As the year is coming to an end, more and more PR students are starting to seriously think about their PR dissertations to finish their degrees. 

I've been getting a lot of emails from PR students requesting ideas for dissertations over the past three weeks. 

Now, I understand it's probably difficult to come up with a relevant and interesting topic but I always advise students to follow their passions - what is it really that you are interested in? What did you like the most during the past few years of studying? Surely, there must have been something that you have really enjoyed. 

So start there - with your interests. 

Then move onto the trends in the industry. Do some research. Figure out what other PR professionals are talking and worrying about. Find the opportunities of the future. Google is your best friend here.

After these two steps, just see where your interests and the industry trends collide. 

There you have it!

Still, I'll help you with the second part a bit just as I did two years ago. Below you can find 10 more public relations dissertation topics based on what I see happening in the industry. 

Traditional PR is dead. 

That's one of the key learnings from my Inbound PR talk at INBOUND16. 

The old way of mass mailing press releases to journalists to write good things about your brand and getting some positive coverage is gone. It's outbound and it doesn't work. (Although it still happens. Sad face.)

I'm not saying that PR isn't relevant anymore. Far from it. It's become even more important in a digital economy where basically everybody can have a massive voice and influence other people's decisions. 

So you still need Earned media but getting it today is different than some 10-20 years ago. 

Here's where influencer marketing comes in - it's the latest buzzword and for me, it's just modern PR done right with influencers that are not just journalists but bloggers, YouTubers, Instagrammers etc. 

But is it right for you? I'd say yes. 

Influencer marketing is right for any business that wants to generate WOM and have others share positive experiences with the brand, products or services. 

How do you figure out if that's for you? I have a really nice infographic from Shane Barker to help here. 

We've known PR to be slow at adopting new trends and technologies. 

There's a lot of talking being done around how PR needs to evolve and reinvent itself because if it doesn't, PR people will die out like dinosaurs. 

That's a scary thought. But valid when we think about PR's traditional focus on outputs rather than the actual value they provide to clients. 

This is especially visible today when digital rules our lives and allows PR people to measure the results of their activities and if done right, to tie them back to actual money through influenced sales numbers.

That's easier said than done, though, because the reality is, very few PR agencies are able to do so today.

There seems to be a disconnect between what PR agencies can do for their clients and what they actually end up offering them.

That's my main learning from the latest PRCA Digital PR and Communications Report 2016.   

The research looks into how PR uses digital communications across industries as well as among in-house PR people and PR agencies. 

Today I'm going to cover some of the results from the point of view of PR agencies and that of clients. 

It's been a little over a year since I started writing about Inbound PR and introduced the concept. 

Now that the idea has spread and seems to be gaining popularity, it's time to put a framework around it. 

Today, I want to introduce you to the Inbound PR Methodology that visualises how Inbound PR relates to inbound marketing and how it differs from it. It captures how Inbound PR is all about targeted and relevant content being measured throughout the way to make smart and purposeful decisions. 

Before we dig into the specifics of the new framework, I'd like to go over a few things around modern PR. 

Let me ask you a question: Is PR a management discipline? 

I'm guessing many of you would react to this saying "Hmm no, I don't think so."

You'd be right. PR is not considered a management discipline. At least not yet.

Many PR professionals strive to get the industry there. It's not an easy task, though. Why? Because it requires a complete mind shift change and a new perception of PR's reputation. That, on the other hand, requires a lot of re-education and then appropriate practical application combined with results. It requires that PR professionals change the way they work, learn, grow and service the bottom line. 

That's super hard to do on a mass level which is why I love #FuturePRoof. It's exactly the type of an initiative that can reach a mass PR audience and teach PR people how to be better, how to work in a way so that they can contribute to the PR industry finally being considered a management discipline.

If you remember, the first #FuturePRoof was a crowd-sourced book designed as the go-to guide for managers of PR agencies and communications teams. I was honoured then to be invited as one of the contributors (among some huge names in PR!) and wrote chapter 27 on Inbound PR and how comms teams should practice what they preach. 

Less than a year later, the second edition of FuturePRoof launched last week. And it's just as strong.