Public Relations in the Digital Age

For public relations writers, the digital age has created an incredible host of new challenges that could never have been imagined just a short time ago. In fact, an entirely different type of education is now required to write public relations for any corporation, whether you work for a brick and mortar company with a corporate website or a 100% e-commerce business.

In the past, public relations professionals could rely on witty headlines and tag phrases and good prose to help create a glossy image for the company they were representing. Now, with the proliferation of search engine marketing and Internet shoppers, public relations writers must forgo their traditional writing voice to concentrate on crafting headlines that contain phrases most likely to be typed into Google by the average Joe than concentrate on what makes an eye catching, well written headline. Also, their content must be thoroughly crafted for keyword optimization so Internet spiders will be more likely to crawl to the company website. There is now a plethora of books, and even degrees you can earn in search engine optimization, or SEO content.

On top of altering your content, deadlines, timeliness, and how you handle emergency damage control situations have been dramatically altered. In the past, public relations professionals only had to compete with a few major organizations and answer to a set group of news reporters. Now, there is an onslaught of blogs and citizen journalists, archived news videos and text content that people can download instantaneously. Web users can also use pod casts to get audio information from countless sources on the fly. The Internet is now proliferated with so much constantly changing content that the public relations pro now faces an extraordinary increase in deadline pressure to the point of having to acti on the fly all while being extra diligent in producing original, and carefully crafted content that will wade through the ocean of information and disinformation in cyberspace.

Also, when your company has a scandal or emergency PR situation, the bloggers and citizen journalists will be merciless and allow you no time to prepare your best version of the events. In terms of well known companies and political scandals, the longer you wait, the more it snowballs. "No comment" is no longer an acceptable answer. This is when a PR professional needs to be extra careful in keeping an eye on the public's opinion by browsing the search engine blogs and discussion boards, and trying not to add fuel to the fire by giving too much information which can serve as fodder or coming across as a "spin doctor" or "typical Public Relations writer trying to make excuses". In certain situations, there is not much more you should do than express concern and a commitment to fix the problem and respond again when you have more information.

When thinking about public relations in the digital age, it may seem like you're in the jungle. However, it shouldn't scare away good writers from the profession.
Although there is a great deal of unpredictability and even craziness with Internet PR, there are also many additional opportunities for PR professionals and aspiring PR professionals than ever before since good PR is much more important now than ever because of the Internet.

As crazy as the Internet is, one thing about public relations in the digital age remains the same: good, solid, clear and concise writing is still the bedrock of the industry. The Internet is one of the most, if not the most incredible innovation in the history of mankind and contains a lot of great information, but it's also a sea of garbage and rehashed, patched together trashy content and amateurish writing. Therefore, if you have solid writing skills combined with an understanding of how people search for information, you and your company will stand out like a gem.