e-PR, or public relations on the Internet – what is it?

Public relations on the Internet – what is it?

As in the case of “classic” PR, the goal of online public relations is also to build and maintain the best possible relations between a company and its environment, create an appropriate image, increase brand recognition and strengthen its position on the market.

The growing popularity of the Internet has contributed to the growing importance of public relations activities focusing on virtual reality. Depending on the assumptions of the strategy implemented by the company, they can be complementary to traditional PR activities or be conducted as part of a completely independent plan.

e-PR – what is it?

Online PR on the Nigerian market is developing dynamically, offering new, previously untapped opportunities.

It owes its current advantage over traditional e-PR solutions to the environment in which it operates – there is probably no need to convince anyone of the power of the internet in business. As a result of  constant changes and constant expansion of internet, marketers and PR specialists can include more and more effective activities in their campaigns year after year.

Public relations on the internet

Public relations on the Internet

All activities aimed at broadly understood promotion on the Internet are largely dependent on the behavior of Internet users and current trends. Currently, the “pull” model is becoming a more effective model of virtual communication, while until recently, companies sought the customer’s attention through their actions, often using tools that have a strong impact on the market (the “push” model).

Changes taking place on the market and in the minds of consumers become a direct cause of the creation and development of innovative solutions in the scope of already known concepts. An excellent example of the described phenomenon is e-PR.

This separate category of public relations, focusing its activities on the internet, consists in building the expected image of the company in the minds of consumers, through activities that directly affect them. The e-public relations strategy also includes activities undertaken in virtual reality in order to shape positive relations of the company with the environment and promote the brand or specific products.

Basic e-PR tools

Although e-PR as a separate field was created relatively recently, it already boasts quite a large range of tools used in its activities.

In this article, we will focus on several of the most popular, elementary instruments used in the field of e-public relations.

Website

Given the enormous (and ever-increasing) popularity of using the Internet to search for products and services, it has become somewhat of a necessity for a company to have its own website.

The growing importance of a website in business in recent years has led to a change and expansion of the scope of its functions. Today, a website is often the foundation of a company’s business model, whereas not so long ago, the role of a website was limited to the company’s electronic business card.

A website equipped with them is a safe starting point for further e-PR activities of your company.

Industry portals

Industry portals allow companies operating in their industry to publish their own content on their pages. This solution brings mutual benefits: the portal gains valuable content (sponsored articles often developed by companies have an expert character), while the company has the opportunity to present itself to a wider audience.

Additionally, in a situation where the content is developed by the company’s employees or on their behalf, the company retains full control over the posted message despite external publication.

Actions undertaken within this tool also result in creating value for customers, who easily gain access to specialist knowledge.

Company blog

Traditional blog articles have a similar value for customers. However, the fundamental difference between them and sponsored texts is the place of their publication. Blog content is most often published in the blog section of the company’s website.

As with the activities described above, regularly publishing content on an “internal” blog results in a whole range of benefits for the company.

As with all PR activities, here too, special care should be taken to ensure the regularity of work and its consistency with the adopted strategy.

Mailing

The next activity comes from the border of e-PR and internet marketing. This tool allows you to send messages directly to recipients.

Its unquestionable advantage is its wide application. The ability to personalize messages sent as part of e-mail marketing to individual segments of recipients makes this activity one of the most effective, while the cost of implementation is relatively low.

This solution will work perfectly when you want to quickly reach a wide group of recipients with information.

e-PR – benefits

Transferring promotional and communication activities to the virtual space has opened up huge, completely new opportunities for companies (especially the SME sector).

Transferring your activities to the Internet allows companies with limited budgets to achieve goals that were previously only possible for companies with greater financial capabilities.

The main benefits that your company can achieve by implementing e-PR solutions are:

• Improving communication processes;
• Obtaining reliable opinions from the market;
• Increasing brand recognition;
• Building customer trust and loyalty;
• Possibility to conduct activities on a larger scale;
• Accelerating company development.