The amount of data being produced each day is growing exponentially: according to Science Daily over the last two years alone 90 per cent of the current data in the world has been generated. Partly due to the ease of posting information online, the amount of content produced by property consultancies has increased considerably. A major PR consideration of the content explosion is that protecting a reputation is more complex the more information that is generated and the greater speed with which it is despatched.

This represents both a challenge and an opportunity: while it is easier to put information into the public domain, information is less likely to be consumed by the target audience – unless is very well produced, written, presented and promoted.

It falls to the PR team to curate the abundance of information that a property company produces. Some property consultancies are moving towards automated curation, which provides the opportunity to present bespoke content via the consultancy’s website to users in terms of sector, content and region. Tailoring comment is an effective means of ensuring that clients receive the information that they most need, but we should also take into consideration the ‘echo chamber’ effect – the fact that people’s views can be increasingly limited to the content selected for them by an algorithm – and should aim to find creative means of providing new and interesting information. With cross-selling being one of the most effective means of business development for property consultancies, we should not underestimate the benefits of providing clients with information about service lines which they are not currently using, but in such a way that appeals directly to their interests and requirements.

An increase in content means and increased need for the core PR skills of acquiring, processing, sorting, selecting, interpreting, channelling and communicating information. Value is no longer in the quantity of information that an organisation can produce, but the quality.  And as quality increases, so does the opportunity for good PR and delighted clients.

This blog is an extract from my book Promoting Property:  insight, experience and best practice which was published by Routledge in April 2020.