For the longest time, PR has been done in print. Then when the internet was released, print PR has been valued more highly than digital. This can cause people to forego digital PR all together, thinking that it is not going to be effective. However, digital PR can be even more effective than print or editorial PR. There are many reasons to use digital PR as well as print PR. After all, marketing and using the digital medium for PR can have a lot of advantages to using the traditional print method of advertising to consumers.
When thinking about whether or not to use PR, one of the most important factors to consider is the audience. There is a growing number of people who are getting all of their information from the internet. Also, with the advent of smartphones and mobile devices, internet is easily and conveniently accessed. Therefore, users are turning to the internet to get their information. Also, there is the advent of social media which is useful for marketing. To top it all off, smartphone services make it so that the internet can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. Compared to having to drive somewhere in order to get information on print, digital information has a huge advantage for people who want to send information and those who want to gain information.
Print Editorial Advantages
There is one advantage that print and editorial PR has over digital PR. Print is considered to be more credible than digital PR. Therefore, PR agencies and clients are more likely to give higher value to what they read in print what they read online. However, this is starting to change because as more people gain easy access to the internet, fewer people are relying on print for their information. A lot of consumers find that the information online is at least as credible as if not more than the information they find on print.
Another advantage that digital PR has over is the speed of updates. When it comes to editorial print PR, it takes a while for everything to prepared and then sent to where people can get access to it. Digital PR can be completed, then sent and read within minutes. This quick update of information makes the internet a desirable medium for information. Everything from composing, editing, sending and reading is a lot quicker on the internet than it is in print.
Any stigma that may have come with online marketing and journalism has been greatly reduced. At the same time, the nostalgia that comes with reading something on print is one reason that people still value print, but this will change eventually as technology becomes more advanced. Whatever the big corporations and agencies may say about print, more people are choosing to get their information digitally as opposed to going through extra trouble to get their information from a newspaper or a magazine. Subscriptions cost quite a bit of money. Therefore, some people are finding it impractical to rely on print.
The Primary Reason
The biggest reason that digital PR can be more effective than editorial or print is that a large number of people are using the internet and social media. As soon as the PR is released online, someone is going to read it provided that the PR is released through the right channels. Also, when an article is online, it is going to be accessible for much longer than a newspaper.
Given that a lot of people will discard print, the information they receive on that print tends to be forgotten. Therefore, if there is information that has an effect on the reputation of a company or an individual, it is not going to last as long as an article that appears on the search results. Because of the technology of the internet, any bit of information including PR is going to be on the internet permanently. Therefore, digital PR is going to have a permanent effect on the individual or company.