Top 10 Tips to Integrate Traditional PR & Digital Marketing

As marketing and PR are changing rapidly with the constant evolution and expansion of the digital ecosystem, success requires integrated efforts that combine the smartest tactics in traditional PR combined with online marketing and SEO practices. The Internet has changed how we receive information, how we interact and engage with each other, with brands and with media. PR is a critical aspect of the marketing mix and there are fundamental shifts in strategy and approach that Zenzi Communications, an integrated marketing and PR agency, works with daily.

First and foremost, it is critical for PR professionals to be knowledgeable in all digital tools, including social media, blogs, mobile apps, SEO and email marketing. PR and online marketing are two areas of expertise that should go hand-in-hand.

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Would you open your life to the public and agree to be filmed as you confront a major medical challenge?  Would you allow your work to be filmed as a medical professional?  That is exactly what a colon cancer victim, the mother of a toddler experiencing a stroke in the brain, a teen waiting for a heart transplant, one of the first face transplant patients and doctors and nurses did in the eight week series, Boston Med.

They say sometimes life is more surprising than anything you could ever make up.   

As a student at USC Annenberg’s School for Communication & Journalism with PR and Communication majors, it was pretty much beat into me by professors and career advisers that getting a job is all about networking, networking, networking.  Thankfully, throughout college, I had access to amazing internship opportunities and a built-in network of alumni ready and willing to help fellow Trojans.  But when I decided to move to San Diego after graduating in 2002, it became an entirely different ball game.  I turned down an offer to continue full-time with the international PR agency in L.A. with which I was interning because I was 100% set on moving to San Diego.  So then began the full-time job search and real world networking in a new market.  It was not easy and took a few months before I found a job but I learned some incredibly valuable lessons along the way that really set me on the right path to develop my career.

JetBlue‘s in the left corner, Steven Slater’s over in the right. The match begins and the people are watching – and definitely cheering — for Slater.

Former flight attendant, Steven Slater, threw a heck of a punch when he cursed out the belligerent passenger and slid down and away from his JetBlue plane and airline career, beer in hand. JetBlue’s immediate reaction? Arresting Slater for endangerment of the public, which is fair enough. However, the next thing you know, the media outlets pick up on this quirky story, Slater makes bail, people are fundraising on behalf of Slater to help pay for his legal fees, loyal customers are claiming they will “never fly JetBlue again”, Slater gains a hefty support group and bam!

JetBlue is stunned.
 

If you have been working in the PR world long enough, you will remember finding the right media contact was akin to searching for buried treasure in the Atlantic – if you’re persistent and a little lucky you may just uncover something of value. Searching for contacts in the old days meant paging through Bacon’s – behemoth books (thousands of pages) with every newspaper, radio and TV station throughout the country and corresponding reporters. The problem with Bacon’s is that it only came out once a year, so if there were any changes to the editorial staff you wouldn’t necessarily find out until you began actively pitching. Not only was it an inefficient use of time, it also put a strain to a certain extent on the reporter/PR relationship by PR practitioners frequently reaching out to the wrong people.

Fast forward to the age of electronic records and email. Eventually the Bacon’s books turned completely electronic which solved the issue of relevancy and up to date record keeping. If a reporter left the publication or changed beats, records could be updated on-the-fly making the task of reaching out to the right people a much smoother process. The ease of use by moving to electronic records, however, brought with it another communication issue – email. Email has made it much easier to quickly pitch a reporter without picking up the phone.

Reporters today are experiencing information overload by receiving hundreds, if not thousands, of new pitches and company information from PR practitioners each day. To get a response an almost “perfect storm” of sorts needs to take place where the reporter is actively looking for sources, gets intrigued by your message, decides to click open and finally responds to discuss.

A new approach to the age old problem of matching reporters to timely and relevant sources will launch on August 9th. Called NewsBasis, this website community aims to connect reporters and publicists by broadcasting sources to reporters actively looking and visa versa. It’s essentially built around the same concept as online dating – i.e. you would only visit if you were searching. Will this approach work? If the site achieves high adoption it will because it fills specific needs for both industries. Excitement has already begun to build sparked by the recent acquisition of a competing site called Help A Reporter Out (HARO) by a large PR software company.