The Importance of Digital PR

Recent surveys involving 300 marketers have shown that the vast majority of in-house marketing teams used online PR campaigns. The survey teams looked at the return on investment of online PR more than any other type of online marketing.

With astute businesses wanting to see real time measurable results the survey showed that although it is possible to track online activities such as the amount of web traffic many marketers remain cautious and dubious with regards to the value of online PR.

Measurability is seen by marketers as a key factor in using online public relations in order to see a return for their investment. The importance of digital PR should be embraced by companies as a tangible way to track performance particularly during the current economic crisis, when each and every potential consumer it reaches can mean the difference between increased sales and profitability or to becoming another statistic in failing businesses.

With online tools available to help track activities and measure success of online public relations it is advised to take a compressive campaign approach.

Digital PR or ePR is seen as an effective way of building and managing brand and service reputation online. In order for digital PR to be successful companies are engaging the expertise of PR companies who have embraced digital public relations as a positive way forward for many companies. More importantly the reputable and well established PR companies have not abandoned the more traditional public relations methods, but skilfully combine the two to ensure maximum expose is made to consumers.

The PR companies include a variety of different online public relations tactics and strategies which are all tangible and measurable such as communication through the use of blogs, Facebook and Twitter as a way of engaging and sustaining public interest.

Other strategies involve using new media such as pod casts, publishing information online on a Wiki and tailored media campaigning targeting online titles and journalism as a separate entity to main print paper.

Is Digital PR important?

Companies who want to stay ahead of the game and have a real edge over their competitors will need to utilise all of the traditional public relations methods and embrace new marketing and digital PR strategies to keep their brand name in the forefront of consumer's minds. Competition had never been fiercer as companies small and large try to ride out the economic crisis and stay in business any way they can.

Companies with astute business minds are realising that although they may have to be making some pretty severe cut backs, public relations is this last area which they should be axing altogether. Those who believe that online public relations is not an effective way to promote their business may well face a fall in consumer interest over the next few months and beyond. Companies should be aware that consumers are very fickle, once 'lost' it will take a lot of enticing and potentially expensive marketing and traditional and digital PR work to win their business back.