PR News Report: The State of Data-Driven Communications Strategies

There is a monumental shift happening in the PR community. This next generation of communicators are changing the way they use data — using it to drive strategy and drive larger business goals.

But where does the current industry fall? To gain a better understanding of the day-to-day role of measurement and media analysis, PR News and PublicRelay surveyed selected communicators at the director level and, separately, at the VP level and above.

Below are some findings from our survey: Accuracy and Insightfulness are Essential. 61 percent of respondents desire to make media intelligence more insightful. Inefficient Use of Time. Nearly 40 percent of director-level communicators find it difficult to understand the media data they receive and spend a large amount of time cleaning up the data. Desire to Focus on Other Activities. 69 percent of communicators said they’d rather spend time building strategic messaging plans and 65 percent said they’d prefer to spend efforts pitching or focusing on influencer outreach rather than media analysis.

Click here to access the full report and discover the evolving and growing role that data is playing in communication strategy.