DIGITAL P.R: Faster connection for better communication

Public Relations in simple words is the practice of managing the communication between an organization and its publics. P.R can be used to build rapport with employees, customers, investors, voters, or the general public. Almost any organization that has a stake in how it is portrayed in the public arena employs some level of public relations.

“According to networking giant Cisco, India will have 348 million Internet users by 2017. Globally, by 2017, Internet users will swell to 3.6 billion, which will be

more than 48% of the world’s projected population of 7.6 billion.”The statistics above show that most of the stakeholder of any company is becoming digital-savvy and hence the company needs to have a digital P.R angle in the management of its communication.

What is Digital P.R?Digital PR is building presence on the internet and managing online reputation for brands and businesses. This can be done through various means such as social media, websites, blogging, and online media coverage. PR practitioners have a number of different resources at their disposal when it comes to building a brand's online reputation, and that social media forms an important part of this mix. Digital PR recognizes that the world, and how we digest information, is changing – and this is in part down to the rising use of the internet. With statistics showing that 36 million people in UK use Internet on a daily basis, you can reach a vast audience through online channels, meaning your news can spread further and faster than ever.

Important tools of Digital P.R: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION : Search engine is the top method for

finding information online. Keyword optimizing news content is a key device for digital PR professionals. News content that is ripe for optimization ranges from press releases to media coverage to digital assets such as images or video.  Optimizing news content for relevant and popular phrases can help that content rank well in the search engines. Improved search visibility helps marketing efforts; online reputation and it can attract analysts, journalists and bloggers researching your industry. 72% of P.R. agencies now offer SEO services in 2013 as opposed to the 19% offer in 2009 as stated by Public Relations Consultant Association.

SOCIAL MEDIA: According to a new e-Marketer report one in every four people in the world uses social media. Hence, understanding social media relations is an important part of a digital PR effort.  The audiences a company is trying to reach or influence are spending time on and being influenced by social media. Social participation in a digital PR program means connecting with and engaging influential and customers to perpetuate a positive brand image as well as identifying and empowering brand ambassadors.  Proactive content

optimization of social media content and building relationships with fans helps dispel negative brand attention and accentuate what’s positive. It is essential to be open with and useful to social communities and to adhere to both implicit and explicit ‘social rules’ rather than just dropping links to what you’re promoting. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the most common mediums used by companies to communicate. Dominos used the YouTube channel to deal with the crisis effectively when its employees posted dirty videos on the social media. In India one of the most famous Social Media P.R campaigns has been Narendra Modi’s Prime Ministerial campaign in 2014.

DIGITAL ASSETS : The video, audio, podcasts, images, and many other digital assets hosted on most company websites represent many opportunities for pull based PR.  Optimizing digital assets with relevant keywords and either promoting or submitting to vertical search engines like YouTube and Flickr can provide additional exposure to media that conduct online research as well as end customers. Company’s own websites are also an important tool as it reflects upon the company’s image and work. Coca Cola Company won the best website award in the PR Daily’s Digital P.R Award 2013. Online audience generally refer to the company’s website for any information which they require and if the website is not updated then it puts the company in a negative light.

BLOGGING: When done right, a company blog can be an incredible PR asset. A company blog is an opportunity for a brand to create and publish its own content to a relevant online audience of content creators. Well-optimized and linked blog posts can rank well in the search engines making them easy to find for journalists and bloggers researching stories. Blogger relations is often more successful when the company being pitched has its own blog to point to. For instance, various online clothing private labels

have their own blogs to communicate and disseminate news with their target audience.

SEARCH and SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING: With so many content creators online, the chance for both negative and positive brand mentions increases dramatically. Yet many tools exist to help the online PR pro effectively monitor brand reputation. Companies can set up free alerts using tools like Google Alerts, Social Mention or Twitter to watch for mentions of their brand name, competitors’ names, industry news, and important key names.  Social media monitoring data can be used to mine new ideas, keep tabs on competitors, identify brand ambassadors and address any negative press quickly and directly. Monitoring search engine rankings of news content can provide important feedback for news optimization efforts and provide insight into search traffic effectiveness.

The above-mentioned tools are required for creating the best digital environment in favor of the company. Currently, the top 10 providers of Digital Public Relations are: Ogilvy Public Relations Affect, New York Be Social PR, San Diego 451 Marketing, Boston Beautiful Planning, New York Miller PR, L.A Blast, Austin Roar Media, Florida Weber Shandwick, Chicago Lewis PR, Boston (source:

www.10BestPR.com)

BEST DIGITAL P.R WORKS:

Campaign 1: In 2007, Ogilvy PR used digital media to launch brand’s new French website for generating positive word-of-mouth among online influencers. They also got 40 French bloggers to write for the website provide feedback that could be integrated before the launch of the website. “326 emails exchanges, countless phone calls, and 28 informal interviews

later, we received a flood of positive feedback, including 35 posts in highly influential blogs featuring 100% positive and enthusiastic coverage of the site”

Campaign 2:Life can get messy, and some messes, spills, and stains aren’t that easy to clean up without a little bleach. That was the message behind Ketchum’s campaign for The Clorox Company: “Bleachable Moments,” designed to

raise awareness of Clorox Bleach among younger consumers. The campaign was a success—and it won Ketchum Best Digital PR Campaign for the Consumer sector in PR Daily’s 2013 Digital PR Awards.

Campaign 3:The nonprofit Explore Mars hired Phillips to get the world talking again about putting men on Mars. The launch of GetCurious.com on July 23, 2012—two weeks before the real landing on Mars coincided with the start of Phillips’ “Get Curious” publicity drive. GetCurious.com featured a “countdown to landing” clock, daily briefs on NASA MSL (Mars Science Lab) mission updates, videos provided by NASA, and a poll that asked visitors for their opinion on human missions to Mars. Phillips’ analytics for the July 23-August 8, 2012 period showed: More than 182, 600 site views for GetCurious.com.

Campaign 4

Company: Face Place, skin care clinic in Los Angeles

Campaign: Twitter hash tag campaign in honor of Mother’s Day.

Brand Objective: Highlight user-generated content with a fun approach and build awareness around the Face Place services and products using ” social media and influencers.”

Execution: The PR Agency made sure that the hash tag was included in the title of the press release. This way, when the press release was posted to twitter, the hash tag was activated, which made it easy for the agency to see who aggregated the press release. Along with Face Place Twitter followers, the campaign was also shared with various beauty bloggers inviting them to share their tips using the hash tag.

How Digital PR helped this campaign?

Use of social media platform, twitter, helped Face Place to initiate positive interactions with it’s customers and also with influential online personalities like beauty bloggers who created enough buzz among online communities about the brand and it’s offerings. The digital press release also generated a lot of coverage

as it was picked up by a lot of online sources, resulting in the campaign’s success.

Campaign 5

Company: Southwest Airlines

Campaign Objective: To increase the sales using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools and online press release with hotlinks.

Execution: The Public Relations team used online tools such as Wordtracker.com and Overture's bidding research tool to find out what terms consumers tend to search for. While 12,000 searches were conducted for "cheap airline tickets" on an average day, more than 51,000 searches were conducted for the term “cheap airfare.”

Two of the terms that were most popular were Southwest and Southwest Airlines.

The team wrote a standard press release, seamlessly including specific search terms (such as "cheap airfare") in the headline and several times in the body copy, especially in the first paragraph. Many online newsreaders don't scroll all the way to the bottom of the press release to find a clickable link or response number, thus Southwest made it easier for them

by routinely including a hotlink at the end of the first paragraph of each optimized press release.These unique links were trackable, so the PR team could tell how many people clicked on them and what actions they took on the site (including purchasing).

Southwest used their standard wire services, such as PR Newswire or Business Wire, to send out the tweaked releases.

How Digital PR helped this campaign?

Southwest was able to directly track more than $1.5 million in online ticket sales to optimized press releases. Since the marketing release about low fares was the only optimized release, it showed up above the rest at the very top of results. Since top links are 50-150% more likely to be clicked on than #2 links are, the marketing

release was more widely read and acted upon.

Campaign 6

Company: Domino’s Pizza

Campaign: Manage a viral video nightmare (Crisis Management)

Challenge: Domino's Pizza corporate office received a notice from Consumerist.com for a video in which, two Domino's store employees were seen joking around as they contaminated customer food orders with unsanitary stunts such as sticking cheese up their noses before adding it to a customer's sandwich. It was a nightmare for Domino's as over the past 49 years, the company has built a

reputation as a trusted doorstep delivery business. Domino's learnt of the video after it had been posted to YouTube and several other sites.

How Digital PR helped in Crisis Management?

The company's PR team immediately contacted YouTube for the video to be removed. The company responded with a posted statement on its website and by entering the conversation on Twitter and directing users to that post on its site.

Three days after the original incident, Domino's posted its own video to YouTube which used no script, featuring company president Patrick Doyle addressing the issue, calmly and sincerely venting his anger and reiterating how sacred the company holds its customers' trust. The company then posted links to its video on Twitter and on its Facebook page wall.

This propelled the story into mainstream global media and the company reckoned 60 million media impressions. It was fortunate for Domino's that it already had a PR team in place who used social media to respond as needed.

Campaign 7

Campaign: ALS’ Ice Bucket Challenge

Challenge: Charity ALS started a small-scale Internet challenge, which aimed to

support those afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), a motor neurone disease that affects around 5,000 people in the UK.

Pete Frates, a baseball player who was diagnosed with ALS two years ago, started the ‘Ice Bucket challenge’. The challenge works with a participant (either a volunteer or someone who has been challenged) films himself dumping a bucket of ice water on his head. The dunkee then challenges a friend to do the same in the name of ALS, within 24 hours, and/or donate to the cause.

How Digital PR helped the campaign?

This campaign went VIRAL with 2.4 million ice bucket-related videos posted on Facebook, and 3.7 million videos uploaded on image sharing website Instagram with the hashtags #ALSicebucketchallenge and #icebucketchallenge. The ALS Association website had 4.5 billion visits and the ice bucket challenge had 4,483,726 Twitter mentions.

Not only was this PR Campaign successful in raising $ 70.2 million for the cause but also in spreading awareness about this disease ALS and the non-profit organization. What got this campaign even more mileage was that it could garner the participation of well-known celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama and Bill Gates among the many.

This PR Campaign succeeded due to building fan engagement, using celebrities and athletes as multipliers, using multi-platform strategy and connecting the sentiments of the public with a noble cause.

As seen in the case studies above, Digital PR lays emphasis on building branded content, social communities and digital media and blogger relations, having content partnerships and online visibility, maintaining relationships with influencers, evangelists and brand ambassadors, creating visual content, monitoring conversations online and protecting the image and reputation on social media channels.