Although it may seem unlikely at first, public relations and marketing go hand in hand. Here’s why. Both of these concepts share an essential core similarity. They focus on gaining exposure through the sharing information about a brand, person, product or service. Ever since the rise of the digital era the approach to public relations has changed a little. But before we get into why PR is as important as it ever was, let’s take a moment to examine what public relations mean.
What Does Public Relations Mean?
In simple terms, public relations is about getting people to talk (share information) about something in a positive light. This can refer to a person, a group of people (like a sports team or cast of a movie), a brand, business, product or service. Public relations works to generate and manage the sharing of this information.
While public relations and marketing share the goal of sharing information with an audience the difference between them is that PR creates free coverage. PR does this by using relevant topics of interest or news items that don’t require payment.
Why Public Relations Is Important In 2019
The main aim of public relations has always remained constant–to create and maintain a positive view of a client in the eyes of the public. PR specialists generally work for marketing and public relations firms, or for directly for a particular organization, business or person. For the purpose of this blog, we’re just going to concentrate on PR in relation to business.
These days PR activities are considered to form part of the digital marketing strategy of any organization. A good example of PR in digital marketing would be creating content (like an article or blog post) featuring a popular brand as opposed to paying for an advert that appears next to unrelated content.
For any business visibility, reputation and credibility are an essential life force of its digital marketing strategy. These valuable, yet intangible assets, are achieved by how your audience, customers, associates, competitors see you. This is why the reputation of your business needs to managed by people who know what they’re doing. Luckily that’s were public relations comes in.
How PR Fits Into Digital Marketing
The PR landscape may be changing but that doesn’t mean the craft is any less important than it was before the world of digital sort of took over our lives. With the flood of information available today, the importance of effective and proper communication is essential to digital marketing.
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Managing Social Media
It isn’t enough to just exist on social media. And while managing to gain loads of followers and likes is a good way to get noticed, it’s meaningless if your social presence isn’t conveying the right message. With the guidance of a PR specialist, you can take your social media presence to the next level.
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Reputation Management
Having a good reputation is of the utmost importance to anyone, especially in business. Unfortunately, in today’s world, the spread of misinformation and fake news is something that’s a very real cause for concern. The best way to handle this sort of thing is to get ahead of it with good PR.
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Relationship Building
Developing strong relationships has always been at the core of public relations. While the methods may have changed a little over the years, networking is still the best way to build good relationships in business. With social networking sites like LinkedIn being one of the best methods to connect with professionals, good PR can help to represent your brand in the best possible way in order to create and maintain strong professional relationships.
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Media Relations
It’s important for businesses to have a good relationship with the media. In public relations, managing your relationship with the media isn’t just about your brand reputation. Public relations professionals are also tasked with the creation and distribution of press releases, pitching stories to various media outlets (print, television, podcasts, radio, etc). It also involves giving feedback to journalists when required.
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Managing Content
In digital marketing content is everything. Good public relations can be an invaluable asset when it comes to content creation. This is because the type of content you create has a direct effect on how people see your brand. Every time content is created under the banner of your brand it has a direct impact on your reputation. Blog posts, newsletters, email blasts, videos, and social media posts need to be managed to ensure that the message you’re sending is always in the appropriate context and fits with an overall message of your brand.
