Off to The Age of Digital Public Relations

Over the years, major businesses and government organizations have embraced the use of traditional media in most of their Public Relations(PR) efforts — thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, a few have learnt to utilize new media in their efforts.

Before we dive in, let me explain to you the difference between Public Relations and Marketing.

It’s very common to confuse Public Relations for Marketing. However, PR focuses on creating a positive image for the company, while marketing is focused on selling products or services. So, basically, PR focuses on building mutually beneficial relationships between the company and the media.

The main functions of PR are Reputation management, Media relations, Events, and Brand journalism.

“PR and marketing have different objectives, but there are some inevitable overlaps between the two.”

Now that that is out of the way, what is Digital PR?

Digital PR is when PR professionals use Social media, the web, and online tools to spread the word about their brands, products, or services.

In a nutshell, Digital PR is a set of marketing strategies to raise brand awareness and online presence — Not Sales. Helping a brand stand out among its competitors in the online world.

The goal of digital PR is to help brands enhance their online identity and visibility. Higher social mentions, backlinks, and referral traffic are some of the main goals of digital PR.

Just a little something to note- although it all started with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital PR is more than being visible and authoritative to Google.

Why delve and invest in Digital PR?

1. To Learn Audience Social Sentiments toward your Brand — Part of your PR strategy should be analyzing social media sentiment toward your brand. Digital PR is there to help you increase brand awareness using social media, leading to expanding your audience base and getting more exposure and engagement.
2. Higher SEO — Digital PR focuses on your online endeavors and increases your google search visibility and online presence. Digital PR increases SEO value and that means driving more organic traffic to your website — through different methods such as blog posts, backlinking, among others.
3. Establish you as an authority in your niche — Publishing high-quality articles on authority sites will improve your reputation as a credible source of information and improve trust in your brand.

Among the types of Digital PR that many companies have learnt to embrace is Social Media PR, which involves crisis management and influencer relations.

It is important to note that “Digital PR is a powerful strategy which can improve a brand’s online presence and visibility. Static information can be transformed into conversations, and companies can speak directly to their target audience just about any time day or night. By connecting and sharing with the target audience, it’s possible to start a dialogue that clarifies your focus and to spread news and information much more quickly than ever before.”

Digital PR tactics to improve a client’s web presence;

• Preparing online press releases.
• Building relationships with online journalists and bloggers to generate online press coverage.
• Organizing online reviews and interviews.
• Ensuring press releases are optimized with relevant links back to your website. This benefits readers with links to more information and gives your search rankings a boost by securing high authority links to your website from high traffic blogs and news sites.
• Influencer marketing and blogger outreach to attain mention on influential social media accounts and blogs.
• Publishing online content to gain a wider reputation and high quality backlinks.

Whether you choose to do your own digital PR or have it done by a digital PR agency like my very own Touchvert, the important thing is to get started.

It’s important to have a clear picture of your target audience and if you don’t clearly know who is in your audience, it’s time to find out through the use of surveys and social media interaction to get to know the people who are interested in your brand and its message.