A look at PR in 2013

Public  relations is a very different beast than it was five years ago, never mind ten or fifteen. With the rise of the internet as a means of accessing news, not least on mobile devices, PR professionals have had to adapt to ensure their campaigns reflect this. Also, with social media continuing to play an increasingly vital role within PR, and journalists’ desire to deliver something unique to their readers, PR specialists need to be prepared to understand multiple channels and go the extra mile.

News on the go

Whilst newspapers used to be the main resource for news, this is now not the case. Despite this, print coverage remains a priority for many brands, however, attaining online results is equally as important (if not more), not least because of the SEO benefits, and that the news can easily be shared. PR consultants are therefore ensuring they build strong relationships with online publications that have a high page rank, an app and an RSS feed as it’s important that coverage is as accessible as possible to audience members who consume their news online, on the go and without hassle.

A look at PR in 2013

Image Credit : techtrickpoint.com

Socially available

Social media allows audiences to share published content with a click, or a finger tap, helping to extend the reach. Understanding social media and having a social presence allows brands to target their own fans, but it’s also key to target publications that have a strong social following as many magazines, newspapers and blogs will share a proportion of articles on a daily basis. In addition to building online presence, social networks can be used to identify bloggers and influencers to reach out to with news or just to build relationships. Twitter has become particularly of value to the PR industry as conversations can be followed through hashtags and @mentions as well as searches on key words allowing relevant influencers and reporters to be easily identified. Plus, as inboxes get increasingly overloaded, tweeting journalists to find out if they are interested in a story can sometimes deliver surprising results. For example, recently the editor in chief of Mashable retweeted a story of mine to his 55,000 followers; whilst not traditional PR coverage, that’s not a bad circulation figure!

Personalised delivery

Public relations consultants understand that the publications they pitch to simultaneously receive stories from, sometimes hundreds of, other sources. Also, reporters know that the news is being sent to a number of others in the same area of interest and it’s not good practice to blanket email everyone at once. Tailor the pitch, whether via email, a phone call or Twitter according to the publication or journalist’s interest and prove how a particular angle is relevant to them and their readers. Offering exclusive content for a particular publication can also bring amazing results and ensuring you have a suite of images or an interesting video can increase the likelihood of the story standing out and being used.

Whilst the fundaments of PR remain the same, the approach has evolved to reflect how people access news. Ask me this time next year, or in another five, and I’ll bet best practices have moved on again…

Author Bio

This Guest post is written by Keredy Andrews.  She is an account director at PR, social media and SEO agency Punch Communications, serving a range of global clients. She has over ten years’ experience in communications, marketing and events, and regularly contributes industry insight to websites, including the Punch Communications blog.

Follow Keredy Andrews Google Plus  Twitter

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