use inbound pr for the future of public relations

Successful PR is no longer about writing press releases and pitching them to a bunch of journalists and counting coverage as the measure of success.

Successful PR in the 21st century is about using the entire PESO (Paid, Earned, Owned & Shared media) model with an inbound approach that is strategically planned with the numbers in mind, allowing you to use analytics and real data to measure success.

Why the need for change? Because the world has gone digital.

We are addicted to our phones where we can get information 24/7 at our own pace depending on our own needs.

We don't need anyone else to inform us or educate us.

I don't read the news. The news finds me on my Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn feeds.

As a consumer and as a professional, I find the content that I want or need to consume completely on my own without the need for someone to give it to me.

That's the major change that's happened over the last few decades which has forced PR to change.

The Current PR Reality

Whereas before, PR people needed media outlets as intermediaries to share news with the public, nowadays, PR people can go directly to consumers.

Whereas before, media people relied on PR people to send them stories, nowadays, media people search and find stories on their own.

Whereas before, PR people could get away with a big coverage report to prove the subjective ROI or change of reputation through their work, nowadays, businesses and clients are too smart and require you to show them the data that proves the ROI behind their PR investment.

To succeed in this environment, many PR professionals are realising that they need to change their mindset to how they approach, plan and execute their work.

The Future of PR is Inbound

For me, the most successful approach is Inbound PR.

Inbound PR focuses on PR's biggest strength around content creation and storytelling as a means to engage with different types of stakeholders and audiences but it also proposes a way for PR to move away from vanity metrics and truly measure the ROI that executives want to see.

It's now been six months since my book about Inbound PR came out.

At the INBOUND conference in Boston this year, I met with ITPR - a PR agency from London that has fully adopted the Inbound PR model - to talk about how I came up with the Inbound PR approach, why it's necessary and how it should work.

Take a look at the below video: