Virgil W. Magee is the Deputy Director of Media Analysis for Strategic Communications for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, Afghanistan. In his position he is responsible for the identification and analysis of local, regional and global media trends pertaining to multinational ISAF and North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) alliance missions and strategic objectives for 42 partner nation defense and foreign affairs ministerial-level organizations, NATO and United Nations mandated missions.
Good public relations are keys to the success of any business. In today's information driven market, the face of media has changed entirely. Traditional public relations focused on print ads, commercials and radio spots. A good strategic communications plan would focus on things such as articles written in trade magazines and periodicals, commercials run on the television or the radio and carefully organized, closely managed interviews and press conferences.
Today's new media includes email, blogs, internet marketing and more.
In today's society, a strategic marketing plan must include these new media types. Almost no company is without a website, and more and more consumers are depending on the internet to get the information on which they base their opinions.
In the past, a public relations firm needed only worry about what the big papers or media outlets might report on their client. Today, through the internet, everybody has a voice. People rely more and more on internet news outlets to get information on current events. They look to on-line product reviews and recommendations to determine what products they are going to buy. They depend on bloggers and internet columnists to provide them insight into almost every situation.
These new forms of media have taken traditional public relations and turned it upside down. Smart companies are capitalizing on the new media, and are putting together blogs, joining online communities and discussions and keeping their websites fresh and current.
Public relations firms are devoting more effort to creating e-mail campaigns and internet advertising. They are developing strategic communications plans that rely less heavily on old fashioned media and journalism, and more on the word of mouth impact that internet marketing generates instantly. This kind of strategic marketing is allowing newer, younger companies to quickly take over market share that more old fashioned companies don't even realize exists.
To succeed today and tomorrow, companies need to focus much more on the new media versus traditional public relations. They need to generate an online presence and maintain it the same way that one does their own image. Companies need to develop websites, where the public can learn about them and grow a strategic communications plan that focuses on what the web says about their business, their products and even their personal reputation.
The internet is very much a "right now" medium, so it is strategic marketing to constantly update your on-line presence and make sure that you are relying on more than just traditional forms of public relations.
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