When we talk about online Public relations(PR) what comes in our mind is that it is how we communicate with everyone in the digital world and maintain the reputation of our site, but online PR is a lot more than that. It is more or less similar to traditional PR but Online PR uses the different internet tools to make relations and communicate with potential and existing customers ,the goal is to influence them through the internet .
Online PR refers to the use of various internet tools to communicate with potential and existing customers as well as with the public, influencing more and more people through the internet.
It uses a wide range of tools and strategies that help your business to reach a wider audience and gain more potential clients digitally. Generally, when ever people mention traditional PR, they are refer to the non digital media like Radio, TV Ads, newspapers, and magazines. These traditional media strategies still remain a target but now with online PR the target expands to online world ,search engines ,social media platform etc.
There are various internet tools that you can use for Online PR
- Discussion threads
- Social Media
- Press releases
- Blogs
- Forums
- Search Engines
- Online media kits
- Wire services (PR Web, Business Wire)
Online Public Relations has a lot of Purposes that it fulfills, It helps you manage and monitor your brand’s reputation, It influences your online community /audience, When you influence the thinking of your internet audience you change their Thinking ,Behaviour and sentiments with the help of a proper online PR.
As for reputation management, Today’s consumers are not compliant users of your products. Like the old time’s the consumers won’t sit silently if some wrongdoing has been done by any company, and even a single reputation can get your company goes down in seconds. This is where online Public relation helps the most, you will have to give timely responses to any negative comments that you observe online ,the more time you let the negative comment be unanswered the more time you give the customer to ruin your company. With the help of social networking sites, blogs, discussion threads or forums, you can easily take action. You can apologise for whatever the issue was about and ensure to your customers that it will not be repeated .
There are a few important resources that you have to keep in mind before undertaking your online PR campaign
- Make sure you hire a skilled PR manager, because this task is a make or break for your company and should be handled by the best. There are a lot of people who have taken up Careers in Digital marketing from top universities, and have the best knowledge and experience when it comes to Online PR.
- Make sure to have software such as Google Alert and blogpulse.com
- Keep conducting researches on any possible story so your PR personnel knows what will be best in that situation.
In online PR, you’ll be changing the views ,thinking and opinion of your online viewers through various strategies.
If done properly, the result will be a really great deal for your company and would help in a lot of things. You go further to create a bond between you and your client.
