The Importance of a Mid-Year PR Refresh

 With graduations, summer vacations, and warm weather upon us, it’s hard to believe it’s already somehow the mid-point of the year. And if you’re a comms professional, a lot is changing, both good and bad. Since just the beginning of the year, we’ve seen the unfortunate continuation of newsroom layoffs. But we’ve also seen the emergence of new LinkedIn algorithms and features that promise to give your executives the boost they need as the platform continues to become even more of a visibility powerhouse. In external comms, like most areas of business, change certainly is our new steady state. And as this modern media ecosystem continues to unfold, it becomes even more important to check in on what’s working, what’s not, and what must shift.

So, grab an iced coffee. It’s time to dust off your grand 2024 plans, see where you stand on reaching those lofty comms objectives from six months ago, and buckle up for what promises to be a dynamic rest of the year.

Keeping Your Eye on the Prize: Your team might be delivering on (or better yet, exceeding) the KPIs you set at the beginning of the year. Social metrics may be beating expectations, and your company might be mentioned in several top-tier and trade articles. But have all those top-tier articles and new social followers done enough to advance your message or change perception? Are they reaching the audiences you need to reach now? Better yet, are your comms efforts still in line with your client’s business objectives and the big picture, or do they need to shift?

If you haven’t been doing this on a monthly or even quarterly basis, now’s a good time to take a critical look at whether you’re truly on track to achieve what you set out to do. It could be as simple as redoubling efforts on certain pitching priorities and changing up your content on LinkedIn, or perhaps a bigger strategic reboot is needed. Either way, measuring outcomes and recalibrating your strategy on a consistent basis is critical to make sure your comms program is moving your business “up and to the right.”

Shake Things Up: A white space analysis goes hand-in-hand with this big picture gut check. It’s good to know not only how you’re doing compared to competitors, but what the media’s appetite is for the topics you want to discuss. At MikeWorldWide, we use tools like Meltwater, Newswhip, and Netbase Quid to continually reassess attention to topics our clients want to be known for. Pair a quantitative assessment with conversations with friendly reporters, and we’re able to identify what’s missing from the conversation and propose new ideas (e.g., surveys, new POVs and predictions, etc.,) to fill the void.

And even beyond thought leadership, it could be time to move beyond the tried-and-true and consider new channels to fuel your comms strategy. In 2023, people watched on average 17 hours of online videos per week, according to Hubspot – what could short-form video series do for your thought-leadership? Have you explored the impact B2B influencers could have on your reach and reputation? From topics to tactics, it’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of what’s resonating with your stakeholders.

Election Prep: In an election year, especially one that promises to be contentious – many companies’ strategy is to duck and cover. We’re already seeing fewer C-level leaders willing to comment on hot-button issues—a pretty big swing from just a few years ago. And while many companies understandably prefer to stay non- or bipartisan, like it or not, employees and customers may still turn to companies for their leadership in a tumultuous political environment. Even if your company isn’t planning to comment directly on election matters, if your comms team hasn’t started to do at least some scenario planning, stakeholder mapping, and internal messaging work, now is the time.

It can be as simple as monitoring target reporters’ coverage to determine if their beat will shift for the next few months, reconsidering the value of paid and owned channels, preparing an internal “get-out-and-vote” message, or having a few statements at the ready on the one or two issues that are authentically important for a leader/ company to weigh in on. Depending on your industry and appetite for advocacy, it could be as complex has a full table-top exercise and issues management playbook refresh. Either way, the next few months are critical to think ahead about how you want to handle.

 It's so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of PR. But done consistently, these types of check-ins with your teams, clients, and plans give you the runway to reset and refocus on what will pack the biggest punch.