It’s that time of year when, between wrapping presents and wrapping up projects, it often feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day. But as busy as you may feel, we encourage you to take some time to step back, reflect on what you’ve learned over the past year and think about how to apply those lessons in the year ahead. With that in mind, we wanted to share some of our most popular resources from 2021.
Collectively, these resources contain key industry insights, best practices and expert advice to help set you and your team up for success in 2022. Cheers!
1. 2021 State of the Media Report
We surveyed over 2,700 journalists from all over the world for our 12th annual State of the Media Report to hear what they had to say about the evolving media landscape, the biggest challenges when it comes to working with PR, and how PR pros can get better coverage. Learn about industry trends through the eyes of journalists, and get the insight you need to turn their challenges into your opportunities.
2. 2021 State of the Press Release Report
For our 2021 State of the Press Release report, we analyzed more than 100,000 press releases and spoke to some industry pros to understand how press releases fit into their larger PR strategy. We also found some patterns PR pros should stick to when sending releases and some they should break to stand out from the crowd.
3. Making It Count: A Guide to Monitoring and Measuring the Impact of PR
Because a PR strategy that doesn’t include monitoring and measurement just isn’t a strategy at all. Monitoring and measuring takes discipline and dedication, but like most things in life, you get out what you put in. Use this guide to make sense of it all and create an effective, efficient monitoring and measurement process – so you can finally show the value of your work and its impact on the business. Get the guide.
4. The Art of Social PR: The Complete Guide to Social Listening for PR
This e-book will help you understand what social listening is, and why it’s not just an industry buzzword, but a powerful, must-have tool for PR, marketing and communications teams.
5. 2021 Comms Report: Paying – and Earning – Attention
For this year’s report, Cision and PRWeek surveyed 560 senior level communications professionals spanning seven countries to get a deeper understanding into how communicators are using and interacting with technology, data, measurement, content and influencers.
6. 5 Qualities of a Great PR Pro (According to PR Pros)
Knowing that the role of PR is much different (and much more demanding) than it was only a few years ago, we wanted to shed light on some of the soft skills that are key to success. We asked the PR and comms pros of our online client community, Cision City, to weigh in, and turned the results into a handy infographic for fast and easy reference.
7. The Ultimate ESG Toolkit for Communicators
This past year saw a significant increase in companies investing in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. At the same time, they’ve also increased their reliance on their communications teams to bring awareness to these initiatives. In effort to help communicate what is new territory for many, we created this toolkit with resources to understand best practices around ESG comms.
8. Anatomy of a (Nearly Perfect) Press Release
We dissected a public relations staple to showcase what makes a press release go from so-so to oh-so-good, using industry research and tried-and-true best practices.
9. Cover Me: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Product Story Placed
Based on findings from the 2021 State of the Media report and insight from journalists, this guide focuses specifically on pitching products – from must-have elements to faux pas to avoid.
10. State of the Media Summit On-Demand
As a follow up to our State of the Media report, we invited members of the media to join us for a two-day summit to focus on various aspects of the report. Get access to on-demand discussions on everything from what journalists expect of PR pros to social listening and the future of the industry.
