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Daryl Willcox, Chairman of Daryl Willcox Publishing, looks at how the internet is transforming traditional PR. |
The past few years have seen a fundamental shift in the way people research and purchase products and services. Where before people read specialist magazines or looked in sector-specific directories, they now go straight to the internet. While the traditional media, such as print magazines and TV, grapple with this challenge, for marketers it represents a huge opportunity. The digital world is now a rich hunting ground for new customers. The question for marketers is how do you hunt them effectively?
All change!
As the internet has evolved, it has become as much a platform for ordinary people to share information as it was a place for 'conventional' publishing. All the major media outlets, including the B2B trade press, have content-rich websites, plus there are now many web-only community sites like WNIM. We also now have User Generated Content, often referred to as Web 2.0 or social media, of which the most talked about tool is blogging. Of course, there's nothing really new about Web 2.0 - it's just that it has really taken off and now for every business sector there are probably several quite influential bloggers out there.
A significant shift in power is taking place. The internet is not like 'old' media, where media proprietors would decide on the agenda and dictate what people read, watched or listened to and when it was published or broadcast. Now, readers can add comments to stories and publish their own content - be it text, audio or video - and do this all in 'real time'.
In the old world, one of the only ways to reach media audiences would be to plan far ahead and invest in hefty advertising campaigns. But in the new world, this technique is no longer so appropriate.
Internet users get information from multiple sources, and are choosy about its tone and how it is delivered. However, advertising gets in the way - at best we become blind to it and at worst we avoid it. We distrust information that is dictatorial or one-sided, but trust comments made by other consumers or from an independent community.
What all this means is that the best way to 'hunt' customers online is to get into their communities, engage with the influencers and commentators and win their trust.
The role of PR
Whilst advertising has become less relevant, the opposite is true for Public Relations (PR).
Many PR techniques translate to the digital world with only minor adjustments, and the fundamental characteristic running through all good PR people - good communications skills - is an absolute must in the online world. So PR has found itself at the heart of digital marketing. For proof of this just ask anyone who works in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). They understand the power PR has to drive traffic to websites, so much so that many SEO agencies now offer 'online PR' services or work routinely with client PR departments or agencies.
Unfortunately, some PR agencies have been slow to adjust to the importance of the internet and still focus too much on traditional media. Their days are numbered. They will either need to alter their focus or they will become obsolete.
If you decide to use an agency for digital PR, check their understanding of digital media and ask them to give examples of the online work they've done for other clients. Many are now saying they do digital PR, but actually have little real experience.
The great thing about digital PR is that it isn't that hard to do in-house. For many B2B companies working in a relatively small sector it can be very effective.
The first thing you need to do is to understand your online universe. This means getting to grips with what the important content websites are out there and who the influential bloggers are. And you need to understand how social media works.
Set up some Google Alerts based on relevant key words - this will give you an idea of relevant content as it appears on the internet. Start blogging. While you may not become the most successful self-publisher, blogging is the best way to learn the nuances of social media. By having your own blog you will learn how to communicate effectively with other social media authors.
The next thing to do is to create some content. This helps draw people in and gives them confidence in your products or services. White Papers, videos, podcasts are all examples of rich content for your own site. Don't forget that the quality of this material should be appropriate to your brand, and should be informative rather than hard selling. You also need to start looking at getting your content on third party sites. What you've produced for your own site is very useful for this - community websites often like to publish shortened versions of White Papers.
News releases may seem a very old fashioned way of doing PR, but the digital world has given the news release a new lease of life. Posted on a quality online news release wire, plus sent directly to a list of the most relevant content websites in your sector, the news release becomes a powerful tool for generating online content and links back to your own site.
These are just a few basic tips, but once you get into it you'll soon learn other techniques. Key to digital PR is engaging with your online community. It takes a bit of effort, but in time your online visibility will improve, and the better your online visibility, the more customers you'll catch. |
