How PR is changing in the modern world

It has never been more essential to ensure your online voice is heard. Guiding you through PR in the online realm, Darren Northeast, MD of DNPR discusses the ins and outs of Digital PR, and the future of PR in an ever-changing online landscape. 

What is Digital PR? 

Gone are the days of relying on printed advertising, word-of-mouth, and a newspaper splash to communicate your company’s voice with the masses. Whilst all of these channels still form a part of a solid PR campaign, audiences are far more online than they ever have been. 

Digital PR covers how you communicate and interact with your current customers and target audience online, from your social media pages to popping up on a google search. Using digital platforms for our clients allows us to instantly reach a wider audience and enables us to target very specific audiences for more driven communication and awareness. 

There are many channels we classify and a Digital PR tool, including: 

• Showing up on a Google search with targeted PPC campaigns and SEO, ensuring that your business’s website is visible in the right place at the right time. 
• Using your voice on social media to connect with your current audience and share your message instantly. Social media advertising tools now enable us to target niche and specific audiences to achieve a distinct PR objective and grow loyal future customers through good quality content.  
• Going straight to email inboxes with e-newsletter campaigns; a direct PR tool to engage with your audience and share quality information. Carefully planned automated emails can also make customers feel extra special.  

What’s PR going to look like in the future… 

 Advances in technology means there are a lot of interesting things on the horizon for the PR industry. Clever automation tools, Meta’s advertising suite and other platforms are making it easier than ever to reach the right audiences. While there is still a lot of planning needed, when done right, these tools can help to streamline your Digital PR to reach exactly who you want to reach. 

In the long term, with the development of AI (Artificial Intelligence), AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) technologies alongside the imminent introduction of The Metaverse, there are going to be all sorts of digital opportunities that are going to once again change the way businesses communicate.  

While things like The Metaverse are still only in development, the key to staying ahead of the game is remaining educated and being ready to jump right in. We’ve seen time and time again that brands and companies who jump onto these new platforms first and start experimenting tend to be greatly rewarded, which is why we are forever keeping on top of all new information and thinking ahead for each of our clients. 

So what does it mean for businesses? Well, it’s time to begin developing unique ideas for these new advancements so you can jump in headfirst, be ahead of the crowd, make the most out of this new era of technology we’re moving into, and don’t become the old “dinosaurs” that refuse to adjust and get left behind in the process.