Minisode – 2023 Global Comms Report Recap by Cision and PRWeek – Podcast Transcript

Lexie Smith 

Welcome to the pitching and sipping podcast, where we talk PR trends and tips over sips and meet a wide range of incredible founders, PR pros and members of the media. I’m Lexie Smith, a former workaholic VP of PR and marketing turned to time entrepreneur, founder of the PR bar, Inc, business NPR coach, new mama and self proclaimed connoisseur of puns, pizza and wine. I’m a huge believer that knowledge is power, and kindness never goes out of style. Think of this show as a way to uplevel your business and career over happy hour. Now, let’s get to pitching and sipping.

Lexie Smith 

Hi guys Lexie here. And it is many, so time. And if you have not heard the news, this season of the pitching and sipping podcast is also on YouTube. So if you are a YouTuber, and you want to see me podcasting in real time, for whatever reason, you get a kick out of my quiet, expressive face and talking with the hands head on over to YouTube. But if you’re just tuning in from your phone, or a listening device, that works, too. So today, we’re going to be going over the 2023 Global comms report, which was produced in collaboration with decision, PR week and Haymarket, I’m not going to go over every single component of the ebook, I’m kind of going to cherry pick some things that I think are really, really interesting to consider. That being said, I encourage you to download the full report yourself. So you can go into it, whether you’re on the PR side, the journalistic side, or you’re a business owner, we will include a quick link to the download in our show notes. So with that said, On the video side of things, I am going to share my screen and kind of just scroll down a bit. A lot of the first pages of this report for those of you not watching, it’s just really gauging how people feel about the state of PR, which is interesting, and you’re more than welcome to look at it yourself. But where I want to start is right here, understanding the challenges. So from measurement to content strategy, there are many key tasks with which communications professionals continue to struggle. On this page, we spotlight many of the big ones. So this is really talking about how respondents feel regarding the challenges that lay ahead of them in the industry.  So with 61% of global respondents placing it among their top four and 22%, deeming it to be their top choice, the quote, inability to measure impact effectively, is clearly the aspect of their jobs, troubling strategic communicators the most, you know, in my coaching, where I teach entrepreneurs and I work with different PR professionals on how to do PR. This is a topic that definitely gets brought up. How do you measure results in marketing, it can be really, really simple, right? You’re looking at an open rate of an email or a quick trackable conversion. Some PR metrics are easy, and some aren’t. And some of the value is more long term, which makes it harder to track. So basically, I’m echoing that I agree here. The other ones that are notable here, um, continued over reliance on media impressions. 49% of people said that this was still a challenge. It’s interesting, I do not even look at impressions anymore. I’m more look at using conversions. Personally, I’m super curious weigh in by all means. Best place to weigh in, by the way, is either shoot me a DM on Instagram at the PR bar underscore inc or send me an email. People are still struggling with finding the best tools to measure. Yeah, tools seems to be a big one. And then proving or validating PRs impact into the C suite. Only 21% of people mark that as a problem, which to me is actually positive, meaning that the C level is starting to get it a bit more. Okay, so who has the power to persuade? Third party endorsements can be worth their weight in gold because consumers increasingly look to them when deciding which brands to support with their hearts, minds and wallets. On this page of the report. We list seven such influencer types and indicate the ones our respondents deemed to be the most persuasive voices and as such strong partners with which brands should work. Okay, so there’s a lot of numbers on this page. I’m going to skim through a real Quick and give you some highlights. So in the US, mainstream journalists were ranked number one at 35%. Being the group of people that has the most impact, it’s probably worth sharing with the groups are so we have celebrities, everyday consumers, corporate executives, mainstream journalists, bloggers, employees and micro influencers. So that’s the choice. So number one category in the US was mainstream journalists, interestingly, global globally, that answer changes, celebrities, meaning actors, artists, athletes, social media stars came in at 41%. So globally, celebrities seem to have the most influence but in the US are looking at mainstream journalists second in the US are micro influencers. Second in the world are everyday consumers, I find it really, really interesting how the US and global numbers are not lining up. And we also have some statistics here over in Europe, Europe also deemed celebrities that 51% is the most persuasive. Now let me skip down to the least persuasive, least influential so to say. So in the U S, of the mentioned, actually, there’s 123 Tied for last place. corporate executives, loggers and employees have the least power of persuasion. Globally, in last place, we have micro influencers, which is really, really interesting, because that ranked as number two for most persuasive in the US. Also Europe says that micro influencers are in last place. So that one’s always an interesting, interesting one to see. All right, so I’m going to highlight what they say is the main takeaway, their main takeaways, celebrities remain desirable influencers for our respondents. Broadly, though, all of the groups presented above the US is a noteworthy outlier. outlier, excuse me, the value us communications professionals place on micro influencers also exceeds all the other groups. Okay, so now we’re gonna go into platform preferences by region. So decisions about which social media channels to prioritize with content are really important. So let me start by telling you what platforms are on this report. And we’re going to look at 2022. They have data here on 2021, as well, but we’re going to focus in on 2022. So our choices are Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, tik, Tok, Pinterest, Reddit, WhatsApp and WeChat. So let’s start with the you s the most per the platform most preferred. Any guesses? You can answer me, Okay, number one, LinkedIn. LinkedIn was number one. Number two in the US was Instagram. Number three was Facebook. And then I’m gonna go to last place last place in the US we have a tie for WeChat and WhatsApp. Okay, so globally, what came in first place? Globally, Facebook was number one. Second place we saw as Instagram. Third place was LinkedIn. And then our last place was WeChat. Europe, we saw that first place was also Facebook. And second place was also Instagram. Third place was LinkedIn. And last place once again was WeChat. So interesting to know, I wouldn’t say tick tock was really kind of in the middle for a lot of these just an interesting just side note.

Lexie Smith 

Okay, so now we’re also going to look at Platform preferences by industry. So this chart is a little bit more complex. I’m going to highlight the top preferred platform, top two per the industry on here. So again, we’re going to hone in on 2022. The first category are industry or arts, entertainment media, so that industry’s top preferred platform. First place is Instagram. Second place is Facebook. Now we’re going into financial services. So there is a tie in financial services for first place, which is Instagram and LinkedIn. And then, I guess third place is Facebook, healthcare and pharma. We have another tie for first place, but this time, it’s Facebook and LinkedIn. And third place is Instagram. And then the last category is technology or internet and Then we have a tie folks. The top tie here though, is LinkedIn and Twitter. And third place is Facebook. So interesting to note. All right, the next section of this report is content considerations, her views and priorities. So there are few factors more important to strategic communicators than content. And there’s ample data from our respondents to underscore this. However, there’s also ample data to highlight the reality that the matters over which PR has purview are more plentiful than ever, including some that might take up more time in focus than content. So basically, they offered nine common communication activities, and asked respondents to identify their top three. So the percentage below reflect those who placed content creation below. If you’re not watching this on YouTube, you don’t see this all describe it, don’t worry. So basically, the number one answer that was chosen at 22% was content creation. Number two was analytics and reporting. Number three was attribution and ROI. And then the fourth was media outreach and influencer management. So 25% of global respondents cited content ideation and strategy creation, when asked to identify the single most important function from 11 options when they consider using tech tools to boost their efforts. So moving on content considerations a tactical approach. So what is moving our audience? What do the people want to see? So I’m trying to look in real quick this is globally. So globally, 50%, which is first places a brand website. Second place 45% branded social media, and 37% want brand video. So noteworthy deviations from the above include in the US events scored 30 35%, in brand video scored fit at 30%, which is interesting. Interesting to see. Okay. So the difference a year makes this part of the report says no annual report is complete without highlighting some year over year comparisons from team size to reliance on data and technology to the matters over which the communications team is involved. Below. Again, you’re not watching this here, basically lower on the report, we shared key global indicators that reveal how the day to day is evolving for professionals. So how does the current size of your internal communications team compared to what it was at the same exact time as last year 41% said it’s the same size. That’s cool. 30% said a little bigger and 18% says a lot bigger, and then only 4% said it’s a lot smaller. So I actually think that’s really, really good news. And we also have some responses to look at regarding what is being focused on internally, what is being prioritized or what has mattered. So 39% are saying that Dee and I are putting a emphasis or focusing on internal messaging in the DNI space. 31% said there is an emphasis put on environmental, social and governance and 31% said human resources. Now, as I mentioned, I’m not going through the entire report. But I did want to take a minute and I’m going to put my youtuber Stop, stop sharing for a second and speak to a few resources that I am consistently looking towards. Besides real world experiences, experience being a great way to guide our day to day, whether you’re on the PR side, journalist side or the brand side. I’m a really big fan at looking at the research and the data so that we can better and more strategically choose our tactics. Right So cision is a great one. That’s what we went over today. I also really really liked the data produced by Muckrock. We’ve had Muckrock on the show before as well tap back for some minisodes I’ll record some more forward facing 2023 trends as well. I also look to PR girl manifesto. I think universities are a great source of research. Here daily is another great one. And I want to give one more shout out to proudly so those are just some of my favorite places to look at. Precision again because I went through theirs today. I encourage you to download that report, head decision, go to the resources section. There’s there’s tons of data to dig through. It’s also great data to pull in leverage if you’re ever having to explain to a client or a team member or a boss, why you’re making a decision or proposing a decision. So with that said, I hope you enjoyed today’s minisode and until next time on the pitching and sipping podcast cheers Hey guys, if you are enjoying the pigeon and sipping podcast please do me a huge favor and leave a review wherever you are listening. If you want to connect with me to learn more about the PR bar Inc. You can do so on Instagram Act, the PR bar underscore inc or you can check out my website at the PR bar inc.com Cheers