In our last blog post, S&U’s PR Director Chris Twigger discussed the pros and cons of AI and its impact on the world of public relations. He concluded that we’ll certainly being seeing more of the tool in the next few years and its benefits are evident (if somewhat suspect in the area of creative writing), but there’s still some way to go before any of our jobs at our risk.
So while AI is well and truly in for 2024, what is out? We took some time to consider what else the industry could do with breaking free from the shackles of this year.
Corporate jargon
The use of hackneyed industry terms have been a cliché for some time. Haven’t we all had enough of ‘blue sky thinking’ and ‘reaching out’? Let’s just agree to go back to using straightforward language, you’re thinking outside of the box or ‘making contact’. Seriously though, how many times have you rolled your eyes (internally, of course) at someone saying they’ll “circle back on that bleeding edge idea by EOD to make sure we catch that low hanging fruit”? PR is about communicating and communicating clearly. Cut the waffle and get to the point. Time to trim the fat ;)
X (formerly known as Twitter)
Since Elon Musk took to the helm at the social media platform, brands have been steadily leaving X as the content and experience is potentially detrimental to business. Understandably, PR teams should continue to consider the news cycle and the impact of a presence on the platform. PR professionals will need to stay in the loop around brand safety and consider that other places may be more appropriate for conversations with journalists and brands alike, such as LinkedIn or even TikTok.
Inflexibility
Ours has always been an unpredictable industry, but events in the political and economic landscape of the past few years mean that it’s been a turbulent time and agencies can continue to expect peaks and troughs. The need to be flexible is paramount during these kinds of business cycles, and good planning is key to weathering any storms. Those agencies that fail to be agile and adaptable in terms of client and resource management will likely struggle.
What else do you think is out for 2024?