Figuring out the best medium for reaching external audiences is never easy. There are so many factors to consider: who you’re trying to reach, the messaging, the timeline and the budget.

But when we take a step back from specifics and look at the big picture, what are the best tools for reaching an audience?

This is one of the dozens of questions the Ragan Communications Leadership Council Benchmark Report answered. Hundreds of communicators shared their insights into all aspects of their practice, from how their teams are organized to their views on AI. Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council members can view the full 66-page report. But as an Insider, let’s give you a little, well, inside scoop.

Social media still reigns supreme

The survey asked respondents to choose the three most effective tools for reaching external audiences. Perhaps unsurprisingly, social media remains the No. 1 way of reaching a broad audience. Seventy percent of respondents said it was the most effective tool for reaching external audiences. It’s logical, of course: More than 62% of the world’s entire population uses social media, and 91% of Americans do. Given the wide variety of social platforms, it’s all but assured you’ll find a niche that your audience calls home and where you can deliver effective messaging.

However, there are drawbacks to social media, too. X has been in a constant state of upheaval for more than a year now; TikTok’s continued existence in the United States is in peril; and other platforms leave communicators scrambling to adapt to changing algorithms.

In other words, never put all your eggs in one basket.

That, perhaps, is why the second most effective method of reaching audiences is the much-maligned press release at 43%. While perhaps not as effective as it was in the glory days of media relations, this is still a tried-and-true method of getting important news out to a large number of people quickly, whether that’s through the press, by posting on a news wire service or putting it on your own website.

Going one step further and into owned media, brand journalism storytelling/website were the third most popular methods for reaching external audiences at 28%. As traditional media has continued to decline, creating avenues for artfully telling your own stories has become more important. Using SEO, social media and other techniques for helping audiences discover your content gives you a unique sense of control over your own story without the need for a middleman.

Rounding out the top five responses were speaking opportunities and conferences (22%) and email (20%, notably down from 25% in the 2023 survey).

All of these platforms give strong opportunities for storytelling and drawing audiences into a deeper, more intimate connection with your brand.

Which of these media do you find most effective for reaching external audiences?

To view the full report, become a member of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council.

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Amid the turbulence of the past few years, the outline of a new breed of communicator is taking shape.

Insights from the 2024 Ragan Communications Benchmark Report, an exclusive research project for Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, paint a picture of communicators at the center of some of the most important conversations shaping the culture of their organizations.

The challenges are clear. Disinformation and misinformation erode the trust needed to attract customers and engage employees. A burgeoning backlash among a vocal group of stakeholders against priorities like corporate social responsibility and diversity, equity and inclusion continues to gain steam. Within the workplace, shifting power dynamics are pushing leaders to rein in popular hybrid and remote work arrangements.

Combine those trends with economic nervousness, global geopolitical tensions and a surge in technological innovation, and an opportunity emerges for communicators to reinforce the strategic value they bring to their stakeholders.

By linking their relationship management expertise and storytelling prowess with strong business acumen, communicators are poised to increase their influence and reshape the strategic role of communications.

The full 66-page report, based on a survey of 1,000 communicators worldwide, is available exclusively to members of the Ragan Communications Leadership Council and includes detailed analysis of the best practices emerging among the community of communications professionals.

Key highlights include:

• The skills and competencies comms teams are prioritizing to reskill and upskill.
• Detailed data on the rapid rise of generative AI investments.
• The most effective channels for internal and external communications.
• Key opportunities for measuring the effectiveness of communications.
• How the boundaries between internal and external communications continue to blur.
• Tips and tactics to reboot culture and rebuild trust and employee engagement.
• How shifting priorities around ESG and DEI are influencing strategic direction.
• How comms tactics are changing in response to a rising emphasis on in-person work.

Download your copy of the 2024 Benchmark Survey Executive Summary today to see how your communications efforts measure up. To receive a full copy of the report, become a member of the Communications Leadership Council.

The post Read the executive summary from Ragan’s 2024 Communications Benchmark Report appeared first on PR Daily.

For the third year, Ragan Communications and the Institute for Public Relations will partner for the Ragan Research Award. This year, undergraduate junior and senior students are invited to apply with a 250-word abstract on the topic of misinformation and its impact on Gen Z.

The chosen applicant will develop their idea into a 6-page research brief and receive a $1,500 stipend, their paper published on IPR’s website, a profile on PR Daily highlighting their work and an informational interview with Ragan Communications CEO Diane Schwartz. They’ll also be honored at IPR’s Distinguished Lecture Dinner in New York City this December.

“Combatting misinformation will take the brightest minds in the PR industry. That includes the youngest,” said Schwartz. “Their unique perspectives on how these threats impact their own peers will help all of us better protect the information ecosystem.”

Last year’s winner, Colorado State University PhD candidate Sera Choi, investigated response strategies after AI crises. You can read her full paper here.

Enter this year’s Ragan Research Award here. Entries are accepted through June 16.

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Gen Z adults are big believers in themselves. Specifically, 67% believe it’s very (25%) or somewhat (42%) important to have a strong personal brand, according to new research from Morning Consult. Those percentages far outstrip even their generational neighbor Millennials (51%) and U.S. adults as a whole (a mere 40%).  

Morning Consult attributes this spike in self-branding to Gen Z’s love of influencers and their use of creator-driven apps as entertainment: When you see other people building a brand, you’re more likely to see the value in building one for yourself, even if you’re not streaming for millions of fans. But there’s also a darker potential reason for the emphasis on personal branding. As Morning Consult Brand Analyst Ellen Briggs writes: “Their coming of working age happened amid waves of mass layoffs and broader economic uncertainty. Under these circumstances, being a known entity with a public portfolio of work safeguards against job insecurity and serves as a calling card to attract better opportunities.” 

Where and how Gen Z builds their brands 

Unsurprisingly given Gen Z’s love of video content, they vastly prefer to show off their personality and expertise with visual content over written. Sixty-six percent of the generation prefer to build their brand with video versus just 27% who favor written.  

We also see this play out in the social networks Gen Zers use to foster their image.   

For Gen Z, Instagram reigns supreme by a wide margin. Its ability to combine still images, videos and text captions offer a wide range of creative options. Next comes YouTube, nearly tied with TikTok — again, very video centric. 

But then look at what comes in fourth place for Gen Z: Good old Facebook. It seems news of its demise has been greatly exaggerated. The platform still offers a huge audience, tons of posting options and easy integration with Gen Z favorite Instagram. And after all, it’s clearly where Millennials are still hanging out — 63% of the older group turn to Facebook for their brand-building needs. 

Just as notable are which platforms Gen Z tends to shy away from. X sees relatively little use, ranking just above Pinterest and personal blogs, while professionally focused LinkedIn is used by only one-in-five members of Gen Z working to build their brands. 

So what can we glean from this? Gen Zers are gravitating toward more lifestyle-focused networks rather than hard business, like LinkedIn. Part of this could be attributable to age— while the survey only spoke to adult members of Gen Z, many may be in college or else entering trades that don’t benefit from the buttoned-up social platform. Or they could be embracing a brand that spans both personal and professional rather than pigeonholing it into one side.  

What companies should know 

Gen Z’s emphasis on personal branding presents a number of opportunities — and a few challenges — for corporate brands. 

First, this proliferation of people building brands means an army of microinfluencers who might be strong partners with targeted, dedicated audiences. When everyone is carving out a unique niche, that allows for better targeting from people who have already put in the work to build an audience you want, often for reasonable rates.  

It also offers a vivid window into the lives of hordes of people and what matters to them. By seeing how they choose to brand themselves, brands can better understand what values matter to their audiences writ large. How do they present themselves? What products do they already have an affinity for? What values do they espouse? By consuming this content, communicators can learn to build better content that resonates. 

Finally, it does present a challenge for employers. While these may be personal brands, their behavior will still reflect on their employer — for better or worse. You might have a worker who gets famous and becomes a brand advocate for you — or one who behaves badly and becomes a liability. Either way, it’s worth keeping an eye on these accounts and creating policies about how employees navigate their relationships with their employers and content partners, just to ensure your own brand is protected. 

How do you build your personal brand? 

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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A massive, concerning gap exists between the levels of trust government communicators believe the public has in the information they provide and how the American public actually perceives it. That’s according to the 2nd Annual National Survey of Government Communications & Public Affairs, conducted by Ragan Communications, the George Washington University College of Professional Studies and the National Association of Government Communicators. 

The survey, conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research, asked three distinct groups of people — the general public, government communicators and private sector communicators — about their opinions on an array of topics related to public affairs and information. And the differences are stark. 

Sixty-nine percent of the general public have not much or no trust in information provided by the government. Yet 51% of communications professionals who work for government entities believe that the public has “somewhat” or a “great deal of” trust in the information they provide. The actual percentage of Americans who trust governmental information is just 30%.  

In a similar vein, only 36% of the public answered that the government is effective at communicating with them, while 58% of government communicators think they’re doing a good job.  

This wide gap in the perception between government entities and the public they seek to serve should serve as a wake-up call to government communicators.  

When asked why they distrust the government in an open-ended question, the most common answers from the public included dishonesty, self-serving interests and polarization. Communicators as a whole, however, identified core issues in public trust as polarization, mis- and disinformation and poor communications styles, the survey found. 

Now, there are key limitations to the survey to consider. The survey only asked about “the government” as a whole. It’s possible that respondents have different views of local, state and federal governments, or of different agencies — for instance, they may trust the military more than their state’s revenue services department . They may also not make distinctions between statements made by politicians on the campaign trail versus information coming from their county’s sheriff’s department on road conditions during a snowstorm.  

So let’s look at solutions.  

The survey also asked how the government can improve trust in its messaging. In the open-ended question, an overwhelming 69% of the public said honesty and transparency are the best solutions. 

That sounds great in theory. Transparency is a goal to always strive for in any communications practice. But in a post-truth society, what does honesty mean? For instance, despite broad-based scientific agreement, 30% of Americans do not believe climate change is caused by humans. Drawing a connection between humans and the changing climate is honest but might not be perceived that way. 

It’s certainly a dizzying task for communicators, especially with looming elections that 58% of government communicators are eyeing with concern. But the first thing the community can do is to recognize the gap that exists and understand that with nearly any communication, they are starting from a trust deficit. Each campaign, speech, press release or interaction with the public is one tiny chance to begin to win back trust. 

But one way that trust can still be hurt is through the use of AI. The survey found that 61% of the general public believes governments should not use AI in its communications due to concerns over privacy and personal data risks. Fifty-eight percent of the public said that the use of AI would decrease trust in government communications. This is a clear warning: Be careful and transparent when using AI tools. Be clear about how they were used and what it means for the public.  

Additional results from the survey will be revealed during Ragan’s Public Affairs & Speechwriting Virtual Conference, held Feb. 21 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET, and during the 2nd Annual National Survey of Government Communications & Public Affairs (GPA) Rollout event held at the George Washington University Library on Feb. 29 at 8:30 a.m.  

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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So you’ve fought hard and secured budget and buy-in for a new tool you’re convinced will make your working life easier.  

Congratulations! 

But now you’re faced with the often-daunting task of launching that tool to your department – and getting them to use it. 

Hurray. 

Ragan’s Inaugural CommTech Survey sheds light on the obstacles external communicators face when rolling out new tools that help them measure, track or create content. 

While the full report is available exclusively to members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, a membership community for senior communicators shaping the world’s best work cultures and brands, the executive summary is free for all – and we’re sharing a few additional insights with you.  

The survey of hundreds of communicators found that training on new tools can be tricky and inconsistent: Upon introducing new tools, more than two-thirds of organizations provide training on either a consistent (18%) or case-by-case basis (51%). The remainder instruct employees to learn from tutorials (24%) or expect them to figure it out on their own (7%). That means only 18% of employees are trained in all the tools available to them, with nearly a third expected to fumble along on their own with tutorials or blind button clicking. That’s a problem, especially when investing big bucks into an advanced tool.  

But it’s the open-ended responses that are the most revealing.  

When prompted, respondents cited a number of obstacles about rolling out new technology to their communications department, including: 

• “Lack of a strategic vision in the organization.” 
• “Fitting the tool into a preexisting workflow.” 
• “Making use of all the valuable features.” 
• “If it isn’t set up correctly at the beginning, it will be a nightmare later.” 

In other words, helping people see how the tools can help them, using it to its fullest and simple technical rollout can all pose major problems. Some of these can be solved with partnership with other departments, but some point to cultural issues around strategy, change and learning. 

What are your biggest obstacles to rolling out new technology? Let us know in the comments, then download the free executive summary. 

Allison Carter is editor-in-chief of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn. 

The post These are the biggest challenges for launching new CommTech tools appeared first on PR Daily.

Technology can make or break a communications department. 

Sure, you can do a lot with incisive words, bold visuals and smart strategies. But ultimately, modern communicators rely on tech stacks to find journalists, engage internal audiences and understand what’s driving business results to demonstrate the value of the function 

Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, a membership community for senior communicators shaping the world’s best work cultures and brands, conducted an exclusive study on how the industry is making use of communications technology. From budgeting and getting buy-in for new tools to what’s missing from communicators’ tech stacks, Ragan compiled a wide range of insights to help you better understand what tools are critical to the modern practice of comms. 

While the full report is available exclusively to CLC members, the executive summary is free to download. 

You’ll get insights including:  

• How budgets are expected to change in the next year. 
• The best ways to get buy-in from leadership for new tools. 
• How organizations tackle training for new tools. 
• The tools communicators wish they had. 
• And much more. 

Download the report today to make your organization more efficient and competitive in today’s tech-savvy world.  

The post Ragan’s inaugural CommTech survey sheds light on industry tools appeared first on PR Daily.

Wherever you fall on this spectrum, we want to hear about it.

Ragan Communications and The Conference Board have partnered on a new survey, the next part in a series, to better understand how communicators like you are incorporating these tools today — and how they might continue to evolve in the future. This brief, 8-question survey will help our entire industry plan for an ever-changing future.

Please share your thoughts by September 26. All respondents will receive the complete report in late October.

Thanks for sharing your expertise!

Take the survey now.

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With 2023 proving to be another year of rapid acceleration and change for communicators, the future feels uncertain. Sweeping advances in artificial intelligence tools promise to alter the way we write and work significantly, while changing economic forces keep the talent wars raging. Through it all, the opinions and perspectives of communications leaders will play an outsized influence in shaping the future of the function.

Ragan Communications, in partnership with HarrisX, wants to better understand how senior communications leaders view the future of the field. We’re looking to hear from director-level and above communicators whose crystal balls are polished and ready to look ahead.

Please take the survey here by Friday, Sept. 8 — and thanks for contributing.

The post Senior-level insight needed: What are your perceptions on the future of communications? appeared first on PR Daily.

All these questions and more are answered in Ragan’s 2023 Salary & Workplace Culture Survey.

While the full report is available exclusively for members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, you can download the executive summary for free.

In this overview, you’ll learn:

• The average industry pay by job title, region, gender and more
• How many communications professionals received bonuses and how they stack up year-over-year
• Overall levels of satisfaction with compensation, benefits and more
• The benefits communicators value most
• How workplaces are handling return-to-office versus hybrid versus remote work
• And much more

Download the free report today to ensure your organization’s benefits, pay and policies stack up — as do your own.

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Are you using the right tools for today’s dispersed work environment? What do you consider the most effective communications channels at your organization? And, ultimately, how are you measuring success around employee engagement?

These questions and more are explored in the 2023 State of Communications Report from Ragan and PoliteMail.

This survey will take about five minutes to complete, and you’ll receive the full results report when it’s published.

The deadline to complete this survey is May 11, 2023. Please share your expertise.

The post Can you help? 2023 State of Communications Report appeared first on PR Daily.

Your eyes are one of the most important parts of your body, and they deserve special care.

Still, many have misconceptions or questions about the insurance that can help them access that care — or don’t even know they need it.

That’s why Transitions Optical and Ragan Communications need your help to better understand who purchases vision insurance and why — and just as importantly, who isn’t getting this insurance and what barriers they face, particularly among diverse populations.

Please fill out this brief survey. Your time and insight will help improve communications and access to vision insurance. You’ll also be entered into a drawing for either a $25 Ray-Ban gift card or a free ticket to Ragan’s Workplace Wellness Conference.

Your answers will be kept anonymous.

Please take the survey here by Tuesday, May 2.

The post Your opinion needed: Help us understand how you use vision insurance appeared first on PR Daily.

Research is one of the core skills of any good PR professional. 

Whether we’re absorbing a client’s stats, fielding our own surveys and focus groups, or striving to better understand our audiences and media landscape, we need to constantly be on the lookout for new data that can change our perspective and improve our work. 

Yes, it also turns out PR pros do need to know math. Sorry about that. 

Our friends at the Institute for Public Relations have compiled “The Top 19 Public Relations Insights of 2022,” a list that will give you food for thought for the rest of 2023. 

This report includes surveys on topics like: 

• Diversity, equity and inclusion 
• State of the industry and trends around the world 
• The future of work 
• Internal communications 
• Environmental, social and governance 
• IPR’s own research 

Download the free report and let us know which research you found most valuable. We’re diving into PwC’s “CEO Expectations for Future Trends.”  

The post 19 public relations insights you need to read appeared first on PR Daily.

As communicators, we have pretty great jobs. We get to talk to lots of people, understand their viewpoints, learn from their wisdom, and in turn, share those insights with others in many different ways.

But let’s be honest: sometimes, there are obstacles that make it hard to do our jobs. And sometimes it’s good to know that we aren’t alone.

In Ragan’s annual Benchmark Communications Report, nearly 1,000 survey respondents shared their hopes, fears and, yes, frustrations about their roles.

The full survey results are available exclusively to members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, but our executive summary is free for download. But let’s outline some of the biggest pain points communicators, internal and external, feel today.

First, let’s give it up for the 3% of communicators who have nothing standing between them and more effective communications. We salute you — and want to know where you work.

But for the other 97% of us, let’s drill down.

The top two pain points are going to be familiar to most people in most industries. We’re frustrated by not having enough lead time to do our best work or not having the time to engage in higher-level strategic thinking. And we all want more staff and, a few slots down, more budget. Forever and always.

But there are other pain points that are unique to communicators.

Thirty-eight percent of us struggle with inconsistent messaging. For those of us who labor over brand standards, messaging documents and talking points, this can feel like our hard work is being wasted.

The root causes of this issue could be revealed elsewhere in the survey, where we learn that the majority of organizations (59%) have either a matrixed or decentralized communications structure. That means that along the way, messages can change, or certain messengers could even go rogue. In addition, 20% of us struggle with ineffective manager communication, which can lead to breakdowns further on in a cascade model.

Many communicators are still fighting for that proverbial seat at the table to make themselves heard, too. Thirty-five percent of us lack a voice in strategic discussions, while 20% simply don’t feel supported by leadership.

These aren’t fun feelings. Communications is a strategic function, not merely a mouthpiece. Because of our unique ties to our audiences and our skills at listening, we can help provide counsel to leadership about all aspects of the business, not merely act as a megaphone for predetermined policies. But too many of us still aren’t there yet.

One thing that can be holding us back from reaching that level of respect is our continuing struggles with measurement. One-third of communicators say they don’t have enough data to prove their value. When other departments can clearly point to their impact on the bottom line, but we’re still fighting to communicate the value of a press hit or a social media campaign, our credibility can suffer.

Unfortunately, many of us aren’t even thinking about using measurement to achieve these goals.

Most communicators are focused on using measurement to do their jobs more effectively — obviously an important and worthy goal. But the number of pros who are using that data to argue for the resources we need, become a strategic partner and get access to leadership is much smaller.

It’s time to change that.

You aren’t alone

We didn’t share this data to make you feel doom and gloom. We shared this data to help you know that your frustrations probably aren’t unique. They don’t reveal anything wrong with you or your performance, but rather the same headwinds your colleagues across industries face.

Keep your chin up, look for solutions and keep moving forward.

For more insights, download the executive summary of the Communications Benchmark Report here.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Communications Benchmark Report: What’s stopping us from more effective comms appeared first on PR Daily.

As a changing world brings societal shifts in and out of the workplace, it’s clear that the work of communicators has never been more needed. Ragan’s annual Communications Benchmark Report, surveying nearly 1,000 communicators from across a broad spectrum of industries, sheds light on what the challenges and opportunities that comms professionals hope to tackle in the year ahead.

From how they’re focusing on training and wellness initiatives to earning the ears of the C-suite, communicators shared their insights on a broad range of topics that will help you better understand industry trends and set your priorities for the year ahead.

The full 54-page Benchmark Report is available only to members of the Communications Leadership Council and includes in-depth analysis, forecasts for the year ahead and recommendations. But you can read the executive summary for a free taste of the insights in the full survey.

You’ll learn what communicators from a range of industries think about:

• How hybrid work and work-life balance impact communications strategy.
• The benefits and challenges of various organizational structures.
• The most effective channels for internal and external communications.
• How communicators are measuring the success of their work.
• The most effective channels for internal and external communications.
• What new wellness benefits companies are offering.
• The areas of training comms professionals are increasing for their teams in 2023.
• And much more.

Download your copy of the exclusive Benchmark Survey Executive Summary today and see how your communication efforts measure up. To obtain a full copy of Ragan’s 2021 Communications Benchmark Report become a member of the Communications Leadership Council. Click here for more details.

The post Read the executive summary from Ragan’s 2023 Communications Benchmark Report appeared first on PR Daily.

Being a top-flight researcher is one of the best skills you can have in your PR arsenal. It’s not only a great way to show the media you’re pitching that you have tangible evidence and anecdotes to back up your argument for coverage that you’re trying to make, it’ll also help you position your pitch in the best possible light and assist you in figuring out where you want to place your story.

Laying the groundwork

Before conducting thorough research, you need to know all the relevant details about the story to be able to properly position it from a public relations point of view. First, get a firm sense of what your narrative is and figure out how it fits into the marketplace. You should back up your initial fact-finding with figures you can cite within pitches and marketing materials. For instance, if you’re representing a company with a worldwide footprint, be sure to do deep research into not only the different types of media outlets across the globe that might cover your story but how they’ll cover it from their perspective. It’s important to not get locked into a local view for a story that might have global implications, nor to ignore local media if there’s a great story to be told there. A key part of media research involves reading the outlets you want to gain placement in and trying to put yourself within the perspective of the editorial team. Look for patterns in their coverage and see where you might fit in.

Media research tips

Any good public relations pro knows that a deep knowledge of potential media targets is a precursor to a successful campaign. But there’s a lot more to it than just firing up a database of reporters and tossing them in a spreadsheet or keeping tabs on the trades or general coverage of the subject matter you’re seeking to pitch. One method is to find reporters on social platforms like Twitter and get a sense of the types of stories they’re tweeting and the material they’re sharing. This can add depth to the full picture of what they might be willing to cover and help you adjust your outreach strategy accordingly.

Additionally, there’s a good chance that you’ll run into a reporter that freelances for a number of different outlets. View this as an opportunity to cater your pitch around multiple angles. Your job as a PR person here is to provide sources to a reporter. Do your due diligence and see how the journalist’s coverage and tone shift from publication to publication, and shift your pitching accordingly. The more you offer a journo, the more likely they are to rely on you in the future for tips and sources.

Understanding your audience

A big key that underpins the entire public relations research process is knowing what sort of audience you’re going for. A great way to do this research is by the creation and analysis of surveys of your target audience. This way, you’re able to cut straight to the consumer and see what their desires are, and you can cater your messaging accordingly. In addition, you can see what sort of media you’ve released in the past that’s resonated with your target crowd and what sort of successes your competitors are having in the media space to help inform how you want to package your messaging going forward.

But there’s more you can do to get to know your audience beyond just conducting surveys. You can engage in social listening tactics, for instance, which can include conducting conversations with your target audience on social or the in-depth analysis of audience reaction to the content you release into the world, positive or negative. In addition, consider using competitive analysis tactics such as observing what types of narratives your competitors are finding success within the public forum, such as posts that garner significant engagement on platforms such as LinkedIn. If a campaign doesn’t live up to your expectations or past successes, try framing against more positive past results and try to replicate the wording, outreach or audience that you went for before. Good media research should lead to educated experimentation in outreach, and going back to your initial findings to come up with new ways to spread your message is par for the course.

There’s not one exact way to correctly do media research — it can take lots of different forms. Focus on the qualitative or quantitative side of things, and be adjusted to specific situations. But in the public relations world, there’s no doubt that it’s one of the most important things you can do to set yourself up for success. When you arm yourselves with knowledge of your targets and surroundings, you’re much more likely to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports, a good pint and ’90s trivia night.

The post How to conduct great PR research appeared first on PR Daily.

A new survey from George Washington University’s (GWU) Graduate School of Political Management, Schoen Cooperman Research and Ragan Communications asked communications professionals employed by government entities and government-associated private sector organizations for their thoughts on boosting public trust in the government. 

The results reveal that it’s going to be a steep climb to restore that trust, however, communicators already have many of the skills and resources they need to accomplish this task. 

The full results of the survey will be revealed at Ragan’s Virtual Public Affairs & Speechwriting Conference April 4, but let’s take a sneak peek at the obstacles and opportunities for government communicators. 

The state of government trust 

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, just 42% of Americans trust the government. That tracks with how government communicators view the playing field in the GWU survey: 62% said that government agencies and entities are “somewhat effective” at communicating with the public, while 27% said they were “somewhat ineffective.”  

Just 3% rated the efforts “very effective.” 

Some of the factors that communicators view as harming trust in government messaging are out of their control. Sixty-eight percent say the rise in disinformation is harming trust, while 58% blame the view that governments are politically motivated. While communicators can help mitigate these factors, they’re macro, societal issues. 

However, the next two items on the list reveal more about what communicators can actively do to improve the situation. 

A third of communicators say that a “one size fits all” approach is hurting the government’s messaging, and that their communications don’t consider regional, demographic or socioeconomic differences. Another 26% say governments are too slow to share information, while 23% simply find the government’s approach to be outdated. 

All of these are serious issues, but areas in which communicators can help push to customize messaging, encourage speed and brainstorm innovative ideas for reaching critical audiences. 

More data unveiled April 4 

The full results of this survey include more insights, including how government communicators rate their effectiveness versus private sector professionals; the biggest challenges government communicators face both internally and externally; and much more. 

Join us April 4 for all this and other deep insights and tips on public affairs and speechwriting. Register today.  

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post Sneak peek: Results from Ragan and GWU’s Government Communications & Public Affairs survey appeared first on PR Daily.

It’s time to see how your organization’s overall compensation and benefits stack up in Ragan Communications’ 2023 Salary Survey.

We need comms pros like you — working in all aspects of the industry — to complete this survey. In return, you’ll get a comprehensive report detailing the overall state of compensation in the industry.

Whether you want to make sure your organization is offering competitive offers or if you’re curious if it’s time to look for greener pastures, this survey and its results will help you better understand the field at large.

Your responses will be confidential and the results anonymized. You’ll also receive a $150 discount to a Ragan virtual conference and be entered to win one of five $50 gift cards.

Please submit your response by Feb. 3. Take the survey now.

The post See how your pay compares with our Salary Survey appeared first on PR Daily.

As the cold wind comes calling and OOO replies light up our inboxes, we communicators understand the value of connection and shared experiences more than most. While warmth during the holiday season arrives in many forms — from a crackling fire to a cozy moment of bonding with loved ones — now is also the perfect time to share your experiences with fellow communicators.

In this spirit, Ragan is excited to share that our 5^th Annual Benchmark Report will stay open through Dec. 21. As in years past, this report will shed light on what you, and your peers in the communications field, are experiencing when it comes to budgets, team structure, measurement, software usage and much more. Those who complete the survey will also have access to the report of our key findings when the report is published next year.

Every year, this research gives comms pros a benchmark and a baseline for what practices are standard across the industry. You can use these benchmarks to advocate for a bigger budget, embrace new tools and training for navigating change and encourage a culture of productivity, wellbeing and communication across your workforce.

Of course, your contribution will help us see how certain trends from this past year hold up in the year ahead. Here are just a few things we’re paying close attention to.

Upskilling and training

Communicators were at the frontlines of The Great Resignation’s talent wars over the past year, and worked to develop training and upskilling programs so teams could grow.

The respondents from last year’s survey emphasized measurement and data analysis, storytelling and video or multimedia production as areas of focus.

Sixty-five percent of all respondents said measurement/data was a priority with room for growth. This echoes the finding from last year’s Benchmark Report that about 40% of communicators said they lack the people and tools to carry out an effective communications measurement strategy.

Over half (56%) of communicators also wanted to train their communication team to improve their storytelling strategies, while 40% considered writing and editing to be most important. While these skills are related, an increased focus on storytelling training indicates that respondents are less focused on the writing and editing fundamentals than they are on how those skills apply to telling a story and portraying a narrative.

Forty-three percent also said that they would be focused on training their comms team around video and multimedia production. Taken together with the 16% who plan to train their teams on graphic design, that’s over half of respondents who planned to offer training around visual mediums — a sign of the times and indicator of how communicators are increasingly required to embrace visual storytelling solutions for a remote and displaced digital world.

A closer look at measurement challenges

It was no surprise that measurement and data analysis was a top focus of training, as communicators surveyed in Ragan’s 2022 Communications Benchmark Report shared multiple challenges to measuring their communications — including a lack of time, a lack of staff and a lack of proper technology.

A lack of time was the biggest measurement challenge for all respondents (58%), while 40% of all respondents also cited staffing and lack of technology as major obstacles to measurement. These rankings suggested that communicators lack the resources they need to effectively measure messaging despite the knowledge of what’s needed to make that measurement more effective.

This presented an opportunity for comms to push for adding measurement tools to their tech stack, thus helping them stress less about static data collection and automate their workflows to spend more time focusing on interpreting the insights.

We’re eager to learn how these insights will shift in Ragan’s 2023 Communications Benchmark Report—but we need your help to get there!  Click here to share your own experiences with the comms community, improve your knowledge of what’s happening in the industry and gain a report of the key findings upon their publication.

The post Benchmark your communications wins — and challenges — for the year appeared first on PR Daily.

The communications function is at an inflection point, as an endless deluge of social and political issues along with increasing employee comms concerns have illuminated the value of communications to the C-suite.

With that in mind, Ragan Communications partnered with research consultancy HarrisX in the fall of 2022 to understand how CEOs and communications leaders view each other’s roles and responsibilities, what they value most, and when they believe responses to public policy issues are necessary.

The survey was conducted by Ragan and HarrisX from Oct. 11-24 within the U.S. among 360 CEOs and other high-ranking senior communicators.

Asked where comms adds the most value, CEOs ranked “executive communication” at the top (14%), underscoring how crucial communicators are to helping them shape and refine their voice.

While CEOs ranked ‘employee communications’ as the second-most valuable function (9%), other comms leaders considered it the most valuable function (13%), which emphasizes the increased role that communicators play in employee engagement.

CEOs also considered investor relations (8%) and ESG (6%) as valuable communications functions, though they didn’t even crack other communications leaders’ top five.

Download the HarrisX-Ragan Key Findings Report here.

The post Here’s where CEOs see comms adding the most value appeared first on PR Daily.

The HarrisX – Ragan CEO/Communicators Perceptions Survey needs CEOs, CCOs and senior-level communicators to share their opinions on variety of topics including ESG, CSR and purpose, DE&I, and whether organizations should take a stand on political and social issues. We’ll share the preliminary findings, including how CEOs and communicators differed in their responses, during Ragan’s communications Week, Nov. 1-7. Full results will be shared in a special report this winter. 

Take the survey here.

For those who take the time to share their insights and who provide us their email, we will send a copy of the final, aggregated findings and executive report.

Your views are important to us and your answers will be kept anonymous.

The post Ragan and HarrisX unveil 2nd annual CEO/CCO Perceptions Survey appeared first on PR Daily.

Ragan Communications has announced a new benchmark survey in partnership with George Washington University College of Professional Studies that will be a first of its kind national research project to examine the state of government communication in the United States. We need feedback from communicators  who work in federal, state and local government, as well as communications professionals who engage with the government on behalf of private companies and nonprofit associations.

If that’s you, please take a few minutes to fill out the survey by October. 14. 

Preliminary findings of the survey will be announced at Ragan’s Communications Week, Nov. 1-7. The final report will be released by the end of the year.

“The study will yield strategic insights that will empower practitioners in government and the private sector to improve their communication and enhance public trust in their messaging,” said Lawrence J. Parnell, an associate professor and director of the Strategic Public Relations master’s program at GW’s Graduate School of Political Management.

Researchers will conduct hundreds of interviews with communications professionals in the public and private sectors, using contact lists provided by all the partner organizations involved in the project.=

The research findings will also help inform the programming and editorial coverage Ragan provides to its public affairs community via PR Daily, Ragan.com and the annual Public Affairs & Speechwriting Conference held in the Spring.

Thank you for sharing your insight and expertise with the broader communications community.

The post Government communicators needed: Ragan, GWU team up for new survey appeared first on PR Daily.

Google offers  anyone direct insight into what other people are searching.

This is both more — and less — creepy than it sounds.

Now, we as the public can’t see who specifically is searching for something. We can’t connect it to IP addresses or individuals. This is good.

But with Google Trends we can see what groups of people are wondering around any given topic. This includes which words they use and what questions they have, vital bits of data that will help you better understand your audience — and how to create content that speaks to them.

Here are a few tips and tricks for tapping into the power of Google Trends to fuel your writing.

How do I use Google Trends?

Google Trends is a free utility that shows what people are searching for. It’s easy to geolocate and narrow down search trends to various countries or even states.

Google offers trend roundups on a variety of topics. As of this writing, they’re offering data on the late Queen Elizabeth II and the WNBA playoffs along withlists of trends by geographic location. These are useful tools for getting a broad overview on what people care about right now. But the biggest tool is your own searches.

Since it’s currently National Hispanic Heritage Month, let’s try that.

You can narrow your search based on location and the time period you want to search, going back as far as five years or as recently as four hours. In this example we want to capture recent trends, so let’s go with past day. In the above graph, you can see when interest peaked and waned. The scale above is relative, with 100 being maximum interest. You’ll also get a map of which states (or countries, if you’re going international) have higher search interest.

Most importantly, you’ll get a list of related search terms.

Huh, why is the NFL trending along with Hispanic Heritage Month? Let’s click it and find out more.

So we can see that interest spiked late at night and had the highest interest in Texas, California, Florida and New York. But not many clues about why. A regular Google search reveals that the NFL had a little snafu with its logo for National Latino Heritage month, as the league termed the holiday. That could be a great topic for us to write about — how to make sure you’re handling national heritage months with sensitivity and not just phoning it in. Success!

You can also use  Google Trends  to compare language and see which term people search for more. Let’s try this out by using Hispanic Heritage Month vs. Latino Heritage Month. Just search for your first term, then add your second term in the “compare” box.

So even though the NFL is using “Latino,” the term we’ll want to use when writing about it is Hispanic. This will help us get found better through search and use the natural language our audience is using.

Remember that preferred search terms can change over time. One key example is the use of coronavirus vs. COVID, which saw a drastic shift during the pandemic. While using coronavirus was the best term in March 2020, COVID is the most common term today. Running these comparisons frequently can ensure you’re still up to date.

There are many more uses for Google Trends, but for a writer, these are formidable tools. Get searching for searches.

Allison Carter is executive editor of PR Daily. Follow her on Twitter or LinkedIn.

The post How to get great story ideas from Google Trends appeared first on PR Daily.

The best practices of search engine optimization are always changing, requiring marketers to change their strategy with each new update that Google makes to its algorithms.

Many of these updates can seem esoteric and untranslatable to a lay person. Thankfully, the “State of Search 2022” report from Semrush offers some insights that can inform your content strategy right away.

Let’s take a look.

Embrace these topics holistically to encourage more search traffic

As part of Semrush’s analysis of search traffic increases, the study broke down the top 100,000sites by industry and calculated search traffic by category. It found that, from 2020 to 2021, all search traffic grew by 4%. When broken down by industry, travel and leisure saw the greatest increase in search (20%), followed by food and restaurants (12%), financial services (11%) and logistics (9%). The only search categories that saw a negative trend were online education (-8%) and education (-5%).

Courtesy of Semrush

It’s worth noting that the increased search traffic for these categories aligns with the zeitgeist of 2021— while the world flirted with some return to normalcy, people were searching for travel again, interested in dining out and reassessing their finances.

While trends can offer insight into topics that may be worth folding into your content strategy, it’s important to embrace these categories holistically — any ad hoc attempt to craft content around these categories should not be disingenuous to the core function of what your content is trying to communicate.  Google and other search engines evaluate rankings based on a domain’s entire site architecture, meaning that the best way to engage with trending topics is to integrate them into your entire ecosystem using a tool to determine what keywords you want to rank for.

How many keywords are effective and how long should they be?

As Semrush and other SEO tools became more popular, many marketers engaged in a practice known as “keyword stuffing”, populating their content with as many keywords as they could find. Several years ago, search engines tweaked their keyword crawlers to identify these opportunists and keep their content from floating to page 1 of search results.

The Semrush study referenced the company’s database of 160 million keywords and rankings for U.S.-based website to determine what number of keywords performed best in search. It found that the overwhelming majority (83%) of unique queries contained five words or fewer, with 3-5-word queries comprising 67.1% and 1-2- word queries making up 15.9%.

Courtesy of Semrush

The study also found that over 94% of all searches contained between one and five words, which demonstrates the popularity of what are called “short-tail keywords.” Semrush points out that short-term keywords aren’t always the best phrases to include, however—longer-tail keywords over five words are often more highly targeted to the niche topic your audience is searching for. Because of this, longer-tail keywords can be more likely to generate conversions, or actions that searchers take on your site such as signing up for a consultation, buying a product, etc.

Why your keywords should answer a question

Semrush also points out that 60% of unique search terms seek an answer a specific question or query, what SEO wonks call “informational intent.”

Courtesy of Semrush

“Informational queries, e.g. ‘coffee calories,’ tend to be more nuanced than most, in that the same topic or search intent can be phrased in a number of different ways to trigger specific results,” write the study’s authors. “Commercial and transactional queries tend to rely on other factors without the extra details you might find in informational queries. For example, a parent may search for ‘pants for kids,’ but may be less likely to search for ‘blue pants for an average height 10-year-old.’

“By contrast, most informational pages don’t have the filters you might find on, say, an apparel store’s product category pages, so the user needs to be much more specific with often lengthier queries and more unique keywords. The sheer number of informational keywords becomes clearer when you put the intent categories into the context of market share.”

To recap: think about how your content can include phrases from one to five words, the shorter the better — and do what you can to ensure that the search phrase points to a specific question or need that your content offers a solution to.

Check out more SEO trends in Semrush’s “State of Search 2022” report.

The post These SEO trends can help your content rank higher in search appeared first on PR Daily.

Most communicators surveyed in Ragan’s 2022 Communications Benchmark Report said that getting access to executives, working with charismatic execs, and getting them to use social media were their top obstacles to effective exec comms.

Access to executives remains the biggest exec comms obstacle for all respondents (30%), though that number decreased considerably among members of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council (16%), indicating that the higher concentration of senior roles among council members makes executives more accessible to them.

A quarter of all respondents each cited uncharismatic executives and hesitance among the C-suite to use social media as their biggest obstacles. These issues indicate that executives could use more media training on how to deliver a message that audiences find engaging. In both instances, comms should empower executives to communicate in their authentic voice, armed with key messaging points and phrases that empower execs to post autonomously.

If the training isn’t changing executive behavior, it may be time to reconsider who your messenger should be.

These answers underscore a general lack of coordination between executive teams and communications teams. “Executive teams need to pull in communications sooner rather than later,” said one respondent.

“Communications is much more than writing,” said another. “More often than not it’s operational in nature and requires cross departmental coordination to execute.”

“Some execs aren’t able to focus their comms priorities and often integrate ad-hoc tactics that have nothing to do with the strategic plan,” another respondent added.

These insights are just a small fraction of the key findings from the fourth annual Communications Benchmark Report, an exclusive study for Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, that reveals a range of sentiments and best-laid plans during a very dynamic time.

Download a copy of Ragan’s fourth annual Communications Benchmark Report executive summary here. To obtain a full copy of Ragan’s 2022 Communications Benchmark Report, become a member of the Communications Leadership Council. Click here for more details.

The post These are the biggest challenges to effective executive comms, Ragan survey says appeared first on PR Daily.