Public Relations and Digital Marketing: A New Synergy
Public Relations is certainly evolving with the influence of digital marketing.
Here’s an interesting fact: A recent survey found that 72 percent of 1000 surveyed Public Relations pros say their parents don’t understand what PR is. Even more surprisingly, another 41 percent say their spouses don’t know what PR means either. Despite these mind-blowing numbers, PR is still an inevitable tool to elevate your online presence.
Traditionally, PR is telling your story through the media, which is done through media relations. When clients approach our PR department it’s generally because they want to see their name in the news. What they often don’t understand is that there are lots of different methods to get them there.
If you need some tips, here is a fun article about How to explain PR to your friends.
Public Relations & Social
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ou’re probably familiar with a lot of the traditional elements of PR. Those include getting interviews on TV, sending press releases and holding press conferences. These methods are still effective today. However, we are a digital-first agency. So, we utilize those more traditional tactics combined with digital tactics. Because we are already experts in content marketing, social media and SEO, we can combine with PR to reach wider audiences.
Social media plays a big part in PR today. In fact, your business could be missing out on PR if your social media is not frequently updated and well-done. That means you must be mindful when pitching a story. Thinking about its share-ability on social media is important. Journalists often check a business’s social media presence before deciding to cover it.
In fact, 76 percent of journalists say they feel pressure to think about their story’s potential for sharing on social media platforms.
Working with social media influencers has become an essential part of PR as well. Influencers share content that is trusted, even more than advertising. 92 percent of consumers trust recommendations from social media influencers even if they don’t know them.
Influencers are best at engaging with their niche. They know the language, attitude and style that their followers like, because that is what drives their engagement. Here’s an interesting article that discusses engagement tips. Check out 3 Tips for Stronger Social Media Community Engagement Strategy and let us know if you found the tips useful.
Public Relations & SEO
Whether you get media coverage on TV, radio or in newspapers, traditional outlets often to include your content online. Ensuring that the outlets are linking to your website will help build your SEO value over time.
This means when writing press releases or other content, the keywords used for SEO should be incorporated and monitored for when the story is shared online. Once they post the article on social, ask them them to tag you (if they haven’t done it yet). PR and SEO work together better than ever.
PR pros know how to pitch content and SEO pros know what’s needed to optimize content for search.
Public Relations & Paid Ads
People usually don’t think of PR and paid ads working together. If you aren’t familiar with Google Adwords they are the ads or little green boxes that appear above organic results on Google. In PR, we’d recommend using these only as a method of defense. We wouldn’t wish this tactic upon anyone, but if a business is going through a period of negative coverage, these can be very useful.
Remember, sometimes you have to create news. Sending out a monthly press release in 2016 isn’t enough. Take advantage of your online reach, form partnerships, host events and work with influencers and bloggers.
More
If you are interested in learning more about PR, check out a similar post about Public Relations Specialist Education and Training that we published a few weeks ago.
And if you’re interested in hearing more about how PR mixed with social, SEO and digital marketing can help your business, read through our public relations services, and give us a call today!
