Digital PR: Is Press Work Today Digital Enough?

Digital-PR: It sounds like a new buzzword in the age of digitalization at first. But what exactly is behind it? Does corporate communication have to stamp out classical PR and public relations to meet the changing needs of target groups? Of course not, because no matter which press department we are talking about, employees have one thing above all: valuable contacts with journalists. And these have rarely been as important in marketing as they are today.

In this article, PR expert Marie Bachmayr explains to you how Digital-PR differs from classical PR, what goals you can achieve and how SEO, Content-Marketing, Social-Media-Marketing and PR can interlock to implement modern and digital marketing across all channels.

What is Digital-PR?

Digital-PR (also called Online-PR) is strategic communication with a focus on the Internet. This form of public relations disseminates content via those digital channels that are relevant to a company and its target group.

Digital-PR vs. classical PR

Contrary to classical PR, Digital-PR no longer aims only at publications in "classical" print media. What counts are a wide variety of digital channels such as online magazines, social media channels, forums, blogs, specialist portals, influencers and video platforms.

The reason: A few years ago, a company's target group could still be found in a few established media. Today, the online world is much more diffuse. This diversity is not only reflected in the different channels. The content must also adapt to the digital media. It is usually not enough to simply send a press release for print media to online media and hope for widespread distribution. Depending on the medium, Digital-PR needs to find individual approaches.

Digital-PR objectives: Who needs this? And what can you achieve with it?

Do we now all have to switch to Digital-PR? Not an easy question, as the associated effort should not be underestimated. There should, however, be a rethink, which does not change every PR department with its existing processes, but creates an awareness of the potentials of communication in new media and allows time and space for experiments.

Great Potentials that Online-PR brings:

• Virality: Multiplication effects are a powerful tool in online communication. Anyone can publish at any time, from established news magazines to private blogs or social accounts. Accordingly, news can also spread quickly. With the right content, you can use this to your advantage.
• Branding: He who searches finds – if Google users search for a company, they find a lot of information. Digital-PR makes an important contribution to what appears in the news, images and general search results for a brand.
• SEO: Speaking of Google: Here, users not only search for a brand, but also for inspirations, solutions to their problem, or general information. In order for your company to appear in the search engine, appropriate content on your own website is one thing, backlinks are the other. Because backlinks strengthen a domain and are among the most important ranking factors at Google. SEOs often do not have the contacts that PR representatives have, but long for links to their own page. Online-PR knows the value of links for search engine marketing and uses the contacts to set a link to its own website with every report.
• Social-Media: Social signals are an integral part of a Digital-PR strategy. Digital-PR is primarily concerned with signals "from outside", i.e. from other social media accounts. Because it's not just about developing a great Social-Media-Concept for your own channel. Online-PR encourages employees to use their reach for the company, can position itself in discussions in groups or industry-relevant magazines via comments and generate attention with hashtags.

In 5 steps to a digital PR strategy

As is often the case, it's not easy to outline a profitable path for so many potential channels, possible industries and different target groups. Nevertheless we try it with a relatively clear approach.

Step 1: Define Channels

First you should think about which media your target group consumes and which channels need to be in focus accordingly. This can be certain newspapers or magazines, but it can also be a thematic interpretation, for example "blogs and magazines on the topic of sustainability".

Even if you only define a thematic direction, you should now do some research and create a list of websites, social accounts, magazines and/or blogs that you want to contact. It's helpful to do this in the first step to get a feel for the media. Because in Digital-PR, it's all about individual address and appropriate content.

Step 2: What content works?

After your research, you will have an idea of what your target media writes about. Now you have to honestly ask yourself whether what you offer could be appropriate and provide added value. For example, if you want to present a product, it is often much too promotional and therefore uninteresting. However, you might also be able to place it within another format that is more exciting for media and your target group.

Here are some examples of content types that work well in Digital-PR:

• E-Books: Here you can present information and address a problem that your target group has. Ideally, you should have the e-book written by an independent expert who has a name in the industry and can create multiplication effects in Digital-PR as an influencer. A free download in this case offers a clear added value and in the case of Online-PR, readers do not have to accept a media break.
• Interactive Elements: In Digital-PR, you can take advantage of the design freedoms of a website. Design interactive graphics, maps or charts, not only in terms of content, but also visually at the highest level.
• Interviews: You have an exciting story to tell about your product? Or an exciting person within the company, such as the CEO? Interviews are formats that journalists like to pick up on.
• Guest Articles: Do you have experts from the company at hand, you can also offer guest articles. So you can not only determine the content, but it also saves the editorial staff a lot of work. Suggest exciting topics that are not promotional, but create awareness for your message.

Step 3: How do you offer your content?

Enough with always the same press releases: In Digital-PR, unique content is what counts, which you offer to journalists for reporting on your e-book or interactive graphic. Stand out from others with tailor-made ideas for a magazine and convince with unique content that complies with the rules of writing for online channels.

The rule of thumb is: Readers usually have less time and patience to read texts online. They skim, do not read chronologically and jump off quickly. Within seconds they decide whether content is relevant to them or not. So your content needs to grab attention right away. This is a crucial difference from print to online. Social-Media-Content has other rules again. Here, readers mainly want to see entertaining content that is "snackable".

Therefore observe the following rules in your content:

• The content must be precisely tailored to the magazine and its audience, both thematically and linguistically.
• Write short sentences, formulate actively and avoid nominalizations.
• Divide the content into short sections to give users easy navigation.
• Embed graphics to make your article more exciting and easier to consume.
• Integrate a link to your website to take SEO-Goals into account.

Step 4: Contact

If you already have a personal contact with the editors, that is of course the best case scenario. If not, then picking up the phone is an important tip (more on that in the next chapter). Ideally, you should also use a CRM system and say goodbye to Excel spreadsheets or similar tools. In this system, you can store your contacts, see the history of a medium, and set tasks. This way nothing is lost should someone leave the company.

Step 5: Monitoring

In the last step, it's all about monitoring. Digital PR tools obviously help a lot to evaluate PR measures. There you can use keywords to find relevant news and display important KPIs in clear dashboards: number of mentions, share of voice, reach, trends etc. Meltwater is, for example, a very popular tool for media monitoring. However, you can discover many more tools on OMR Reviews that can support your online PR strategy.

If you prefer not to spend money on tools because you're only planning a small initial Digital-PR campaign, you can simply google relevant keywords and see which magazines have picked you up. This method obviously involves a lot of manual work, but for a first test it could be a good, pragmatic solution.

How does Digital-PR work? 3 tips for implementing your strategy

There is no secret trick in Digital-PR, but these 3 tips will give you a good chance of success:

• Proactive Communication: Mass emails are hardly useful in the age of information overload. In everyday life, we rather long for an empty inbox than for new emails. Journalists and influencers in particular are often overwhelmed with inquiries. A phone call can make an important difference, as it is remembered and offers more of an opportunity for a personal relationship than an email. This way you can find a specific contact person, rather than sending it to a general email address.
• The Right Content: A press release in the classical sense is not sufficient in Online-PR. You can't simply transfer print content to online channels. Content must make use of digital possibilities and chances. In Digital-PR, it is always a good approach to develop a landing page specifically for PR purposes. Here you have much more design scope than in a press release and can stand out from other press representatives.
• Exchange and Networking: Other campaigns can benefit from the press contacts as well. Therefore, it is essential to network the competencies of different employees, learn from each other, create mutual understanding and work together towards common goals. Digital PR staff should therefore regularly exchange information with their colleagues to know what others are working on and to benefit from each other.

Conclusion: Digital-PR

Classical press work is still of incredible importance for the digital world. However, contents and processes have to adapt to the new forms of publication. It is more important than ever to create synergies between different departments. Because the valuable contacts a PR department makes with the press can also be helpful for events, SEO or other marketing campaigns. And the findings, works, and results of other departments may be an exciting story for the PR.