One of the most remarkable ways in which digital PR differs from traditional PR is that it is possible for you to engage with your audience more personally as well as directly than ever before. In fact, engagement is a critical element to successful digital PR.
While the openness and networking potential of the Internet are beneficial to PR, it is also a tough landscape to navigate as it has its own rules, accepted practices and conventions. A PR practitioner must know how to relate to the target market in their medium and according to the accepted principles of interaction.
Create online social capital
Social capital is the influence, respect and value that your brand has within your social network. You gain online social capital by being active and approachable, being frank and honest, interacting with people personally, sharing useful and interesting content (not only yours) regularly.
Unlike in traditional media where the medium frames the content (e.g. an article in a reputable newspaper is by default assumed to be of equal value) in the online world, you must create your reputation and value from scratch.
Active interaction
Merely putting your content online will do little to promote your message. You have to take active sites to share and spread it so that it stands out in the ever-flowing stream of information. Use the social capital you have built on your blog, website and social networks to help propagate your message. You must learn how to generate your own online buzz actively.
Listen more than you speak
On the web, everybody wants to express their opinions, good and bad. Digital PR, therefore, requires that you spend considerably more time listening to your audience than you do speaking to them. The bonus of this approach is that you will get a good sense of popular sentiment around your brand and marketing strategy.
