PR is dead as we know it. But there has never been a more exciting time to be in the PR industry. The internet has changed PR forever and for the better, as it gives us the opportunity to do so much more. There are now so many more communications channels open to us.
The internet has opened up the industry making it more varied and challenging than ever before. No longer is PR about packaged up messages and one way communications. No longer is it limited to companies giving out carefully selected information to its selected ‘target audience’. No longer can companies hide behind their PRs, press releases, corporate speeches, glossy brochures and shiny highly scripted press conferences.
Communications now comes in many different forms…minute by minute, hour by hour with people commenting and talking 24/7, in words, images, video, graphics and even in music and games.
Our lives, both personal and business, are now on online for all to see and share.
This combined with how companies now have to declare diligently all their financials and corporate issues online means that everything has to be presented online. It’s never been easier to find the warts and all story.
So PR today is about conversations (visual, verbal and written) and lots of them, all happening simultaneously 24/7, at many different levels in the company and in many different ways and all globally.
Nor is it conversations driven exclusively by organisations. Today, companies have to be responsive, listening as well as imparting information. The speed of communication is hard to keep up with. PR has always been about sharing information using a variety of tools, often in a more subtle and sophisticated way than above the line advertising can do. PR is best placed to lead the way more so than any other marketing medium. That’s why PR is the perfect medium for these new ways of communicating, namely Conversational PR.
It’s not necessarily about having the ‘perfect profile 100% of the time, but admitting mistakes and resolving them publicly and in an open forum and discussions.
GBC has spent the last five years evolving and developing its range of Conversational Services to mirror the rapid developments in the market, to the point today where we have an integrated set of conversational strategy and tools to manage all your Conversational PR needs.
Our services include:
1. Defining and writing your conversational PR strategy
– GBC identifies your online requirements and working closely with you puts together your communications plan
2. Identifying your audiences
Half the battle is understanding and knowing the online audiences. We will look at
o Blogging communities – tiered into type
o Influential communities – identifying the other key groups
o Online media – identifying the key influential online titles
3. The conversational tools
• Virals
• Blog monitoring
• Blogs
• Pod/vodcasts
• Interactive webcasts
• SMRs
• Social networks/Forums
• IPTV
• Web design and content
• Plus, of course, adapted ‘traditional’ tools
4. Conversational measurement
GBC tracks and analyses what online communities are saying about you with tools such as Twitter and WebitPR
So how can Conversational PR best be summed up?
It’s discussions and information sharing, gathering and submitting in forums, one on one, in groups, openly and in select groups.
It’s using film, video, photography, interactive multi media, video, podcasts and vodcasts. Conversational PR enables you to have interactive verbal, written and visual two way communication 24/7.
It’s an exciting new world for communications with more opportunity for communicating than ever before.
So if you want to discuss how GBC could help you define, implement and measure your Conversational PR campaign then call +44 20 8322 1922 to get in touch.