Digital PR has been growing steadily in importance, especially in the last few years as more and more elements of business moved online. The phrase digital PR is an umbrella term; it encompasses digital marketing, SEO practices, social media and customer service. In truth, digital PR is fast becoming one of the most important strategies for any business. Read on to learn more.
Digital PR Explained
Digital PR as a practice refers to almost any activity that uses internet-based tools, methods, or channels to improve a business’s online presence. It is representative of an evolution of PR practices. In today’s digital landscape, the majority of people encounter brands online through search engines, social media, blogs and digital marketing. As a result, businesses today can’t rely on traditional media to gain coverage or convey their messages.
The four cornerstones of digital PR are as follows:
- Social Media
- Content Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Search Engine Optimisation or SEO
The best approach to digital PR requires a combination of these methods. By striking the right balance, a business can reach a broader audience and increase its brand recognition. The fact of the matter is that offline methods are not enough anymore.
Digital vs Traditional PR
To get a better idea of what a digital PR expert can do for your business, you first need to understand a bit more about how and why it differs from traditional PR. Both forms of PR are dedicated to creating and maintaining a positive brand image. However, they differ mainly in the methods they use to achieve this—traditional PR centres around traditional forms of media like print publications or the television or radio. In contrast, digital PR focuses solely on digital mediums and utilising the internet properly.
The Rise of Digital PR
Technologies have evolved over time, and in doing so, new methods of communication and information sources were discovered. In that respect, the shift to digital media was all but inevitable. Digital media offers users a number of advantages that were innovative during its inception but simply expected by consumers now. Like direct, instantaneous communication that is not limited by the constraints of time or location. The opportunity to connect with like-minded people to form or find a community based on your personal values. The option to control your consumption of different media and to provide information too. Not to mention the sheer amount of knowledge out there, right at your fingertips.
From this, it should be obvious why digital media quickly overtook the traditional sources. This meant that a profession that once focussed on traditional media and utilising its coverage to benefit a business had to quickly adapt. Today, there are those that have experience in both traditional and digital PR. However, there are also those that focus solely on the digital because it is an ever-changing and frankly crowded space.
Digital PR today consists of a number of tactics that have been transferable from the days of traditional PR, like networking, creating and distributing press releases, and generating a buzz. However, there are also a lot of new approaches like collaborating with influencers, creating backlinks, managing social media accounts and social listening.
Examples of Digital Applications for Businesses
The digital landscape has transformed the way that most businesses operate. There is a range of strategies and approaches that need to be considered in order to make sure that you are making the most out of your business’s social media presence. Consider the following examples:
- Social media & search engine marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Co-marketing
- Co-branding
- Digital advertising
- Native advertising
- Digital PR
- Digital partnerships
- Digital messaging
- Backlinks
- Emails
- Pay-per-click or PPC
- Paid social
- Organic search and social
- Programmatic display
- Online advertorial
- Guest blogging
- Influencer outreach
- Sponsorships
- In-house email/push
- Earned mentions
Digital PR Benefits
Now that you have a better idea of what digital PR is and what it entails, you can start to see the value of hiring an expert. When done well, digital PR can be enormously beneficial to a business. To start with, when you have your own digital media sources like a website, social media accounts or a blog, then you can publish your own content, and you don’t have to wait to gain coverage from other people. In addition, you can communicate directly with your audience, and in doing so, you can build a relationship with them, helping to not only attract new customers but to retain your current consumers too.
Building a relationship with your consumers and the public at large is vital. It helps to build trust, and often building an audience can be more valuable than direct sales. Consumers today spend a lot of time online, which makes creating content in the online space the best way to reach them. Consistency is key to attracting an audience and building a following.
When you constantly produce relevant, considered, and quality content that is well-researched and authoritative, you begin to cement yourself as an expert in the field. Your audience believes that they can trust you to inform them. You are a credible source of information, which ensures that they will continue to seek you out. Your business will benefit from this reputation.
Brand awareness is essential. It ensures that yours is the first brand that comes to mind for your consumers. It is the driving force behind a lot of the behaviours exhibited by your consumers, including their attitudes, purchasing decisions and their perceptions of your business. Consumers are reluctant to purchase from a brand that they aren’t aware of because it represents the unknown; they aren’t sure whether they can trust it. Digital PR allows a business to increase its reach, build brand awareness and increase sales. It also helps to encourage brand loyalty.
Along that vein, a well thought out digital PR approach can help you to manage your business’s online reputation. Most consumers conduct a little bit of research before they purchase. They check out the website the social media channels, and they look for reviews too. If, during their research, they find that in addition to good reviews, your business has also cultivated a good reputation among followers online, they are much more likely to complete their purchase.
Engagement is vital for any business that wants to grow its consumer base. Likes, comments and shares are not simply about vanity. They can drive engagement by putting your posts, and therefore your business, in front of new people. It can open up your target market, leading to more sales. You can use tools within the social media channels themselves to discover insights. What posts do well, and which ones bombed? This can help you to cultivate your feed until you are consistently posting content that engages your audience.
Social media is a great way for you to encourage and produce user-generated content. Your followers can see your products or services from other consumers. This often lends more credence to their reviews because they are seen as more impartial. User-generated content is seen as more authentic and genuine. It also allows you as a brand to interact with your consumers more. You can repost or reply to their content. This makes them feel seen and appreciated.
Finally, digital PR can also have a positive impact on your business’ search engine rankings. This can be incredibly beneficial in its own right. The higher that your business is ranked, the easier it is for people to find your brand. You become more noticeable, and as a result, the traffic to your website increases. This increase in traffic then turns into more leads and eventually more sales and higher profits.
Common Digital PR Strategies to Explore
If you decide to take on a digital PR consultant, they will deal with all of your digital PR needs on your behalf, coming up with the best strategies that will work for your business. If you decide to undertake this task in-house, then it will fall to you to do this. Implementing the right strategies is important to ensure that you aren’t wasting your time and money on ineffective methods.
Common strategies include things like producing and sharing press releases in a bid to gain publicity for the business. You may also need to secure backlinks from other digital locations in order to increase the traffic to your site. Some businesses devote time to trawling the internet for unlinked mentions of their business; if they are good mentions, you’d want to link them to the business. If they are negative, you ought to try and rectify them as a form of damage control.
The company website and social media accounts also need updating regularly. As part of the website maintenance, it will also be necessary to continually produce high-quality content that can be distributed by the website and social media channels. This content also needs promoting too. Networking with other leading figures in the industry as well as journalists, influencers and bloggers are also necessary; the contacts that you make can come in handy. Finally, you might also need to collaborate with writers to produce guest blogs, secure interviews or even work with influencers to create affiliate marketing plans.
In The End
While it is entirely possible to carry out this work in-house without looking for a digital PR expert to help, it is a major undertaking. Most businesses simply do not have the time or the expertise to take on these tasks. Therefore, it is important that you consider what is best for your business when it comes to digital PR because it can prove to be an invaluable asset, especially in a world that continues to move online.
Author Bio:-
Hannah Stevenson is the Content Marketing Manager and Linkologist for a highly-regarded link building agency. She’s a former journalist who now runs the firm’s content marketing strategy and manages her own blog, so she understands what content creators and publishers need to succeed.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay
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