As we start the New Year, it is the time to look forward to the leading trends that will define the PR industry going forward. All leading PR agencies in India will stand witness to the key trends that will define the flourishing sector going forward.

Over the last couple of years, the industry has grown to a certain level of importance and recognition triggered by some corporate missteps and also the national election when several Indian political parties took to PR and social media for their election campaigns and engaged with the vote back. The industry now is fully primed for significant growth – on one hand, several new startup PR agencies are emerging and on the other, several leading PR agencies in India are growing bigger and better.

Here are some of the key trends that are going to propel the industry forward, this year.

Journalists are becoming more assiduous than ever before – Journalists are getting more and more diligent when it comes to facts. With the advent of social media, hyped up figures and fake news items started doing the rounds which made the job of the journalists much more difficult in seeking needles out of the hay out there. This has made them more suspicious and diligent in propagating facts rather than false propaganda.

Editors are now instructing their reporters to fact check closely and analyse deeply what content PR professionals are sending to them. Leading PR agencies are leading by example by sending coherent campaigns and content.

Third party research in pitch presentations:In order for a pitch to become successful, third party research by a university, industry veteran or an influencer or an NGO can go a long way in making pitches successful in front of the client.Media professionals also are careful of the content they receive, especially if it is from a person or a company that they are not aware of. Not only third party endorsement of company credentials will reign supreme during pitch presentations but also recommendation of story content by third party credible sources will be ruling the roost.

Reputation Management will be more significant going forward:Amongst all the responsibilities of a PR professional, reputation management will top the list.From media coverage to social media to online reviews, businesses, organizations and individuals will depend on PR representatives to safeguard their image, both online and offline. With the sudden hike in the number of fake online ratings and rankings, the job of a communications professionals have become even more important. One click algorithms from IT behemoths doesn’t seem to work anymore.

Video continues to grow and they are going LIVE: Video is reigning not only on the social media channels like Facebook, Periscope and Instagram but also otherwise. Video content is fast replacing text in the PR space. Leading PR agencies are establishing separate department which specializes in Video content.Value 360 Communication and Weber Shandwick are cases in point. A recent report from Cisco estimated that 75% of the world’s mobile traffic will be video by 2020. Live Video is going to dominate conversations going forward.

Industry influencers are becoming active contributors: Influencer marketing will burgeon in the coming times as more organizations and leading PR agencies will leverage influencers as contributors. Advocates that connect with their target audience is the new in-thing. Authentic voices will deliver results to brands in 2017.

Another pressing challenge that will hit the ground going forward is measurement. Measurement will remain a priority in 2017, amongst agencies and in-house corporate communications and PR departments. Social media is also poised to emerge as a potent marketing tool for brands. However, one-size doesn’t and wont fit all. The key is to define and engage the right one.