Digital PR is a fast evolving field. This presentation is a brief overview of all elements that constitute Digital PR. And how people can use the different online tools to get the best out of their online PR campaigns

1. Digital PR “Social Media Puts ‘Public’ into PR and ‘Market’ into Marketing” – Chris Brogan By Merlin Francis

2. Online Marketing Landscape By Merlin Francis

3. How is Digital PR Different From Offline PR Digital PR = Interactive PR It does not rely only on mainstream publications to build credibility It encourages direct engagement with the public, stakeholders, customers and prospects It is founded on the principal of ‘Being Social’ & ‘Being Democratic’ in approach Digital Media combines the power of social media and other online tools to humanize a brand/logo/company It harnesses the power of the crowd to build and drive its campaigns It makes life a little easier for a PR folks. By Merlin Francis

4. Why is Digital PR Important In a survey of journalists and reporters conducted by TopRank, 91% of respondents indicated they frequently use search engines to do their job Today most journalists are more frequent in checking their twitter stream than their email messages Journalists have access to most information they might be looking for on your brand, at the most you can only directing them in finding the right and more relevant information By Merlin Francis

5. Challenges What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet – good or bad It makes your client vulnerable The landscape is changing everyday Creativity and Out of the Box thinking is a pre-requisite News spreads like a forest fire and if not controlled properly, it can kill your brand Here a crisis can lead to the end of your career, if not handled properly By Merlin Francis

6. Myths Busting - Creating pages on social networks will get you fans/followers- Creating a group will get you members- Unlike offline PR, online PR does not require a strategy, it is all about sharing stuff online- Like offline PR, online PR cannot be really measured By Merlin Francis

8. Media pitches

9. Social Networking Profiles

10. Expert Groups

11. Forums

12. Blogs

13. Contributed Articles/Thought Leadership articles

14. Research Reports

15. Webinars

16. Digital Assets ( SEO optimized Videos, Podcasts, Presentations, Photographs)

17. Search & Social media monitoring (Reputation management)By Merlin Francis

19. Ensure you have the keywords you want to promote in your headline and sub headline

20. Provide an action tab – register or visit website

21. Add, supporting marketing collateral like Website snapshot, video links etc.

22. Add share buttons on the page, making it easy for people to share your content/news

23. Optimizing more than standard text content for PR creates additional entry points to news content and can improve search based discovery.By Merlin Francis

24. Digital PR = Engage, Involve, Collaborate Think of social media channels as a place to interact with your customers, prospects, stakeholders and media Listen, respond and inform The more active you are on these platforms, the more number of people you will manage to reach out to Reward people for their loyalty Involve them and take their opinion when making changes to the brand image, new advertisement or anything related to the brand Give them a reason to show their loyalty to your brand among their circle of influence By Merlin Francis

26. Depending on your objective, select the digital channels that would be relevant to achieving your goals

27. Understand what motivates people to follow brands on these channels, your campaigns for each of these channels should be customized to meet the needs of your target audience. The reason why people follow a brand on LinkedIn is different from why they follow on Facebook

28. Be creative in your approach and plan on sustaining the momentumBy Merlin Francis

30. Use your social networks to follow your target media, to understand what they like to write about, what story angles intrigue them and how best can you pitch to them

31. In addition to your traditional mediums like emails, use social networks like twitter to pitch to your target media

32. Social networks are great for building relationships. Focus on the relationship and not on marketing to an individual, rest will follow

33. Online media is about give and take and not just for telling your side of the story alwaysBy Merlin Francis