“A good PR story is infinitely more effective than a front-page ad.” Richard Branson

Richard Branson was right when he said that a good PR story is more effective than an ad on the front page of a publication, be it a newspaper, magazine or other publication. Today, with the realities that the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings with it, the world has gone digital. And public relations is no exception. So, what is ‘digital public relations’ and is this so different from ‘traditional’ public relations?

The definition of digital public relations

According to experts, ‘digital public relations’ is about using digital marketing and social media marketing technologies in order to communicate to the public about a particular brand. The aim of digital public relations is to:

• Generate and awareness and understanding of the brand, and
• To spread the word about the reputation of an organisation or company.

The main tools that digital public relations will use include:

• Social media
• Content marketing
• Digital publications.

How does social media work with digital public relations?

Digital public relations professionals will use social media to help spread the marketing message that they’re trying to communicate. So, for example, if they’re trying to promote a particular course or event that the company is hosting, the digital PR team will share information about this even on the company’s social media platforms in order to generate buzz about this event and, as a result, sell tickets.

Content marketing and digital public relations

As we’ve said in many previous articles, content marketing is the go-to form of marketing this year. The reason for this is that with this type of marketing marketers are able to generate a substantial buzz about what the company needs to generate leads for at a very low cost to the company. (The reason why we say a relatively low cost is that it does not cost a lot to have articles written for you company. This is if you write them yourself or if you get a professional content creator to generate these for you.)

Content marketing provides the ideal method for digital public relations to communicate a company’s marketing message. The reason for this is that there are no length restrictions for this type of content. It can be as long or as short as you like – you decide. By contrast, with an advert there are limited amounts of copy that you can put on it so crafting your message can become a challenge.

Digital publications

As we all know, the best way of getting your website to climb up the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is to have as many high-quality, backlinks coming to your site from third-party sites. The trick with this is that the sites which are linking to you must have good quality scores.

A digital publication – such as an online magazine – has an exceptionally good reputation. This is because they are often associated with a print publication that has been around for years. This means that the digital publication is trusted among Internet users because they trust the quality of journalism that it puts out.

Digital publications usually link back to the website of the person who provided the article. This means that their website will get a high quality link as a result of this which will improve their SEO standing immeasurably.

Digital PR and ‘traditional’ PR are not worlds apart

PR as learned in a textbook is not that different from digital public relations. The tried-and-trusted principles that you learn from your PR professors are just as applicable in today’s modern era of PR. However all that’s different are the mediums that are used in order to transmit the messages.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Are you keen to become a digital public relations professional? The Digital School of Marketing’s Digital Public Relations Course is just the qualification to help you make this dream a reality! For more information about this and our other digital marketing courses, please visit our website.