So here we are in 2020 and I’m slightly disappointed that it’s not quite the tech-fest that the sci-fi films of my childhood promised. But, while we’re still a way off from the flying cars and hoverboards that changed Marty McFly’s world, something that has been completely reinvented over the last decade is PR and how we manage corporate reputations. Most of the changes we’ve seen can be traced back to the following three major developments.
1. Everyone signed up to social media
While many of the big names in social media launched in the 2000’s, it’s only over the last ten years that these platforms have really taken off. Facebook opened subscriptions to the general public in 2006 and now boasts over 2.4 billion monthly active users, Twitter users increased from 30 million in 2010 to an all-time high of 336 million in 2018 and LinkedIn subscribers grew from 37 million in 2009 to 467 million in 2016. Instagram didn’t even exist prior to 2010 and now has 1 billion active accounts. It’s predicted that 3.1 billion people will use social media by the year 2021 – that’s around 40% of the global population!
2. Everyone bought a smartphone
The iPhone was launched in 2007 but annual sales were limited to under 40 million devices until 2010. Over the next decade sales skyrocketed, and 217.72 million iPhones were shipped worldwide in 2018 with Samsung selling more than 290 million units in the same year. As well as incorporating a camera into your phone, smartphone apps provide many other features that previous handsets didn’t, including access to the internet and social media platforms.
3. Everyone became a broadcaster
The last decade also saw mobile phone users gaining the ability to record and share video content directly from their devices. This was possible thanks to developments like Facebook’s partnership with Skype to enable video chat in 2011 and the creation of new apps like Periscope which launched in 2015. We now upload more than 300 hours of video to YouTube every minute. We’ve also started watching more content online - according to a recent study, online video viewing grew at an average rate of 32% per year between 2013 and 2018, and predictions are that the average person will watch 100 minutes of online video per day by 2021.
What does this mean for public relations?
Thanks to these three developments, with a smart device in your hand, now everyone has the ability to create, share and engage with multi-format content. For public relations professionals this means that, whereas ten years ago we had to rely on journalists and broadcasters to reach our audience, we now have a whole host of distribution methods to choose from and can easily create our own content for sharing on our own platforms. The challenges we face going forward will be choosing the most effective way to share our stories and creating content that will stand out from the noise.
Get in touch to talk about how you can create and distribute your own content in 2020.