The case for convergence of digital within Public Relations

 26th March 2014    Opinion 

It not only takes creativity, passion and consistency to build a brand but it also takes the right kind of communication and tone of messaging to set a brand apart. Communication has always been an integral part of all brand building exercises to establish the brand and at the same time industries at large have embraced the digital medium having understood its power and strength.  

Regardless of the industry you belong to, digital media has become an indispensable part of our lives.

Business owners, marketers and entrepreneurs have also realised the growing importance of integrating traditional media with the new age digital medium. With the social media explosion, all public relations and marketing activities can now co-exist in the digital space as digital PR and social media marketing respectively. 

Today, many PR agencies strive to weave together PR with digital marketing in order to tie communication challenges to core business problems and outcomes. However most of them have not been completely successful in implementing these digital strategies due to a dearth of expertise or skills in the SEO or digital marketing arena.

Similarly, digital media agencies have not been able to integrate an offline communication strategy into digital marketing activities because of lack of an in-depth understanding of the traditional media.

Organisations need to realise that existing talent do not have the necessary skill set needed to integrate online as well as offline communication marketing strategies completely. To overcome this challenge, they need an expert who can incorporate these integrated solutions that links the two under a single uniform communication platform.
 

An integrated communication and marketing strategy helps an organisation/brand enhance its image, create better recall and increased target audience engagement. For example, when a prospective employee or client is searching online for any keyword related to your brand or product or service, all the data related to your digital as well as public relations tactics show up in the search.

The digital medium makes for an added tool to reach out to a brand’s target audience and supports improved engagement and ability to learn and converse. In the end, the common goal of all platforms like social media, content marketing, SEO, and public relations through communication is consumer engagement. When combined with a long form of traditional media, it presents the potential for more fluid, responsive campaigns that operate simultaneously on macro and micro levels.

Madhur Ramani, Stratum Consulting, Co-Founder and Managing Partner - a business HR advisory firm