At the turn of the year agencies, sole traders, and freelancers tend to negotiate the budget of the up-coming twelve months with their clients and customers. And of course, the time to look back at the results of the preceding year is ripe, too: which were the successful campaigns, which strategies are worth expanding? In order to be able to plan the ‘Agenda 2010′ efficiently, many major industry portals are currently discussing the question which are the trends that communication experts are well advised to follow closely in the coming year.

Social Media on both sides of the big pond: Web 2.0 will continue to be a hot topic in 2010; US-American and European media see eye to eye here. Since the death of traditional journalism has been predicted, PR professionals find themselves in an identity crisis. Mediaquell quotes from PR-Trendmonitor saying that the biggest challenges in PR are ‘loss of significance of classic media’, ‘information overload’, and ‘the Internet in general’. According to German Branchennews, the decreasing numbers of readers, the discontinuation of several print titles as well as the appearance of new multipliers (bloggers, followers, etc.) and communication channels (social media, online portals, aggregators, short message services, RSS feeds, etc.) now begin to take notable effect in the PR industry, too.

‘Quo vadis?’ Where will our journey take us when the direct contact in the editorial offices will eventually be replaced by the e-mail address of a web worker or, even worse, by the input mask of a press portal? What are the remaining possibilities to distribute the clients’ messages in a controlled manner? The US-American news portal ‘PR News Online’ remarks on this topic: ‘Though social media has been a primary catalyst for change in the PR industry, respondents see PR’s role in the overall marketing mix becoming increasingly more important.’ PR seems to have saved its neck unlike its sister disciplines of marketing and advertising. However, the authors do not provide the interested reader with an explication of their statement – maybe because it is all too obvious? After all, it is due to the affinity of online communication and traditional PR that PR experts take care of the tasks in the online field already today. For the topic of distributing messages this means that social media offers a wide range of new opportunities to influence the perception of the corporate image since the company is able to address its target groups directly and without making use of traditional mediators such as journalists.

At first sight an article from PR Journal seems to advocate an absolutely contrasting opinion when it comes to the importance of Web 2.0. Participants of a survey of Mediakompass state that they consider traditional public relations the most important instrument for their work by far while social media and Web 2.0 are considered to play a subordinated role. But as the article continues it becomes clear that the statements merely refer to the current situation. The author also says that almost two out of three PR experts are convinced that Web 2.0 and social media will join the circle of a large number of efficient communication instruments before long. However, the majority of those questioned still think that lobby work and strategic planning of communication measures are of paramount importance.

And at the end of the day online measures make up a large part of above mentioned planning processes, according to PR News Online. Even though almost 75 per cent of the questioned experts consider the development of strategies for 2010 a complex and difficult issue, the majority plans to get increasingly involved in the fields of new technologies, viral marketing, SEO, and multimedia. The fact that the budgets only increase slightly or even remain on the same level as in the previous year does not make this resolution any easier, though. But generally making friends with Twitter, Facebook and co. first and foremost costs time – and between Christmas turkey and a glass of champagne on New Year’s Eve it may not be all that difficult to spare some hours, right? Bright perspectives for 2010 after all…

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