media platforms with the launch of Facebook and Twitter. They attracted more and more customers each day, advertising became easier and we could go on an on about the impact (positive and negative) the platforms have on society.  

Consumers, as well as technology enthusiasts, could buy their first iPhone in 2007 and the number of Apple customers is still growing, which can be attributed to effective PR including advertising, media relations, well thought through marketing concepts etc. 

People have been using PR (and PR’s sister occupation, content marketing) to capture the public’s attention and spur them into action since the beginning of time. The channels have changed a bit here and there with various inventions such as the printing press, followed by the Internet and social media (can you imagine how the American Revolution would have been different had Twitter existed?), but the basic strategies and principles remained the same.

People have been using PR (and PR’s sister occupation, content marketing) to capture the public’s attention and spur them into action since the beginning of time (yes, we are suggesting that cavemen probably had some sort of PR campaigns). The channels have changed a bit here and there with the invention of the printing press, and now the Internet and of course social media and sophisticated media monitoring tools; but the basic strategies and principles are the same.

Check out this cool infographic from Max Borges Agency to see how public relations has evolved over time:

The History of Public Relations

Public relations is about communications: the message, the medium, and the content. However, the channels are changing and so is the technology. Today, communication is messy, splintered, and in real time. It’s amplified by the social web and has made everyone a publisher and a virtual reporter. Nonetheless, the message still needs to touch hearts and minds.

If you think it was hard to get your message out before the social web showed up, you were right. But now the challenge is even harder.

So how do companies, PR agencies and communications professionals transition from a world of the 7 o’clock news cycle and column inches to a noisy and distracted 24/7 digital world that never sleeps?

You need to be more creative with your communications. Let’s imagine a PR firm that specializes in beauty and personal care sends out multiple press releases for the same product over time. A media intelligence platform provides the tools needed to compare the performance of each release and benchmarking their impact on reach, share of voice, keyword themes associated with the brand. The company can now track impact and ROI by asking and answering questions like:

How did various releases compare in reaching our target audience?

Which releases succeeded in changing the conversation in the way we wanted?

The online influencer is now a credible and mainstream PR tactic, so when choosing an influencer or spokesperson to represent your brand, make sure to benchmark potential candidates by reach and media exposure. Media intelligence dashboards provide the tools to set up a separate search for each individual and then create a dashboard that aggregates and compares them all. The data doesn’t lie. It will show a clear frontrunner in terms of reach and exposure. Or maybe one top candidate has greater reach, while another one has more exposure. You can now figure out why… and make an informed decision.

Four influencers are benchmarked for their share of voice (SOV) on Twitter and in the traditional news media to help assess which ones have the strongest audience pull.

#3: Monitor News Media and Social Coverage

The social web has democratized communications. Comparing news coverage vs. social chatter on a specific topic can be especially useful for understanding the connection (or disconnect) between news and public opinion.

This company maps and compares brand sentiment on social channels and national news. They may want to look at their October coverage to see what caused an across the board dip.

#4: Use Data to Measure Product Performance

Social proof for brands is now about data and metrics. Imagine that an athletic shoe company is branching out to athletic wear. They have several lines of clothing they just launched (men’s, women’s, and various sports). Benchmarking for exposure, reach, and share of voice against the comparable lines by competitors wouldn’t make sense as those brands are already well-established. So the company poses a question: which of their new products is doing best? And they benchmark the different lines of clothing against each other. The data produces insights that are worth gold!

Because the company understands that a new line of business can take timeto make money, they will use this benchmarking (as opposed to simply sales figures) to help guide product decisions.

Adapting to new communication channels and media is critical. So is keeping on top of the revolution that is happening right in front of us in what is now a global village. The democratization of publishing and marketing is switching the power from the gatekeepers to the creators. The proverbial stoop where our newspapers used to be delivered to now takes many forms (smartphones, tablets, desktops, smart devices), and we must optimize the messages we deliver throughout.

Are you adapting, innovating, and embracing the change or are you hiding and avoiding it? Your attitude to change is maybe the biggest challenge you have. Over to you.

PR Tips: Taking Control of the Conversation in a Digital World

You’ve just finished up a PR campaign that was a success. The client was happy. Your boss was thrilled. Now, you’d like to go bigger, with a public relations campaign that requires more resources, more technology—and more money. Let's be honest, PR, marketing and advertising don't come cheap the majority of times.

For many PR pros, making a case to increase the PR budget can be a challenge. How will you overcome objections to your request for more dollars to executive your strategy?

PR & Communications

6 Common Client Misconceptions About Public Relations

How to Measure PR ROI: Align KPIs to Business Goals

8 Successful Communication Strategies for the Higher Education Sector

The History of Public Relations

PR Tips: Taking Control of the Conversation in a Digital World

Making a Case for More PR Budget

Why Every Business Needs PR While They Grow

How to Draft a PR Job Description That Fits Your Brand

How to Nurture Media Relationships for Better Outreach

Rogue CEOs: Tips on Building Trust Between PR and Top Executives

Challenges of Modern Day PR Pros Versus Those of Decades Past

5 Alternative PR Metrics Worth Monitoring

PR & Communications

6 Common Client Misconceptions About Public Relations

How to Measure PR ROI: Align KPIs to Business Goals

8 Successful Communication Strategies for the Higher Education Sector

The History of Public Relations

PR Tips: Taking Control of the Conversation in a Digital World

Making a Case for More PR Budget

Why Every Business Needs PR While They Grow

How to Draft a PR Job Description That Fits Your Brand

How to Nurture Media Relationships for Better Outreach

Rogue CEOs: Tips on Building Trust Between PR and Top Executives

Challenges of Modern Day PR Pros Versus Those of Decades Past

5 Alternative PR Metrics Worth Monitoring

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