It’s a new media world. We all know it, but who owns it? Companies and brands work with a variety of agencies - interactive, PR, full-service advertising, search engine (SEO/SEM) and now, the ‘tradigital’ agency which offers both traditional and digital offerings.
Digital strategy could fall anywhere. A company could hire a web agency to build a site; an interactive group to offer up SEO/SEM, analytics, widgets and social media. PR firms bring communication strategy and influencer campaigns. Ad agencies, the brand. All are playing in the digital sandbox and the lines are blurring.
Each discipline is also evolving. Take PR, for example. Over the past few years, online PR has taken hold with new services and tools such as ‘buzz monitoring’ and the Social Media News Release. Both are catered to the new world of social media and influencers, including bloggers.
In the case of the Social Media News Release, it’s about creating a media-rich press release which offers journalists and bloggers an easy way to access all they need to build a story - high resolution images, video, executive quotes, previous coverage, links to reference sources. It also should feature social media capabilities with bookmarking, RSS feeds, technorati tags and links. And lest we forget, it should be optimized for search and allow conversation. Online PR service RealWire offers a good overview and examples. This is a relatively new tool for PR, but ultimately it crosses into other disciplines - SEO and social media - and as such, requires a broader base of knowledge.
New platforms, new tools, new approaches - it’s definitely a dynamic time and still rapidly evolving. In a recent BusinessWeek article on social media, today’s digital darling, offers a good quote from early adopter Guy Stephens of Carphone Warehouse, ”Understanding what motivates your customer and trying to meet that need is still key, regardless of whether you use Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, or pick up the phone.”
Tue, Mar 31, 2009
Overview