The Importance of PR in a digital world
In this blog I will outline why I feel PR is probably more important that it ever was.
There are lots of areas I understand about marketing and technology, but one area I really want to learn more about is PR or public relations as it is known as.
PR seemed to slow down around 2008 when the financial crash happened. I imagine it was one of the first things to go when budgets were being slashed?
But this was also around the time that social media was really starting to kick in a little. I think lots of people thought they were replacing PR with social media and in fact lots of PR people seemed to become social media consultants and that makes complete sense to me.
What I don't see many of now at networking events and marketing events is PR consultants. I think this is a mistake and here is why.
Social media in my mind is an essential business skill all professionals should understand. This is not something for the kids and despite many of us vowing to never go near it its now fundamental in most cases.
We have seen load so cases where social media goes wrong, someone either says something wrong or responds wrong and it creates lasting chaos. What I mean by lasting is that it is there forever in most cases, not that people are talking about it for very long but its still there.
Most people use social media to promote and connect. Many courses will talk about how to use it and what works and what doesn't. What I do not see is many talking about what to do when it all goes wrong. I am sure some do, I hope all do? Like I said PR is something I am not up to speed on and need to be. There are of course the other services that PR does like generating awareness and getting coverage where you needs and when.
So I believe that social media and PR should be hand in hand either through partnership or as a combined service?
A good example of this is a company I recently met call Little Bird PR from Bournemouth. These guys had some great examples of getting PR right and combining it with social media.
So I think this is an opportunity for both PR companies and Social media companies to work together form alliances and ensure that a potential issues arises or has arisen it can be dealt with in the best way. But also to find ways of working on clients together and getting the best of out both disciplines.
What do you guys think? Am I on to something here or talking nonsense?
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Author- Speaker - Consultant. Passionate about all things digital.