What is Digital PR? Digital PR is short for Digital Public Relations, but that doesn’t just mean using a computer for public relations!
Digital PR is a specific discipline that applies traditional PR strategies and tactics to online channels in a measurable way. As people increasingly turn to online sources for both news and entertainment, working with an experienced Digital PR agency is critical for increasing your visibility and reach online.
What Is Digital PR?
Digital PR combines traditional public relations tactics with digital marketing best practices, applying them to online channels with the goal of increasing brand awareness, visibility, and engagement in a measurable way.
Some of the traditional PR tactics used in Digital PR include creating press releases, building relationships with journalists and influencers, organizing interviews and media availabilities, sponsorship opportunities, and crisis communications.
Digital PR pairs those tactics with tested digital marketing practices like search engine optimization, link building, content marketing, and influencer marketing.
To help you better understand that, I’ll dig into some specific examples of how traditional PR and digital marketing combine to create a successful Digital PR strategy. Then, I’ll give examples of how Digital PR tackles a pair of common PR tactics – press releases and newsjacking.
Digital PR vs. Traditional PR: How is Digital PR Different from Traditional PR?
When answering the question “What is Digital PR,” it is important to understand that Digital PR and Traditional PR are not two completely separate practices. Digital PR uses many of the same tools and tactics of traditional PR, but it adapts them to work online.
In 2023, Pew Research Center found that 86% of American adults sometimes get their news online – which more than doubled the same measure from 2022! That same study found that over half of Americans prefer to access news online, with a commensurate decrease in interest in TV (33% to 27%) and record low interest in radio (6%) and print (5%).
That means earned media placements in traditional channels like newspapers, magazines, and TV talk shows don’t have the universal reach they had even half a decade ago.
Of course, PR practitioners know this! A PR agency will be targeting their strategy at more than just traditional broadcast media. However, it takes an agency with digital experience to optimize PR tactics for digital platforms – and to know how to measure their effectiveness.
That last point is important. Traditional PR is often measured at first in circulation or broadcast reach. That can sometimes be linked to a lift in leads and sales, but the link can be hard to attribute. Digital PR can measure effectiveness more directly with metrics like views, time on site, and even directly-attributed leads and sales.
Digital PR vs. Digital Marketing: Is Digital PR the same as Link Building?
A common misconception about Digital PR is that it’s all about link building – getting news media, influencers, and social media users to link back to your site and products.
Link building is a common tool in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) toolkit that focuses on acquiring backlinks from other websites to improve your site authority and search rankings.
But, link building alone does not constitute Digital PR! Digital PR is about creating awareness and engagement online. Link building is just one tactic a Digital PR plan might use. One example of that is in getting the most out of digital press releases.
Examples of Digital PR in Action: The Press Release
The press release is one of the core building blocks of a PR strategy. Writing an effective press release that captures the attention of journalists is a critical skill of an experienced PR veteran.
A well-written press release is dense with information and keywords – not only about breaking news, but about products, company leadership, and brand definition. When the press release is picked up by media organizations, all of that information is spread even further.
That means a great press release is often a perfect vehicle for search engine optimization – known as SEO, for short. A Digital PR strategy makes sure that your press releases are optimized for key terms that align with your digital marketing. That also includes inseritng relevant backlinks to your company website.
Now, when your press release is picked up or quoted, it has incredible SEO power – not only to get your story to the top of search results, but to boost the authority of your site!
An agency experienced in Digital PR will do more than optimize a single press release for SEO. Your agency will create a press release strategy to address goals in both earned media and search engine ranking – marrying traditional PR tactics with digital marketing measurement.
That’s one example of a familiar PR tool that has a broader impact in Digital PR. Now, let’s look at slightly newer PR practice – “Newsjacking.”
Examples of Digital PR in Action: Newsjacking
Newsjacking is a term coined in 2011 by marketing strategist David Meerman Scott for when a person or brand contributes their thoughts and opinions to breaking news stories. In effect they are “hijacking the news” – which is how we got this portmanteau.
The core concept of newsjacking is similar to one of the baseline currencies of content creation on social networks: sharing. Facebook and LinkedIn have native sharing, X (previously known as Twitter) has Reposts, and TikTok encourages users to remix videos with their own takes. In a way, all of those functions are a consumer version of Newsjacking.
In Digital PR, Newsjacking isn’t about simply re-sharing an existing news story with some added thoughts. Newsjacking is about crafting custom content that connects your brand to a news story, emphasizing your relevance, resonance, and unique voice.
Think about all of the brands who spent the summer of 2024 talking about the Olympics without being a sponsor or having anything to do with athletics or travel. The Summer Olympics were big news that could pull in views, so those brands engaged in some Newsjacking!
Digital PR understands that Newsjacking operates on many different levels in the digital arena. It can be anything from a clever marketing campaign that piggybacks off a current trend, to a key quote from an executive to highlight your unique selling proposition, to a humorous viral post on social media. A Digital PR strategy will look for both news that’s relevant to your brand and news that your brand can easily (and safely) comment on.
Digital PR Can Increase You Brand Visibility
I hope I’ve helped you answer the question “What is Digital PR”! Digital PR blends traditional PR tactics and digital marketing best practices to help increase your brand visibility and engagement online. You can learn more about Digital PR in our article about The Power of Digital PR for Brand Building.
Of course, Digital PR is so much more than even the examples in this article! An experienced Digital PR agency like Percepture combines PR experts with decades of experience with a team of digital marketers who have been working in the space since Google first arrived on the scene.
Are you ready to get started with a Digital PR campaign for your brand? Get in touch with us today.
