The essential digital PR task list

Modern PR is changing, and it is changing fast.

Where once there were clear divisions of responsibilities between PR and and the online team, the reality of modern marketing is these lines are blurring.

Link building, keyword optimisation, content marketing, affiliates, events, and e-CRM are now an essential part of any digital PR’s skill set. In fact, digital PR and search marketing are increasingly merging and becoming more difficult to differentiate between.

With this in mind, here are the key tasks for any modern PR who wants to successfully manage their brand’s voice and reputation online.

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Managing your reputation online

Objective one: Control the messages being seen by customers at these stages of the buying decision process (information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision)

3rd party review websites

What are the most common keywords when searching for reviews about your industry? Use this data to identify your main targets below…

General product review websites

a) Identify the leading general review websites that have your industry reviews

b) Direct customers to leave reviews on these websites

Your industry review websites

a) Identify the most commonly used keywords for your industry review searches

b) Identify the highest ranked websites in SERP for those keywords

c) Are they genuine review sites or affiliate sites?

d) Direct customers to genuine review websites

e) Contact affiliate based review websites about special CPA and offer of directing customers to leave reviews for high rankings

Product reviews

Get your product reviewed

a) Identify key websites in your industry

b) Which products suit their readers?

c) Pitch idea of reviewing the product (what incentives can you give to get them to review product?)

Customer reviews

Create pages and sections on your website to showcase reviews

a) Update reviews on the website regularly

b) Put Twitter rotating twitter reviews on to the home page

Dominating brand searches

Make sure you own the top 10 for the keyword “[your brand] reviews”

a) Create keyword optimised content for that keyword

Content marketing

Objective one: Increase awareness of your brand and your products within key target markets

Objective two: Increase high quality inbound links and social media sharing for your brand

Guest articles and blog posts

Publish guest articles on topics related to your target audiences

a) Create  a target list of websites and publications

b) Create a list of topics and titles to write about that they would want to publish

c) Write the articles and approach the publishers

Competitions and prizes

Run regular competitions with partners

a) Create  a target list of websites

b) Identify which of your products are most suited to use as a prize

c) Approach the publishers

Infographics

Create and publish a series of infographics

a) Identify the target audiences of the infographics

b) What type of information are they interested in?

c) Research data associated with those topics

d) How are you going to maximise their impact (views, shares, discussion etc.)?

Brand awareness & positioning

Objectives:

Objective: one Increase awareness of your brand and your products within key target markets

Objective two: Establish your brand as thought leaders amongst your audience

 White papers

Create and publish a series of white papers

a) Identify topics that are interesting and useful to your target audiences

b) Write the white papers

c) Spec out a dedicated landing page where people download these resources and encourage sharing

 Press releases

Create a rolling series of press releases

a) Generate newsworthy content by initiating research and sharing the findings

b) Identify key target publications and key editorial contacts

c) Discuss what content they want

Magazines

  • Develop closer relationships with magazine journalists so they come to you for quotes, interviews, information or products to be reviewed.

a) Develop ideas to pitch to the magazines

b) Maintain regular contact with key contacts

Event sponsorship

  • Identify and set-up sponsorship opportunities within your target markets

a)   Which events are you or your competitors already sponsoring and which other events are there, that are similar?

b)   Which events fit in with your target audience?

c)   How do you maximise your investment in these areas? (interviews, ticket giveaways…)

This list of tasks should help get you started or focus on the key areas for your business. if you work in this field and have any points you would like to se added, leave  a comment below.


3 thoughts on “The essential digital PR task list

  1. Very informative. I learned a lot in this blog. thanks for sharing with us in bizsugar.com. Keep on posting because I love your page, simple but cool.

  2. Thanks for your post. Digital PR is definitely becoming a skill that employers are looking for. We have noticed that social media experience is particularly important to PR jobs. Dealing with organisations reputation on social media sites has become part of PR’s remit.

    1. The lines are certainly starting to blur between social media and PR. If I were looking to develop my career (or start one) in PR I would focus on building experience and training around social media as well.

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