The computer illiterate person is a dying breed, there are very few people who can’t turn on a computer and use the internet. What was an alien concept ten years ago to most of the population, it is now second nature. Silver Surfers have been the biggest growing demographic of internet users for a long time. It’s now not uncommon to find a grandparent using the internet, which is remarkable progress.
With this progression, the amount of people owning a website is booming. It’s not hard to buy a bit of web space, upload a WordPress template, and boom, you have a website. But with owning a website comes its marketing. Traditional PR methods are not used by 90% of web users because the budgets can be demanding. Would you run a newspaper campaign for a website and risk nobody remembering what it is?
What is Digital PR?
The alternative to advertising is digital PR, but again with digital PR, comes people who think they can do it all themselves. Like anything in life, if you learn it, you can do anything yourself. But the difference between doing something and doing something with great results can often be great. Sure, anyone can try digital PR and everyone should try it out. But a Facebook profile does not constitute a digital PR campaign.
Digital PR could be an online advertising campaign using banners and images. It could be a social media campaign, which would take in social media portals. It could, involve gaining good reviews for a product or service and if the budget is large enough, it could create a feel good factor about a product company or service through forums and positive spin accounts.
A Facebook profile or page can be a great resource, it’s easy to set up and yes it can be used for very basic PR. It should only be part of a campaign though and not be the campaign. As part of a campaign, Facebook can generate immense exposure, such as a great competition going viral. It can also be used to deal with customers, when one large online retailer but on a offer which brought down their servers, all their angry clients head straight over to their Facebook page to complain. The company handled it well; great PR put people’s minds at rest.
One golden rule if you are trying a bit of DIY PR using Facebook – don’t do it half hearted. Nothing says I can’t be bothered more than a Facebook page that has unanswered questions and no status updates for months on end.
Jamie Writes about technology for people such as Berkeley Digital PR company.
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