PR Futurist | Stuart Bruce | Purposeful Relations - 📰 PR Futurist #39 | If you're not serious about LinkedIn, then you should be

Welcome

Happy holidays

In the UK it's that time of year when everything gets thrown out of sync by public holidays. It's a LinkedIn focused edition of PR Futurist this time as Microsoft reports record growth for LinkedIn, which is yet more evidence as to why PR and communications people need to take it seriously.

There's also a provocative article by SEO and digital marketing guru Rand Fishkin who argues that marketing folk take attribution far too seriously. You won't hear any argument from us, as it's what we've been saying for years. PR folk often see marketing folk boasting about attribution and using it to 'prove' their success. It's often B*!!**!t, with a capital B. Read Rand's article and talk to us to learn more about what does and doesn't work when it comes to measuring and evaluating communications.

Finally, what's an issue of PR Futurist, without a mention of AI? This time it's another article examining the ethics.

AI

Record LinkedIn growth for engagement and revenue

LinkedIn is proving to be a smart acquisition as Microsoft's latest performance update shows a 34% year on year increase in LinkedIn revenue. Active LinkedIn sessions grew by 22%, which shows people are actually using it. It's vital that PR and communications professionals understand how to maximise the benefits of LinkedIn, as too often it's simply seen as a recruitment platform and left to HR, which misses out on the huge opportunities it provides for corporate communications and more. Providing LinkedIn training and consultancy is a growing area of our business.

LinkedIn now enables you to feature your LinkedIn newsletter prominently on your profile

LinkedIn newsletters are relatively new and were initially rolled out gradually, but are now available to everyone with a LinkedIn Creator account. The latest change lets you feature the newsletter sign-up prominently on your profile. If you are doing thought leadership or showcasing the expertise of your leadership team colleagues then LinkedIn newsletters can be a powerful way to do it. You can subscribe to Stuart's LinkedIn newsletter here.

Linkedin news team grows to nearly 200 worldwide

This is a LinkedIn bumper edition of PR Futurist. Yet more evidence why communications professionals should treat LinkedIn more seriously is the fact that its editorial news team is almost 200 strong. You need to be thinking about how you get on its radar and how you can publish compelling content on LinkedIn.

AI bias: Why fair artificial intelligence is so hard

We think a lot about the ethics of artificial intelligence. One important aspect of AI for you to consider is how you use AI to improve your PR and communications work. However, the one that often gets forgotten is to think about the reputational risks of AI in your company or organisation. Is it on your reputational risk register? Does your organisation have a policy in place? In the earlier days of social media many companies got badly bruised because they dismissed it as irrelevant or didn't understand it. Don't make the same mistake with AI.

Get in touch

Don't be shy, come say hello

Don't be shy. If you're thinking about any of the issues we highlight in the PR Futurist newsletter then get in touch. Talk to us about how you can modernise your PR and communications by investing in the right CommTech and ensuring your team gets the best out of it.

CommTech tools

Stop using Excel as a database

If you're still using Excel as a database then please stop. It's a brilliant spreadsheet (have you experienced the wonders of pivot tables?), but an awful place to keep lists. Excel is not a database. One of the most popular tools we recommend is Airtable. It has a familiar spreadsheet view, but it also has forms, calendars, timelines and more. It has hundreds of templates for things as varied as event planning, content calendars, CRMs (contact relationship management), project management and more. It's powerful, easy to use, and it's also free, although the paid for version adds lots of extra functions and automation features. Disclaimer - it's an affiliate link, so Stuart gets $10 if you sign-up, even if it's just to the free plan, so what have you got to lose?

Data, measurement, analytics

Provable marketing attribution is a boondoggle

This is a fascinating article that affirms what we're always telling clients. Attribution is dangerous. If it worked perfectly, attribution would be brilliant. But the fact is that despite amazing leaps in technology and what we can do, we still can't definitively track how people make decisions and end up doing something or buying something. There's lots we can measure and track, but we've got to be much smarter at how we do it. This is especially important for PR and communications professionals to understand, when we've got marketing colleagues making extraordinary claims for what they've achieved.