2300: The Evoultion of Public Relations

Of the 600 PR professionals interviewed, 64% said their press releases were targeted to the media, but the other 24% said their target audience were consumers and “cite prospects.” According to an article published on PR Newswire, press releases are being used more digitally to attract potential customers, increase traffic on the website, and keep current consumers informed. Sophie Shiatis, vice president of E-commerce at PR Web said, “There have been big advances in analytics, and you can track results from online releases much better today.” 15% of the professionals surveyed said they only send their press releases through the internet.

Just today in class we discussed how fast the environment of public relations is changing because of the internet. This article illustrated that point perfectly. As I read the article, I could easily see the near future of press releases being completely online. Eventually professionals will have no need for a hard copy. If a person is not competent in the latest technological developments, it will be difficult to excel in any profession, but especially public relations. As this article mentioned, the environment is changing at a rapid pace.