Traditional PR to Digital PR: the evolution
By: Sophie Moore | Senior Digital Planner
Public relations. It all started 120 years ago. Of course, there are many early forms of public communication in history we could chatter about, (and that could probably spark a little debate amongst media types on a slow night at Soho House), but according to Wikipedia, the first “Publicity Bureau establishment” was registered in 1900. So, we’ll begin there for the start of Traditional PR.
Before we get into the evolution of the Public Relations industry, here’s a quick summary to the differences between digital and traditional PR.
Traditional PR vs Digital PR
Traditional PR uses conventional channels, including print television, radio, and magazines to increase brand awareness. Whereas digital PR utilises online methods, such as websites, social media, influencer marketing, blogging, email marketing, and link building for SEO.
Let’s take a look at the evolution of Traditional PR and Digital PR, and for our final Springer thought, explain why we’re rather big fans of today’s Digital PR, which makes sense as we’re a Digital PR agency.
It all started with print
Traditional PR, at the beginning, was focussed in print. Newspapers, local papers, newsletters and lifestyle magazines. This is how audiences were consuming information at the time. And, they were captive too.
Then, just a few years later, there was the introduction of new earned channels which were in the broadcast arena. For clarity, commercial radio and T.V.
The mission for PR’s (just like today) was to build brand awareness and communicate their key messages to target audiences. And the output from PR’s then (also a lot like it is today), covered media relations, press release distribution, product and service launches, crisis and reputation management. Only then, in hardcopy form.
Fast forward to the nineties
With the introduction of the world wide web, communicating to certain audiences in new earned spaces like online media titles and social media sites, PR began to adapt.
How PR’s had to sell-in their stories adapted too. For a brief moment we were using fax machines, but then a good friend of ours, Andrew Bruce Smith, claims he was the second person in Britain to send a press release by email. It was 1990 and he was just beaten to the punch by Frank O’Mahoney, the UK PR Manager for Apple, at the time.
And, it was the end of the 1990’s, a rumoured new search engine, Google came onto the online scene.
Today, on average, we spend 3 hours a day online
The digital revolution has brought the ability to share an abundance of news, around the globe and, via lots of online channels. Including, but certainly not limited to (as the channel list is ever-growing), online media titles, social media websites, influencers, bloggers, podcasts. This in turn has meant PR has gone through a dramatic change, particularly in the last decade.
If we are going to earn attention for our brands (and by that we mean visibility via online search), these digital channels are where brand stories need to be seen.
And, to make sure those stories are performing for a brands online authority objective, we need to keep measuring. Luckily, for all of us PR geeks, the insights these digital platforms provide, mean that we can continually track results.
How the role of digital PR has evolved
The skillset of building and nurturing relationships with influential media peeps, to secure written features and land product content has, and will, remain the consistent thread in the approach to PR, whether it be traditional or digital. But there are some considerable differences when applying digital PR to your brands comms strategy.
INSIGHT
Today’s consumer wants to be able to connect with a brand in a meaningful way. If you don’t make the effort to do so, for sure there is plenty of other competition in your sector that will.
Using free online tools like Google Trends and Answer the Public can give insight into what audiences want to know about, and what currently matters to them the most. Use this insight to help answer their questions, and to help inform the future stories you tell as a brand.
If you’re brand name pops up on Google time and time again answering these trending questions, then you will be default, be raising awareness of your brand.
People are more likely to share trending content with their friends and family too.
SEO
Your website acts as a content hub for your brand. The wealth of information you provide on your site will be the reason that audiences want to visit you, and the reason journalists will want to link to you.
Gaining quality backlinks from high DA media to your website is still considered to be one of the biggest parts of Google’s ranking algorithm. The higher up the page your website is, the more traffic you will generate.
Ultimately, we’re creating the join through storytelling by hosting the content onsite as well as having our brands name attached to the media story.
CONTENT FORMATS
Unlike a traditional press release that lands a one-off piece of print coverage, with digital PR you have the option to take one story and re-purpose it in loads of different content formats to appeal to loads of different people.
It would be silly to think that one target audience consume content in the same way and a good digital PR will have insight on the nuances of their target audience, including how they use , and consume stories, on different online platforms
Consider listicles, how to guides, whitepapers, social posts and infographics.
EARNED CHANNELS
In contrast to traditional PR, where a PR's focus is limited to print and broadcast, digital PR offers multiple channels to secure your stories, and so for your audience to see your content.
Including online media websites, blogs, influencers, social, podcasts. And through social media and influencers, you have the invaluable ability to converse directly with your customers.
‘COPE’ is everything when it comes to digital PR.
PUBLISHERS
Target publishers are no longer just about those big national printed newspaper owners. Google’s beady eye is looking for brands who have backlinks, or implied links, from a mix of high quality DA sites.
A perfect example could include the online media platforms for Daily Telegraph, The Scotsman, Harpers Bazaar and The High Low.
EDITORS
The wave of social media has allowed everyone to become a journalist. Whether a news desk editor, a blogger or an influencer. These editors are another way to share brand and product news on social, beyond the known-name media titles.
Being ‘friends’ with these editors on social platforms also means you can keep on the pulse with what stories they want to tell, so you can put your brand/product in front of them immediately.
MEASURABILITY
Unlike its analogue ancestor (where the only way to measure was with a ridiculous thing called AVE), there’s no problem in measuring digital PR.
You can blend KPIs and first review immediate performance, and then how it trends over time.
For example, short-term you may want to look at number of pieces of coverage linking back to a website, quality of those referring links and number of views of the website.
Long-term, you can look at organic traffic volumes and branded search too.
And, develop outreach technique for your next PR campaign, with learnings from your last.
PR has a long history. But with today’s suite of digital tactics - from link building, to content marketing, social media, influencer marketing - the opportunity for communicating your brand to audiences is pretty damn big.