Some of Rand’s predictions emphasise how the lines between PR and Digital Marketing are blurring (for those who can recognise the opportunities).
For example, Content Marketing has been around for a while, as organisations move from Megaphone Marketing to Relationship Marketing. But Rand sees a big increase in investment in content. However, he warned that these days there is so much content flying around out there that it needs to be valuable and of high quality to interest an increasingly limited attention span, target audience.
This is one reason in my view why PR in general and Tech PR in particular has been given a new lease of life by today’s Digital Marketing. PR has been developing quality content for decades from news stories to surveys, research, white papers and customer case studies. What’s more, PR folks have had to learn over many years to develop content that appeals to that most jaded, cynical and questioning of audiences, that is, journalists.
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"Google changes its algorithms as frequently as the Arsenal score board
at a home game to Aston Villa"
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The other big opportunity for PR in my view remains in boosting your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). You can optimise the hell out of your website but Google changes its algorithms as frequently as the Arsenal score board at a home game to Aston Villa. This means that your site can be out of date in a month.
All DM experts emphasise the importance to Google of backlinks to your site - not in terms of quantity but quality. A link from a respected online media site to a report or piece of research on your website can be especially powerful.
Even if you do not generate a backlink, the Google bots do tend to gravitate to respected online news sites on the basis that if they are covering your story then it must be of interest to their users. An organic mention of your latest customer win, new product or acquisition provides vital third party endorsement and credibility that advertising or your website cannot.
There have been some daft observations that because many of PR’s traditional print media targets are no longer around, PR itself is at risk. Quite the opposite. PR remains one of the most powerful, persuasive elements in your Digital Marketing armoury.
See Wolfgang Digital’s live Hangout with Rand Fishkin here. The sound is a little ‘echoey’ at the start but soon settles down for a fascinating approximately half hour presentation on the big Digital Marketing trends for 2015: http://youtu.be/pwWxbPH8mOY