Recap of 2021 Global Comms Report – Paying & Earning Attention – Podcast Transcript

Speakers: Lexie Smith

Lexie Smith 

Today’s minisode is going to recap some of the key findings of a recent global comms report produced in collaboration by Pr week and scission. Specifically, the report and ebook is called pain and earning attention. Here’s a bit of background on the reports origins in 2017, inspired by the continuing evolution and how PR is both practiced and perceived scission and PR week joined forces on an initiative to clearly identify and more deeply understand communicators use in interaction with technology, data measurement, content and influencers. The report is now in its fifth year. And many observations from this year’s report underscore the impact COVID-19 has had. And we’ll continue having the industry and the practice of communications. So that was paraphrased from their words, I’m not going to go into every single section that this report covers, I am going to summarize our channel choices. So shifts pertaining to the social media channels being prioritized by brands. We’re also going to talk about people of persuasion, which I thought was super interesting. So this is an overview of who has the most sway over how consumers think about products and ultimately decide to spend their money. So that matters to you. If you want someone to buy, listen up. We’ll also review platforms of persuasion. From brand websites to blog posts, we’ll review what types of content brands most rely on to influence consumer behavior and spending. And I’ll sprinkle in a couple other key findings that I found interesting in other sections of the report. And actually, that’s exactly how I’m going to kick things off. So in recent years, much focus has been placed on whether communication professionals should prioritize their outreach to traditional media. And when I say newer outlets, I mean, are they meaning rather, bloggers and social media influencers etc. So the report collected survey data by country to see what they would answer and an either or scenario. Specifically, the numbers I’m about to read reflect how many respondents chose prioritizing traditional journalists and media over newer outlets. Okay, so who chose still to prioritize traditional journalists and media? The US came in at 73%, Canada 53%, the UK 59, China 53. And globally, we landed around 64% super interesting, I thought to see how it differs by country. If you’re in the US, quick reminder. 73% of people are still focusing on traditional media and journalists over new outlets such as bloggers and influencers. As you’ll learn as we continue today’s episode, we’ll see if that’s a good idea or a bad idea based on persuasion metrics. So by the way, if you have an opinion, if you’re surprised by anything you hear today, let me know. Shoot me a DM on Instagram, I’m at the PR bar underscore pink. Okay, so now we’re going to move into channel choices. So the report states verbatim. new social media channels always elicit immediate excitement. However, when brands decide which platforms to prioritize with their content, the same ones still rule the roost. Now, that said, this year’s data reveals a notable shift among the top four channels. Now, if you were to see the physical report, as I am right now, there are a ton of numbers because it evaluates eight different countries across 10 different social platforms. And I am not about to put you to sleep by reading at different numbers. So here’s what the report summarizes based on all those numbers. Facebook is by far the most prioritized content platform globally, and in each country, except Sweden, whose respondents placed Instagram among their top four choices the most. When each country is viewed individually, certain platforms standout. YouTube is notably popular among Canadian respondents. Tik Tok is very popular in both China and Germany. As for the US, the disparity between the top five platforms, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, and the bottom five, tick tock, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat and WhatsApp is far greater than it isn’t any other country. Now I want to hone into that a little bit. I have a lot of well, the majority of my listeners are in the US. If you’re not, I still love you. But I was surprised by some of the US numbers. So the percentages you’re about to hear reflect how many respondents placed that given platform among their top four choices.

 Lexie Smith 

So 85% brands are still prioritizing, Facebook, Instagram, take second place at 72%, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter, who are tied in a close third at 71%. I feel like I’m reporting on the races right now to harden the third percent. Anyways, YouTube took fourth at 69. And tick tock was only at 14%, which I was super surprised by. And that might be because recently I went to a tick tock workshop and learned that tick tock has so much online viewing time that it has surpassed all social platforms and is more so in alignment with streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. Although it is worth noting, this was a tick tock run event. So that’s where other brands are at. Right? When it comes to deciding where you are listening, put your effort or your clients efforts. Encourage yourself to ask where are your people, or your ideal audience hanging out? Because that is where you should show up. Don’t just show up on Facebook, because you heard this episode today that everyone’s on Facebook, right? So ask yourself, Where are your people hanging out? Moving on to people of persuasion, a part of facilitating consumer behavior is understanding who has the most influence over how they think about products and ultimately decide to spend their money on them. Okay, so this part of the report indicated who the respondents deemed to be the most persuasive influencers, and as such strong partners to work with. I’m going to recap the US and global metrics. And as a reminder, the percentages you are about to hear reflect how many respondents placed that influencer among their top four. First up, we’re going to talk about global numbers. We’re going to go first to last place. First place meaning people with the most persuasion at 71% everyday consumers, so yay, our voice matters awesome. 68% second place, mainstream journalists. Okay. Third place 56% employees. Next 55% bloggers, celebrities followed at 53 Sorry, can pay 53% corporate executives and last place globally were micro influencers at 45. So in summary, we the people when mainstream media takes place second, and globally micro influencers are last. Okay, so we’re going to talk about us now. And I was surprised and perhaps biased but in light of all things. COVID I was surprised To learn that first place still goes to mainstream journalists having the most persuasion at 80%. Okay, I’ve just heard a lot of people saying they don’t trust the media, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That is not my reflection on whether or not I do. I was just interested to learn that. Maybe you are too, I don’t know. Okay. So everyday consumers, on the other hand, took second place at 69%. So no globally, consumers one journalistic second, but in the US, journalists, one and consumers took second. After consumers in the US, we had micro influencers at 58%. So they moved from last place on our Global Report all the way up to third, employees, 52% bloggers at 53%, celebrities and corporate executives tied for last at 45%. So again, micro influencers in the US have more influence than celebrities. So really interesting to know when you think about your 2022 PR and marketing strategies. So similar to people of persuasion. Now, let’s review the most persuasive platforms and they looked at eight different types of content. The eight content types are online features, brand, website, brand video, a social media post, a broadcast feature, an advertisement, print feature, and then blog post. 

 Lexie Smith 

Okay, globally, the most persuasive platforms at 66% were online features. Okay, so online articles. Second place brand website, tied for third, we had brand video and social media posts at 53%. Next, we had broadcast features at 50. ads at 48. Again, I had a lot of surprise moments when reviewing this report, print features and blog posts were below ads. So that’s a global recap. Curious if right now you’re thinking we’re going to see the same lineup for the US? Well, similar to the last section, when we talked about people, there were some differences. And the first one, which I actually was not surprised by first place for the US. So the platform with the most persuasion, went to social media at 70%. And then online features took a close second at 68%. From there, we had a brand video brand website in a close third, broadcast feature print and ads following up and last place was blog posts once again. So basically, if you’re looking to increase your influence in 2020, social media, online media and owned brand platforms, and content should be a top priority. Okay, so we’re wrapping things up today. And I want to add a stat here, almost eight in 10 communication professionals, so 79% say that their PR campaigns focus on engaging the end user and target audience as opposed to 21% saying it’s all about getting as many stories placed as possible. So as the same goes, if you’re looking to be strategic in 2022 and beyond, don’t spray and pray, get specific niche down and understand your or your client’s unique audience could not echo or agree with those sentiments anymore fully behind that. We’ll add the link to access the entire report in today’s show notes. If that’s of interest to you. You’re from a different country. You know, I apologize. This is in Minnesota, I would have gotten into all the numbers that would have been a lot of numbers. When you go to this link, they’re going to make you sell your soul to download it, totally kidding, but you will need to provide a fair amount of personal information about you and about your company. With that being said I got to wrap this up and a true pitch and insipid way. I hope you enjoyed learning some of these new tips. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, go grab some sips, cheers!