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random event gigs on the weekends to managing the Instagram account of your favorite boutique, you strive to put as much into each day as possible. If you are capable of taking care of multiple client needs and “handling it;” in addition to your full-time job, this freelance stuff will be totally manageable. After all, client work is just one of the responsibilities of running your own business.

You’ve got #GirlBoss Aspirations

You are simultaneously empowered and devastated when you read articles about the girl bosses making millions from pursuing their dreams. You know an agency career trajectory will never give you that life and aspire to run the show, not just be the VP.

Freelancing is not for the weak. If you’re determined to be as well-known as Kelly Cutrone or have the confidence of fictional Samantha Jones, the fastest way forward is by building up your own reputation and name, not that of an existing agency. Freelancing has perks, like having the option to work in sweatpants, being able to work from wherever there is an internet connection and having a glass of wine whenever you feel like it. But for me, the freedom I feel from building a life on my terms and my timeline is truly why you won’t find me sitting at an agency desk anytime soon.

By Sabrina Wottreng (http://www.prcouture.com/2016/08/ signs-freelance-pr-best-career/)

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TEXT 1

10 PR Trends You Need

to Be Watching (and Using) in 2017

Considering that public relations now relies so much on digital media – which makes great strides every few years – it’s no surprise that 2017 will bring some changes to the tools and tactics in the PR industry. If you want to get the best results on your branding efforts, you need to stay updated on the latest PR trends. Here are ten that you can expect in 2017.

1. The traditional media press release is dead

The traditional press release was once the best way to get news out fast. But these days, it’s faster to just pitch the story to journalists who know how to write it well and get it published on the sites your audience reads. In fact, you can even publish your piece of news on your own blog and then share it on social media. Not only will this get you more views, but it can also help you avoid the consequences Google often doles out for backlinks and duplicate content when people distribute press releases to multiple sites.

2.A new primary focus: personal branding and thought leadership of executives

One of the newest PR trends involves becoming a thought leader. The reason for this is that you can earn the attention and trust of your audience by showing that you’re an authority on a particular subject. You can do this by publishing articles, blog posts, email newsletters and videos that educate your readers. For an example of how to publish what you know, check out the articles by LinkedIn Influencers who publish content on the site.

3.Non-traditional content amplification

When you have great content, you want to share it. Luckily, one of 2017’s PR trends will involve some interesting content amplification tactics. Of course, social media will continue to be one of the main ways to share your

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content. You can combine that with paid promotion, such as Facebook promoted posts, Twitter promoted tweets and LinkedIn sponsored updates. Google AdWords will continue to be another great paid promotion tactic. You can also try asking big influencers in your industry to share and contribute to your content to give it more credibility and publicity.

4. PR has become more data driven

In recent years, we’ve made it easier to collect data on nearly every process, especially those that involve the internet. And since that describes many public relations tactics, it makes sense that data use will be one of the PR trends for 2017. Some examples of how you can use data to drive your PR campaign include getting to know your audience based on the stats you know about it, figuring out which type of content you’ve posted is most popular and determining the best time to post based on when your audience is online.

5. Personalize your digital pitch

Another of the PR trends to look forward to in 2017 is personalizing your pitches. No longer do mass pitches do the job. You need to build relationships with reporters and editors if you want to increase your chance of getting your content published fast. After all, you’re competing with countless other companies that also want the attention of reporters. If you want to stand out, you should first connect with them on social media. Then any time you send an email, add a personal touch to the subject line and mention their past coverage in the body of the email.

6. PR pros will need a broad skillset

You already know you need to be good at writing, event planning and maintaining relationships to be successful at PR. But thanks to our reliance on so much digital media these days, you also need to be a whiz at social media, content marketing and content strategy. As new PR tactics come up, you’ll need to master those, as well. Basically, the once fine line between earned and owned media has blurred, so you should get better at combining these with paid media for the ultimate campaign.

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7. PR pros will need to be prepared for real time

You no longer have days to react in PR. You now have minutes, and you have to be prepared. That’s right; real-time responses will be among the PR trends next year. People are used to getting instant responses from brands and seeing them react quickly to events, and you’ll have to live up to their expectations. Being on social media – or hiring someone to represent your brand on social networks – is a great way to get started with real-time PR.

8. Visual storytelling

The average person watches 32 videos per month, and there’s a 74 percent increase in understanding when someone watches a video. These are some simple reasons to start using video and other visual tools – such as images and slide shows – in your PR campaigns next year.

9. Measure your success

This goes along with the increase in collecting and using data. Metrics like impressions, shares, mentions and downloads can tell you exactly how your campaign is doing so you can adapt it as needed. Fortunately, most social networks and website platforms now make it easy to track these metrics and measure your PR success.

10. Native advertising

An alternative to straightforward ads is native advertising, in which you pay to place a fairly subtle ad in a publication, ensuring that the ad matches the form and function of the publication’s typical content. If you take this route, make sure you follow the rules set forth by the FTC and include the proper disclosure for native advertising.

By Chelsea Segal (http://www.coxblue.com/10-pr-trends-you- need-to-be-watching-and-using-in-2017/)

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TEXT 2

5 Powerful PR Trends You Should not Ignore

Don’t have a beard, fixie or some cool headphones. Feeling left out.

Then you are maybe not up with the latest fad. But fads are one thing and trends are another. Fads come and go but trends have the potential to become a powerful influence for long term change.

Change in the past was slow. Tesla is the first major car manufacturer to emerge in the USA in over 100 years.

But we are now in the midst of a digital and communications revolution that is disrupting life, business and media in just the space of a few years.

Change is scary

Humans are creatures of habit.

We get into the same side of bed each night, put our shoes on the same way each morning and drop into the same coffee shop before work.

Teaching old dogs new tricks is a challenge that may seem not worth the price and investment in time. It requires constant re-education that offers no guarantees of change. But the new digital world is unrelenting and change is constant.

Today’s digital disruption is fast and ruthless.

It takes no prisoners. Old industries are dying and new ones are rising. We have seen the Kindle destroy the book store, Apple transform the music industry and Netflix make a video store a fond memory.

The perfect storm

The social web and the smartphone revolution are supercharging the perfect communications storm.

To put some perspective on it. Here is some of the latest data on the scale, size and scope of the ecosystem that is feeding the trend tornadoes.

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2.3 billion social media users

1.97 billion active mobile social users

3.42 billion internet users

These are not fads.

Traditional media is struggling.

Newspapers were the focus of the PR professional. Build a relationship with a journalist and you could get some column inches. Press releases were the primary way to get breaking news out about a brand. These are not as effective as they used to be.

So…. it’s time for reinvention. You have no choice unless irrelevance is a word you enjoy.

The technology is different and the communications channels are Facebook and SnapChat. They play to a different tune and tactics. Disappearing content and multi-media that tells a story with videos and images.

5 PR trends to watch

So what are 5 big PR trends that you need to be aware of so that you don’t become a dinosaur in your own lifetime as a communications and PR professional?

#1. The online influencer is now a marketing force you can’t ignore

The online influencer has moved from a fad to a mainstream trend that PR professionals and brands are embracing.

Today it’s more about finding the right influencer to get your story out rather than the best newspaper. Influencers are already talking to your customers. They also have credibility and trust.

The rise of the influencer is a hot trend as revealed by Google Trends. In fact the rate of interest in this term is classified by Google as “breakout” (this means the term’s growth compared to the previous period exceeds 5,000%).

In 2013 the term influencer started to trend up. But you can see from 2015 the growth has been explosive as marketers, brands and organisations started to recognize that influencers on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube could provide communications impact influence at scale.

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They started to evolve their digital marketing and communications to tap the trend.

Traditional channels don’t carry the same communications cred (or interest) anymore.

Want to supercharge your communications?

Amplify it with some influencers who already have the hearts, minds and trust of the people who want to hear that message.

#2. Technology is now needed to scale your communications

Dozens of communications channels, rich multi-media and a ton of digital noise means that you need technology to scale your efforts. Otherwise you are going to be busier than a one legged man in a kick boxing competition.

So in essence…not productive or effective.

Technology that automated much of the communication and publishing was seen as almost evil. But the splintering of media requires tools and digital marketing automation tools and listening posts to handle the complexity and noise.

#3. The social web is democratizing communications

The gatekeepers of old media were the media barons and the journalists. You had to beg permission or schmooze.

We have all become publishers with social network platforms that allow us all to create text, video and photos and share on our smart phones. Companies have become publishers in their own right. Red Bull is now almost more a media company than a drink producer.

This has allowed brands to reach their customers without paying the gatekeepers. They are becoming digital asset owners.

So…start building those online portals now that communicate directly to the world.

#4. Digital content is the new PR spin doctor

In a digital world of bloggers and digital media platforms with large global reach you are now defined by your online content. It is how you build credibility and trust in a digital world. Content that is found in Google is perceived as the truth.

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Content marketing is now front and center of any savvy brands communication and marketing. As a term its interest is still trending up.

Make sure that you have positive bulwark of content that rises to the top in search and social in a world that judges you by a YouTube video, a blog post or a photo on Instagram.

#5. Brand influence is measureable

Old buddy networks still work and human connections are still powerful and useful. But real influence is now starting to be measured with data metrics. The data reveals who is being heard, how many are listening and even what actions they are taking.

You can measure positive or negative sentiment.

Digital data can measure what works and what doesn’t. The size of the social networks that are following a brand on Facebook reveal a brand’s popularity.

The biggest challenge

You can mentally get all this…..but the biggest challenge to embracing innovation and disruption is this.

Forgetting old habits.

John Maynard Keynes had this to say about change and innovation. “The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping old ones”.

This will mean a life of continuous learning.

It doesn’t mean going back to university but consuming online training, reading blogs and even attending online webinars. Killing old habits means a force fed diet of new information and ideas.

By Jeff Bullas (http://www.jeffbullas.com/5-powerful-pr-trends/)

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TEXT 3

Key Trends in PR and Communications in 2017

Public relations (PR), as an industry, is growing. While the industry worldwide (as represented in the Holmes Report’s annual Global Top 250 report) only reported 5-percent growth in 2015, we are expected to continue growing. According to the first Global Communications Report, a comprehensive survey of more than 1,000 senior PR executives around the world, the worldwide PR agency business will grow from its current estimated size of $14 billion to $19.3 billion over the next five years.

At the start of every year, it is always useful to take a close look at some emerging trends that have been identified by some PR and communication experts, and identify which ones will accelerate change in our practice of PR and propel us to grow even faster and further in the next few years.

In the last few years, we have seen how digital and social media have transformed the way people interact with one another, as well as the way they receive, curate and consume information and entertainment. Especially in both the local and US elections last year, we saw the massive psychological and sociological effect that social media carried over voters. Social media wasn’t just a place to seek out and share information, but a platform to support and reinforce their own political views or challenge those that oppose theirs.

This clearly underscores the fact PR must include this communication channel as one powerful tool for targeting and engaging audiences, for spreading news and information, and to shape and influence perceptions and opinions. It becomes even more important as Filipinos spend more time on social media than anyone else in the world – 4.17 hours every day, as reported by the Digital Global Review by We Are Social and Hootsuite.

Thought leadership remains relevant

Digital and social media has given people access to a wealth of information, but the content that resonates the best with them is the ones that

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