Poor or ineffective communication is one of the key barriers to change in organisations. 

At one stage or another, every company experiences this. 

In my role as Global Partner Program Manager at HubSpot, I've recently taken on a new challenge - to run the internal communication for our Partner Program. 

I come from a PR background so communications is nothing new, however, during that time I dealt with external stakeholders not internal. 

So to step up my game for my new work focus, I've been reading quite a few books on the topic of internal communication (IC) and I also spent a full day in training on Strategic Communications: Making Strategy Happen with the Institute of Internal Communication in London last week. 

As always, I want to share my learnings from the course with you - today, we'll cover key principles and the link between strategy and communications; next week, we'll talk about how to create a strategic international communication strategy. 

The outlook for public relations in 2018 makes it clear that PR has work to be done to be fit for current client demands. 

Social media and digital has been one of the biggest areas for development in the PR industry over the last couple of decades. 

The PRCA releases a yearly report about Digital PR and Communications and how these are progressing among companies and PR agencies. 

Towards the end of last year, the 2017 findings showed some insightful learnings that I want to share with you today. 

17 Must-Know Facts About Social Media & Digital Within PR Services & Education

Do you know how hard it is to run a marketing agency? 

If you don't run one, you probably don't know. 

I had no idea until I started working with agencies on a daily basis. During the two years as a Channel Consultant at HubSpot, I was exposed to over 200 agencies working closely with the owners and their challenges, opportunities and successes throughout the development and scale stages of their businesses. 

From thinking about where the next new client is going to come from to filling that open account manager role, these are some of the endless thoughts that go through agency owners' heads. 

But what's even harder is that there is no one-size-fits-all playbook that has all the answers. The only way agencies learn is from their own experiences or from those of other agencies. 

That agency-to-agency learning is what we try to facilitate for our agency partners at HubSpot because we know how valuable it is for them which is why I'm excited that we launched the Marketing Agency Growth Report just last week - a survey of over 1,000 agencies on their top challenges and provided solutions to them from experts in the field. 

Today, I want to share with you my key learnings from the benchmark data. 

Today’s consumers, be it of products, news, pitches and really any type of content, are fundamentally different.

Nobody wants to feel “marketed to;” we want to make our own choices based on our own research and experiences online. When problems arise, we demand answers on social media, directly engaging the company in front of a global audience.

We are the most empowered, sophisticated customer base in the history of our existence (so far). 

Unfortunately, PR hasn't yet adjusted to this new reality at scale. There are some who are doing great but most traditional PR strategies are falling by the wayside.

PR professionals must draw upon an enormous breadth of skills and techniques to serve their clients’ interests and those efforts are becoming increasingly ephemeral and difficult to track using traditional metrics.

Enter Inbound PR - the technique that allows you to combine content and measurement with revenue-aligned goals and a target persona-driven content approach that meets your business needs and your customer needs. 

Did you know that after watching a video, 64% of viewers are more likely to make a purchase? 

No wonder then that video has become a favourite content format for consumers and professionals alike. It's much easier and more enjoyable to consume than text or some images and it certainly keeps the attention for longer (when done right). 

Read any article about 2018 trends in marketing or communications (like this one) and you'll see video in there. Video can not only help you increase awareness about your brand, but also drive a ton of conversions and leads to your business. 

Every minute, 300 hours of video are being uploaded on YouTube. With that rate, within a year video will account for 70% of all Internet traffic. 

I've long said that visual content is king, however, only a few years later I think I need to rephrase that to video content is king.