The relative shift in priority between online and offline PR.
11/01/2011
The PR industry has seen dramatic change in recent years with the key opinion formers moving online. This means there is now a significant shift in the relative importance of online and offline PR, and of the skills required to successfully execute a PR campaign.
What is PR?
PR (Public Relations) is about building up your reputation. It establishes your credibility and ensures you or your brand or products are seen in a particular way (your marketing message).
Traditional Offline PR
Offline PR is a very people based and relationship based discipline. It is not what you know, but who you know. The techniques include articles within print (press, magazines, trade journals), TV and radio interviews, conference and key note speakers and networking. This requires access to good copy writers, but primarily good networking skills and a large amount of experience.
Online PR
Online PR is about being seen and influencing audiences on the Internet through social media, and search optimised websites or pages. It requires good copy writing skills, but an excellent grasp of search engine optimisation and how to influence the news editors via the Internet.
News Agencies
Not too long ago the news agencies worked with news reporters and journalists found stories for the printed publication. A small team then placed this online. The situation now is totally different, with online media leading the way. Most journalistic research is carried out online, so online PR has immediately become the key player.
The first place to establish your PR should now be online, with offline PR taking second place.
Cornish WebServices provide online PR as part of their Internet marketing provision. For higher value search marketing contracts this occurs naturally as part of the work. This is because search engine optimisation and online PR are so closely tied together you cannot do one without the other. We have noticed a shift in the online PR leading the way and the offline PR following by taking online material and re-using offline.
