Modern technology has changed the way of implementing the public relation strategies. It has became easier connect mass number of peoples with a few simple mouse clicks.
Public relation now days are a branch of managing public opinion of a business or product. Public relation professionals work with news media and also manage events. The recent internet and website technology is playing a vital role to make Public relation more modern.
INTERNET & WEB
Internet allows instant information dissemination, and that information can be hard to control. Press Releases can be easily sent with email.
The Internet has a major influence on people’s opinion and the decisions they make, especially when they are uncertain. For example, let’s say Joe has difficulties deciding which anti-acne cream to choose. He will open his search engine and look for information about the creams he is considering buying. He will most likely take into account a variety of factors including the price and other people’s opinions but his decision will also be influenced greatly by the information he will be able to receive about a particular product. And if he finds little information about how the product is supposed to work, how soon he will be able to see the results, etc. there is a great chance that he will not buy that product.
In order to encourage Joe to at least consider buying your cream, he needs to be provided accurate, trustworthy and up-to-date information about both the product and your company. And this can be achieved only through an effective Internet PR.
PR technology is the Web itself. By building a well-designed Web site, a company, individual or organization can share information that polishes its image and furthers its agenda.
Web sites are also an excellent way to get the right information to journalists. Most large organizations and businesses include a media room on their official Web site. This area of the site is used to publish all press releases, company history, executive bios, high-resolution digital photos and even downloadable, digital press kits. Rather than seeking out media attention through mass-e-mailed press releases, a good Web site will draw in journalists by itself.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Interactive Social Media is the best tool of Public Relations now and businesses are much depended on it. Public relations are one of the important strategies of marketing communication mix. It is used by marketers for building a good reputation among their stake holders and other business partners and for promoting their businesses too. Public relation is the very old technique used by people for maintaining their public image. Traditionally, organizations used press releases, brochures and annual reports for getting publicity but now these tools don’t provide the same results.
Now, there is a world of IT and world becomes global village. Everyone easily get the desired information while staying at home through Internet. So that’s why, businesses start providing online marketing facilities and developing E-Commerce websites. Customers prefer to use internet for getting solutions of their problems and even for doing shopping and making interactions. Social media is become everyone’s need now. People use this for sharing ideas, making friends, uploading and sharing pictures and videos, exchanging views and specially for maintaining their own image. There are many sources of social media but Twitter and Facebook are the two most important. You find almost every company’s link on Facebook and twitter now. Marketers use these sites for Public Relations.
There are professionals – specialist in social marketing, Facebook and Twitter who take care of activities related with PR. Public relations is not a narrow concept or field, everything related to employee relations, crisis management, investor relations, customer relations and corporate relations is come under the PR. There are specialized companies’ pages, you find on Facebook organized specially for customers and other stakeholders. Customers too feel a sense of recognition and convenience while interacting with the company, providing services them.
One of the biggest PR challenges posed by technology is the explosion of social media. Social networking Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, and user-generated content communities like YouTube are used to explore the information.
BLOGS
This generation is unreachable by press releases. Their opinion-makers are bloggers and peers, not paid critics. Sure, it’s possible to e-mail traditional press releases to bloggers, but such transparently promotional messages are likely to ignore.
In the past, public relations depended upon controlling the message that was put forward from the organization. The unspoken goal was to manipulate public opinion. The pre-arranged message was centralized and carefully vetted for wording and nuances. The term “spin” was born to describe the technique.
Blogging as a public opinion medium gives up that tight control and presents a message in a conversation with the reader. In that sense, the blog cultivates public opinion. With increasing transparency, inside and outside of organizations, the best approach is one of open discussion. A blog is the ideal delivery vehicle.
Blogs provide a unique and personal way to communicate with current and prospective customers. By talking to people, in a conversational manner, a blog puts a human face on a company that is difficult to duplicate in any other way.
The more casual and comparatively unfiltered voice of the blogger creates the image of a business as being composed of real people like you. Instead of being a nameless and faceless corporation, the blog helps the people in the company to come alive in their posts.
Should a disaster happen either to the business or its customers, a business blog provides an immediate and personalized vehicle to discuss the issue with the public. Instead of the “spin” usually associated with public relations, the blog can serve as an honest and concerned pipeline directly to the public.
By addressing the issues openly and honestly, the business can regain and even increase the public’s trust. Concerned customers and the general public will view the blog as giving the straight answers. Such trust will only help enhance the business’s reputation, both in the short and long run.
