Communication Trends for the New Financial Year

Planning for next financial year’s communication program. When it comes to choosing the right strategies and tools that will deliver value for money, consider these trends:

 

Visual Works

Think interactive digital content, infographics, pictures, memes and virtual reality.

 

Mobile is a Must

Create content for mobile, which means being responsive, incorporating backlinks and click throughs, and crafting for a screen that looks nothing like a desktop computer. In fact, we don’t even own desktops!

 

Content is King and Queen

Regardless of where you’re publishing (via your owned media, through paid-for media, or via earned media), you need quality content. Google loves unique content that changes frequently, that links and embeds SEO terms. Think content first, then channel.

 

Engagement Matters

It’s not the Me Generation. It’s the My Generation. My playlist (not your album). My newsfeed (not your newsfeed). My ideas (not your promotion). Engage your customers for market-led products and services, your staff for rich and feasible innovation, and your community to change the way we live, think and act.

 

COPE Strategy

It’s cluttered out there. In 60 seconds on the Internet, there are 2.4 million Google search queries, 347,222 tweets, 51,000 app downloads from Apple and 150 million emails sent. Yep, that’s what we mean by information overload. Make every piece of content count. Create it Once, Publish Everywhere. It’s the best strategy for improving ROI for PR and comms.

 

Think Opportunity, not just Risk

Communications and Engagement is often based in fear and risk. Change the dynamic and think opportunity. We know it creates a new way of engaging and communicating, but getting people to think about solving problems, not just identifying problems, and of how they can act to improve things, or innovate or grow their businesses.

 

We’re Human

We’re digital die-hards (hey, we’ve created an Australian first in augmented reality, and hosted a world first in Twitter chats), but we know that when you want to build real relationships, and to truly collaborate, or to be creative, you need to be face-to-face (or in social speak F2F).

 

Do the Data

Use data analysis to understand past trends and live actions. But engage with real humans to understand why they act the want they do and to predict how they might act or respond in the future.