Ketchum Almanac spotlights top 100 digital and social stories from 2015, and seven trends for 2016

The Ketchum Digital & Social Almanac is a review of the year ahead in digital and social media. The 60-page book consists of top 100 stories in digital and social, identified by the Ketchum Engagement network in 2015, and 17 viewpoints written by our experts from around the world.

Each article is a deeper, more considered commentary on the state of digital and social media, marketing and public relations.

Each article is a deeper, more considered commentary on the state of digital and social media, marketing and public relations. Looking across these commentaries there are some clear trends which neatly characterise modern public relations. We’ve also identified some sure bets for 2016.

Seven Trends for 2016

#1 Influencers

Powerful influencers are emerging on the Internet in every market. It makes planning and creating scale tricky, but building relationships hasn’t changed.

#2 Paid and earned

Integrating paid content into earned campaigns makes your campaigns work harder and delivers an improved return on investment. Influencers, algorithms and amplification are all compelling reasons for paid integration.

#3 Authenticity

Successful organisations build trust and reputation on the Internet by being open, candid and timely, just like regular people behave offline.

#4 The Internet is people

Organisations need to get out of the way and let their people build relationships via the Internet and social networks, again like people do in regular lives.

#5 Video

If you’re not using video you need to grab a camera and crack on. The Internet adores live streaming and short-form video.

#6 Social platforms mature

The social media eco-system is maturing around Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and WhatsApp, but don’t you dare underestimate China’s Weixin.

Watch for further backend integration of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The dataset will rival Google’s planning capabilities.

#7 Communities

Niche communities built around a common purpose are the most influential form of media.We’ve included a powerful case study of our own learning and development platform.

Colleagues from Beijing to Toronto and from Chicago to Vienna helped identify the top 100 digital and social new stories from last year and produced opinion pieces for the year ahead.

Free digital download

The almanac is available as a free download (opens as a 1.8MB PDF) with a print version to follow.

Colleagues from Beijing to Toronto and from Chicago to Vienna helped identify the top 100 digital and social new stories from last year and produced opinion pieces for the year ahead. I’d like to thank everyone that contributed to this project. You’ll meet them as you work your way through the almanac.

We hope you enjoy Ketchum’s 2016 Almanac. If you’d like to talk to us about working with your organisation to tackle any of the issues raised please don’t hesitate to get in touch.