In my last blog post of 2021, I shared my learnings for the year and promised some predictions for the year ahead. Here's what I think 2022 holds for communications and marketing in local government.
1. We will become more diverse and more targeted in our use of social platforms.
It won’t mean the end of Facebook or Insta or Twitter, but we’ll be as likely to be jumping toward Nextdoor or TikTok.
2. Video will continue to grow and dominate engaging content.
We aren’t quite at the point where it’s replaced the press release, but it won’t be longer before it has equivalent weighting in the minds of organisations and politicians.
3. The perception that ‘traditional’ media matters less will continue, but the opposite will be true.
Independence, objectivity, professionalism – what’s not to like? As Tony Stark said in Spiderman - Homecoming: “There are 50 reporters in there – real ones, not bloggers…” (and yes, I know this is a blog. But I’m sure you get the point.)
4. Financial pressures on councils will mean we will need to re-prioritise explaining where and how and why every penny is spent.
Which has always been important, but even more so when ordinary household budgets are being squeezed.
5. Linking both of these will be a new emphasis on transparency.
Get this right and our publics and partners will trust us all the more.
6. …and working in the open (via blogs like this) will be more prevalent.
Let’s hope you agree, as I’d like to increase our readership 😊 And hopefully you are finding this useful/interesting…
7. We will see the first steps toward channels like Teams and Zoom moving toward virtual reality settings…
I am personally excited by this, not least because we’ll get to choose our office and it’ll be much cooler than the real thing.
8. …so we’ll all need avatars.
In my case this will also be much cooler than the real thing.
9. The starting point will be the numbers.
Data is already where we begin, but we may be ushering in the final days of requests for campaigns which ‘raise awareness’ (and the hackles of campaign teams…)
10. We will need our partners more than ever.
Modern public services are complex, cross cutting, nuanced, and so are the comms which explain them. United we stand, divided, we are more likely to fail.
What do you see happening in our world in 2022? Comment below to share your ideas, I'd love to know what you think.
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