PR End-of-Year Reflections: Lessons Learned & Reshaping New Strategies

As 2024 comes to an end and we program our out-of-office messages and send those end-of-year emails, it is important to reflect on the evolving landscape of crisis communication.

PR professionals know crises do not discriminate; they can happen day or night, Monday through Friday or on a holiday weekend, while you’re on a plane ready to board a 12-hour flight, even in the middle of your children’s end-of-year recital. The truth is, the rise of social media and rapid content consumption have created a new portal for crises, essentially amplifying their potential for damage.

In the digital age, crises have evolved, with the potential to cause massive damage in increasingly intrinsic ways. For example, a viral video of an influencer at a business can either drive up sales or severely impact earnings — according to the content nature. This reinforces the importance of having a dependable PR agency to counter these types of emerging crises.

PR professionals and businesses have had to adapt quickly to the fluctuating waves of public sentiment, the rise of automation, misuse of artificial intelligence, and cultural movements.

So what can we learn from this? The answer is simple: We must accept that not all past experiences can be used for future strategies. As the PR landscape shifts, our strategies must also shift. As the PR landscape evolves, our strategies too must evolve.

We simply can’t show up to a digital fight using the same analog tools.

These lessons exemplify the need to refine, evolve, and capitalize on new strategies. The power of these increasingly technological forces to hinder our crisis communication efforts can also be used to benefit our strategies — if we use these tools in effective ways. So as we prepare for 2025 and develop and implement strategies, ask yourself: Are your strategies equipped to navigate the shifting terrain of crisis communication?