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What is digital PR?

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TopLine Communications
TopLine Communications

Answering the question - What is digital PR? Here we breakdown this loaded question into it's official definition, that activities it involves, how to measure the success of these activities and who should be in charge of your digital PR. If you have any more questions, please feel free to contact us at https://toplinecomms.com/contact

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What is digital PR? Luke Budka Head of Digital PR and SEO at TopLine Comms
Definition Digital PR is the use of online trusted, independent, unbiased, third parties to positively influence a brand’s target audience.
But what does that mean?
Traditionally, there have been two approaches: Old school PR agencies releasing the print media landscape is much smaller than is used to be. Solution? Launching “digital PR” pages on their websites and social channels. Social media = digital PR, right? SEO, SEO, SEO! Promoted by SEO agencies, they consider digital PR to encompass everything from citation building, to generating backlinks and outreach activities. More links pointing to your site from third party sites = success, no? OPTION 1 OPTION 2
There’s also a third approach… And our personal favourite. Brand awareness – it’s less about what digital PR is and more about why it’s important. It involves increasing your organic search engine rankings (i.e. on which page and where you appear on a Google search). This is a direct result of your click through rate (from your SEO efforts) and the quality of the publications mentioning your brand (and their contextual relevance).
So what are the activities involved behind Brand Awareness?
So what are the activities involved behind Brand Awareness? As any good B2B PR agency will say, the answer is debateable, but we can all agree that is would be a series of specific activities.
So what are the activities involved behind Brand Awareness? As any good B2B PR agency will say, the answer is debateable, but we can all agree that is would be a series of specific activities. But which ones?
In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing
But, in order to avoid getting to broad, I’ve applied the following statement: All PR, online and offline, has to involve the use of a trusted, independent, unbiased, third party. Leaving the following activities controlled by the brand, and the brand alone.
In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing Brand-only Awareness • Social media influencer relations • SEO • Online article placement (including reviews) In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing Brand-only Awareness • Social media influencer relations • SEO • Online article placement (including reviews)
In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing Brand-only Awareness • Social media influencer relations • SEO • Online article placement (including reviews) Doesn’t that look much more manageable?
Ok that’s good… now what?
Ok that’s good…now what? • How do we measure the results of these activities? • What key performance indicators (KPIs) can we apply? • How can we compare our outputs vs the outcomes?
Ok that’s good…now what? Remember - A good digital PR result is therefore anything that positively influences a brand’s social media or organic search profiles, or any positive online media coverage.
Let’s take each of our activities and see what KPIs we can apply
Let’s take each of our activities and see what KPIs we can apply The trick is to put yourself in your client’s shoes…what questions would they be asking you of your efforts? How can you define the difference in your outputs and outcomes? • Do you more retweets matter? (NO) • Does ranking highly for keywords that don’t drive traffic and leads count? (NO)
Social media influencer relations: Here are some examples of digital PR KPIs for this activity: • Have you increased your client’s target audience community size? • Are you driving traffic from social channels to your client’s website? • Have you created new brand advocates? • Are posts about your client being shared by relevant social communities/influencers?
SEO: Here are some examples of digital PR KPIs for this activity: • How many links have you built? • How are you ranking for keywords? • Have you managed to increase traffic from search engines to your client’s website? • Is increased organic traffic resulting in more leads?
Online article placement (including reviews): Here are some examples of digital PR KPIs for this activity: • Have you got your client more positive coverage that their competitors? • Have you secured your client coverage in tier one online media targets? • Have their key messages been pulled through into media coverage? • Have you secured good reviews on sites that rank highly for keywords the target audience will be searching for? • Have you seen an increase in referral traffic from online article placement
So now you have your KPIs, here’s the big questions…
So now you have your KPIs, here’s the big questions… How do you measure the success of digital PR?
How do you measure the success of digital PR? Public relations has typically struggled because it’s hard to measure its contribution to a business’s bottom line. Interestingly digital PR doesn’t suffer the same problem. Anything that’s directly responsible for increasing website traffic and conversions is very valuable to a business and something they’ll continue to pay for.
How do you measure the success of digital PR? Traditional PR agencies that are confident enough to leave outdated PR metrics in the past where they belong, will often suggest PR success measurement is based on how well the business is performing. But by that logic if revenue and profit is down, then PR has failed. However, this isn’t always the case. The PR campaign may have been excellent at raising awareness with a target demographic but that demographic may have not been the right target audience for the brand, or it was the right target audience, but that audience wasn’t ready to buy.
How do you measure the success of digital PR? By contrast, measuring the effectiveness of digital PR is relatively straightforward, especially if you have access to the following tools:
Google Analytics Using Google Analytics enables you to measure (amongst other things): • Organic traffic levels • Referral traffic from media websites • Referral traffic from social networks • Source and medium of client website goal completions • Type of user your client’s website is attracting
Keyword tracking software – i.e. Moz At the high end of the SEO spectrum you have tools like Moz which will help you track your keywords and give you access to a wide range of SEO tools, like Open Site Explorer, that come in very handy when running SEO campaigns. On the other hand, if you are primarily interested in plain old keyword tracking then you won’t go far wrong with a product like Authority Labs.
Social software While social tracking tools like SharedCount have been used in the past to track all social sharing from major social platforms, their effectiveness is now limited as it has no access to Twitter and LinkedIn and limited Facebook access. Truth is the best way to do this is to set up social tracking in Google Analytics — Hootsuite’s guide is perfect for beginners.
Now that you have the tools to measure your success, let’s revise our definition of digital PR…
Now that you have the tools to measure your success, let’s revise our definition of digital PR… “Digital PR is the use of online trusted, independent, unbiased, third parties to positively influence a brand’s target audience.”
How does this all fit into your marketing strategy?
How does this all fit into your marketing strategy? Good question! To answer this you need to ask another question: what is your digital strategy?
How does this all fit into your marketing strategy? • If your audience is millennials or Gen Z and your strategy is ‘Be where they are’ then social media will be an important channel, and brand ambassadors promoting products a great tactic. • If, however, your strategy is ‘Get them when they’re ready to spend’ then SEO will key along with PPC and other point of purchase marketing disciplines.
How does this all fit into your marketing strategy? • If your audience is millennials or Gen Z and your strategy is ‘Be where they are’ then social media will be an important channel, and brand ambassadors promoting products a great tactic. • If, however, your strategy is ‘Get them when they’re ready to spend’ then SEO will key along with PPC and other point of purchase marketing disciplines. Identifying your target audience is key!
And finally…
And finally… How do you pick a good digital PR agency?
How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Now the tricky bit; how to pick a digital PR agency. Questions you can ask any prospective digital PR partners include the ones I’ve detailed as subheadings above.
How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Now the tricky bit; how to pick a digital PR agency. Questions you can ask any prospective digital PR partners include the ones I’ve detailed as subheadings above. But I’m not the law and their answers don’t need to be identical to mine, just logical.
How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Armed with the knowledge from this blog you should be able to have a fairly informed conversation with any ‘digital PR’ agency and confidently ask the question: What is digital PR?
How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Armed with the knowledge from this blog you should be able to have a fairly informed conversation with any ‘digital PR’ agency and confidently ask the question: What is digital PR? TIP: If you’re not 100% clear on what they’re proposing then ask them again or drop them then and there; it’ll save you explaining to the board what you’ve spent the marketing budget on at a later date!
Thank you! If you’d like some more information on digital PR, or advice specific to your business, drop the author of this blog post, Luke a line. He’d be happy to help.

More Related Content

What is digital PR?

  • 1. What is digital PR? Luke Budka Head of Digital PR and SEO at TopLine Comms
  • 2. Definition Digital PR is the use of online trusted, independent, unbiased, third parties to positively influence a brand’s target audience.
  • 4. Traditionally, there have been two approaches: Old school PR agencies releasing the print media landscape is much smaller than is used to be. Solution? Launching “digital PR” pages on their websites and social channels. Social media = digital PR, right? SEO, SEO, SEO! Promoted by SEO agencies, they consider digital PR to encompass everything from citation building, to generating backlinks and outreach activities. More links pointing to your site from third party sites = success, no? OPTION 1 OPTION 2
  • 5. There’s also a third approach… And our personal favourite. Brand awareness – it’s less about what digital PR is and more about why it’s important. It involves increasing your organic search engine rankings (i.e. on which page and where you appear on a Google search). This is a direct result of your click through rate (from your SEO efforts) and the quality of the publications mentioning your brand (and their contextual relevance).
  • 6. So what are the activities involved behind Brand Awareness?
  • 7. So what are the activities involved behind Brand Awareness? As any good B2B PR agency will say, the answer is debateable, but we can all agree that is would be a series of specific activities.
  • 8. So what are the activities involved behind Brand Awareness? As any good B2B PR agency will say, the answer is debateable, but we can all agree that is would be a series of specific activities. But which ones?
  • 9. In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing
  • 10. But, in order to avoid getting to broad, I’ve applied the following statement: All PR, online and offline, has to involve the use of a trusted, independent, unbiased, third party. Leaving the following activities controlled by the brand, and the brand alone.
  • 11. In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing Brand-only Awareness • Social media influencer relations • SEO • Online article placement (including reviews) In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing Brand-only Awareness • Social media influencer relations • SEO • Online article placement (including reviews)
  • 12. In terms of traditional Brand Awareness, this includes… Traditional Brand Awareness • Social media influencer relations • Social media advertising • SEO • Online article placement • Blogging • PPC • Video production • Inbound marketing • Review generation • Email marketing Brand-only Awareness • Social media influencer relations • SEO • Online article placement (including reviews) Doesn’t that look much more manageable?
  • 14. Ok that’s good…now what? • How do we measure the results of these activities? • What key performance indicators (KPIs) can we apply? • How can we compare our outputs vs the outcomes?
  • 15. Ok that’s good…now what? Remember - A good digital PR result is therefore anything that positively influences a brand’s social media or organic search profiles, or any positive online media coverage.
  • 16. Let’s take each of our activities and see what KPIs we can apply
  • 17. Let’s take each of our activities and see what KPIs we can apply The trick is to put yourself in your client’s shoes…what questions would they be asking you of your efforts? How can you define the difference in your outputs and outcomes? • Do you more retweets matter? (NO) • Does ranking highly for keywords that don’t drive traffic and leads count? (NO)
  • 18. Social media influencer relations: Here are some examples of digital PR KPIs for this activity: • Have you increased your client’s target audience community size? • Are you driving traffic from social channels to your client’s website? • Have you created new brand advocates? • Are posts about your client being shared by relevant social communities/influencers?
  • 19. SEO: Here are some examples of digital PR KPIs for this activity: • How many links have you built? • How are you ranking for keywords? • Have you managed to increase traffic from search engines to your client’s website? • Is increased organic traffic resulting in more leads?
  • 20. Online article placement (including reviews): Here are some examples of digital PR KPIs for this activity: • Have you got your client more positive coverage that their competitors? • Have you secured your client coverage in tier one online media targets? • Have their key messages been pulled through into media coverage? • Have you secured good reviews on sites that rank highly for keywords the target audience will be searching for? • Have you seen an increase in referral traffic from online article placement
  • 21. So now you have your KPIs, here’s the big questions…
  • 22. So now you have your KPIs, here’s the big questions… How do you measure the success of digital PR?
  • 23. How do you measure the success of digital PR? Public relations has typically struggled because it’s hard to measure its contribution to a business’s bottom line. Interestingly digital PR doesn’t suffer the same problem. Anything that’s directly responsible for increasing website traffic and conversions is very valuable to a business and something they’ll continue to pay for.
  • 24. How do you measure the success of digital PR? Traditional PR agencies that are confident enough to leave outdated PR metrics in the past where they belong, will often suggest PR success measurement is based on how well the business is performing. But by that logic if revenue and profit is down, then PR has failed. However, this isn’t always the case. The PR campaign may have been excellent at raising awareness with a target demographic but that demographic may have not been the right target audience for the brand, or it was the right target audience, but that audience wasn’t ready to buy.
  • 25. How do you measure the success of digital PR? By contrast, measuring the effectiveness of digital PR is relatively straightforward, especially if you have access to the following tools:
  • 26. Google Analytics Using Google Analytics enables you to measure (amongst other things): • Organic traffic levels • Referral traffic from media websites • Referral traffic from social networks • Source and medium of client website goal completions • Type of user your client’s website is attracting
  • 27. Keyword tracking software – i.e. Moz At the high end of the SEO spectrum you have tools like Moz which will help you track your keywords and give you access to a wide range of SEO tools, like Open Site Explorer, that come in very handy when running SEO campaigns. On the other hand, if you are primarily interested in plain old keyword tracking then you won’t go far wrong with a product like Authority Labs.
  • 28. Social software While social tracking tools like SharedCount have been used in the past to track all social sharing from major social platforms, their effectiveness is now limited as it has no access to Twitter and LinkedIn and limited Facebook access. Truth is the best way to do this is to set up social tracking in Google Analytics — Hootsuite’s guide is perfect for beginners.
  • 29. Now that you have the tools to measure your success, let’s revise our definition of digital PR…
  • 30. Now that you have the tools to measure your success, let’s revise our definition of digital PR… “Digital PR is the use of online trusted, independent, unbiased, third parties to positively influence a brand’s target audience.”
  • 31. How does this all fit into your marketing strategy?
  • 32. How does this all fit into your marketing strategy? Good question! To answer this you need to ask another question: what is your digital strategy?
  • 33. How does this all fit into your marketing strategy? • If your audience is millennials or Gen Z and your strategy is ‘Be where they are’ then social media will be an important channel, and brand ambassadors promoting products a great tactic. • If, however, your strategy is ‘Get them when they’re ready to spend’ then SEO will key along with PPC and other point of purchase marketing disciplines.
  • 34. How does this all fit into your marketing strategy? • If your audience is millennials or Gen Z and your strategy is ‘Be where they are’ then social media will be an important channel, and brand ambassadors promoting products a great tactic. • If, however, your strategy is ‘Get them when they’re ready to spend’ then SEO will key along with PPC and other point of purchase marketing disciplines. Identifying your target audience is key!
  • 36. And finally… How do you pick a good digital PR agency?
  • 37. How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Now the tricky bit; how to pick a digital PR agency. Questions you can ask any prospective digital PR partners include the ones I’ve detailed as subheadings above.
  • 38. How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Now the tricky bit; how to pick a digital PR agency. Questions you can ask any prospective digital PR partners include the ones I’ve detailed as subheadings above. But I’m not the law and their answers don’t need to be identical to mine, just logical.
  • 39. How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Armed with the knowledge from this blog you should be able to have a fairly informed conversation with any ‘digital PR’ agency and confidently ask the question: What is digital PR?
  • 40. How do you pick a good digital PR agency? Armed with the knowledge from this blog you should be able to have a fairly informed conversation with any ‘digital PR’ agency and confidently ask the question: What is digital PR? TIP: If you’re not 100% clear on what they’re proposing then ask them again or drop them then and there; it’ll save you explaining to the board what you’ve spent the marketing budget on at a later date!
  • 41. Thank you! If you’d like some more information on digital PR, or advice specific to your business, drop the author of this blog post, Luke a line. He’d be happy to help.