Currently, Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over a billion active monthly users. Practically everyone, including their pets, and even businesses, are using the platform.

While it used to be viewed as a platform for personal use, that’s no longer the case. These days, Instagram allows brands to appear more human to their audiences, showcase their products, recruit new talents, and inspire their audiences.

Influencer marketing is actually fairly easy to understand. You find influencers who are popular with your target audience, and they spread the word about your products or services, for a fee.

There’s usually either a social media element or a content marketing element when it comes to influencer marketing, or sometimes even both. One of the most common ways for influencers to market your business is through their own media influencer accounts. As far as content marketing is concerned, an influencer may create content to spread the word about your business, or you may create that content for them.

Two-way communication between organizations and their constituencies is the definition of today’s Public Relations. Today, PR requires listening to constituencies, analyzing, and interpreting their views and behaviors. That said, powerful trends have sparked changes in PR and communications, disrupting lives, media, and business in a few years.

So what are the three powerful trends that you should keep an eye out on as a PR and Communication professional?

These days, there are billions of people using various social media platforms, which makes social media one of the most important promotional platforms for businesses. Through this channel, companies can receive more consumer engagement, high-quality traffic, and essentially, more sales.

Companies that are able to utilize these types of platforms with smart campaigns can get plenty of benefits in terms of their marketing strategies .

Public relations (PR) is ideally about how you manage and disseminate data between point X and the public. Public relation professionals utilize data and facts to influence public perception about an individual, company, or brand.

Some of the reasons why data is essential in public relations include:

Although he probably didn’t have channels in mind at the time, American televangelist Joel Osteen was spot on when he said, “Be the one to stand out in the crowd.” In today’s crowded field with most people ever browsing and shopping online, standing out in the field and being heard is critical.

Being aware of this and successfully achieving it are two separate issues. Each channel is different and demands special attention.

The main reason why small businesses can’t properly execute their marketing ideas is that these ideas tend to require big budgets, which the businesses don’t usually have. However, there are plenty of successful marketing strategies that don’t require big sums of money, are interesting, effective, and attention-grabbing.

Customers typically enjoy making things their own, and over 50% of consumers improve their ideas around a brand whenever they receive a personalized incentive. An example of such a campaign is Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign, where consumers had to share a bottle of the popular beverage with whoever’s name was on the bottle. For businesses where consumer personalization is allowed, it’s an excellent strategy to test and see how the target audience is going to respond. And for businesses where there is no room for a personal touch, the simplest things will also do – such as adding the customer’s name to the product.

It seems like just about every week another trade show, conference, or convention is canceled due to COVID-19. Many of these have been restructured and planned as “virtual” events. And, while it can be tough for thousands of exhibitors to get the same attention or generate the same buzz that they might at an in-person event, virtual events do offer some unique opportunities to build brand value and trust. Let’s look at some ways to take advantage of those opportunities.

There’s never been a better time to get very good at social media. These platforms have come to dominate how billions get their information, and they can offer marketers easy ways to connect with an audience and generate buzz before, during, and after events. But here’s the rub… while brands can and should have active and engaging social media accounts, trends show that influencers tend to offer better results on these platforms.