By Mary Nguyen
It may be hard to keep track of everything that’s going on with digital media but relying on dated information and even older tactics can stop you from achieving your brand objectives. Check out our guide on four must-know digital techniques and put them to work in your next PR campaign.
In the digital age, businesses have to keep abreast of an ever-evolving media landscape in order to remain relevant and accessible to audiences. When technology, techniques and trends change constantly, there’s no room for complacency if you want to stay on your customers’ radars.
The dominance of technology and social media means that audiences are more fragmented than ever – and their attention spans are short. To make things even more complicated, new technologies are being introduced all the time. In the five short years since its international launch in 2016, TikTok has become one of the fastest growing social media apps with 689 million active users around the world, eclipsing Snapchat, Twitter and Pinterest all of which has been around for much longer.
Brands must adapt or risk losing the hard-earned base they have to more digitally nimble competitors. Already the impact of COVID-19 has rapidly accelerated the e-commerce industry and experts are saying these changes are here to stay.
The good news is that digital PR can help you access new audiences and build relationships for a fraction of the cost. Brands no longer have to rely on traditional means to promote themselves, leaving them free to pursue flexible and effective strategies that will make an impact.
Tools brands can use to maximise their digital impact:
Video content production changes business marketing
Video has quickly overtaken blogs and infographics as the preferred format for content marketing and storytelling. As evidenced by the skyrocketing popularity of the short video platform TikTok, video has great visual appeal for a generation more accustomed to multimedia storytelling instead of walls of unbroken text. In the first quarter of 2019 TikTok was the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Store with 33 million downloads, followed closely by YouTube.
As an outlet for brand storytelling and promotion, video is a powerful PR tool capable of bringing your vision to life in a big way. Video attracts more eye movement, elicits a greater emotional response and is more likely to be chosen by consumers over text. Although video production isn’t easy, marketers say that videos produce higher conversion rates than any other format, and 87% of video marketers say that video has increased traffic to their website. Last of all videos get 1,200% more shares than text and images combined.
Use videos to share your company story through interviews, behind-the-scenes, employee spotlights, office tours and more.
Build a social media strategy
As of January 2021 there are 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, making up a total 59.5% of the global population. Of this total, 92.6% (4.32 billion) accessed the internet via mobile devices with each person averaging 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media and messaging each day.
The functions of social media are myriad – from launching businesses to enacting brand strategies, generating leads, increasing web traffic and maintain direct links to your customer base.
Social media is essential, cost-effective and full of impact. Social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and Twitter also fulfil the function of “social listening”, a way of keeping ahead of consumer sentiment and trend development.
Some key stats:
With 3.32 billion active monthly users, Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform
Over 46% of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn
81% of people use Instagram to research products and services
The most common publishing frequency for social media marketers is three-to-four times per week
Social media’s great advantage is that it is like a virtual shopfront for your brand where prospects can learn more about your brand, interact directly and build a relationship with you.
"Entrepreneurs need to take their businesses to where the conversation is happening – mobile phones, tablets and laptops, social media is the perfect venue,” says Virgin boss Richard Branson.
As the great equaliser, businesses no longer need to rely solely on traditional media outlets to have a public voice. Social media is best leveraged according to its unique features e.g. Instagram is ideal for sharing pictures and is suited to products while Twitter is best used for facilitating conversations.
In a post sharing its top tips for social media Bloomberg.com advises, “Be mindful about which platforms you choose to use and how you engage with your audience. Be consistent and communicate with your followers on a regular basis.”
Authentic blog content
Blogs are the most common form of media in content strategies today, used by 89% of brands to boost web traffic and sales. An important part of a brand strategy, blogs are a great way to educate audiences about products, services, industry facts and to otherwise inform and entertain audiences.
A key component of SEO strategy, modern blogs are written to provide real value and insight to its readers and to position brands as market leaders in their fields.
It's been established that consumers prefer to learn about brands through content rather than traditional advertising. According a survey conducted by Hubspot, 33% of people are driven to read blogs that teach them something new. The results showed that a further 20% of readers said they read blogs for entertainment and 12% read blogs to learn about news and trends in the industry they work in.
This is great news for the majority of businesses who engage in some form of a content strategy. According to digital specialist DemandMetric blogs can result in a 434% increase in indexed pages and a 97% increase in indexed links. Statistics showed companies with blogs produced an average of 67% more leads monthly than companies that don't.
So what are the top tips to ensure your blog hits the right note with target audiences? Social media experts emphasise authenticity as being one of the most important factors to a successful blog as well as timeliness, relevance and consistency. Last of all, remember to include images or video – blogs with images receives 94% more views than blogs without.
Podcasts that resonate
According to the 2021 Infinite Dial Australia study conducted by Edison Research and Commercial Radio Australia, 5.6 million or 26% of Australians are podcast listeners and the number is continuing to grow post pandemic. The average listener of digital audio (which includes podcasts, catch up radio podcasts, online and over-the-air radio) clocked in 12 hours per week.
Podcasts are so popular because they fit into our busy lives and can be listened to while we go about our daily tasks. For whatever topic there is, there’s a podcast about it, delivering information and entertainment in bite-sized chunks at the listener’s convenience.
A busy person might baulk at having to read walls of text but would have no trouble digesting it in podcast format. We listen to podcasts in our cars, around the home via smart devices like Amazon Alexa or Google Home, while exercising, doing chores and even in the bath.
Statistics released by eMarketer shows that 54% of podcast listeners are either somewhat or much more likely to consider buying from a brand after hearing about it in a podcast. The same survey showed podcast listeners are dedicated and will follow up brands on their social media sites.
Listeners are also engaged to the point of building communities around themselves. There is “opportunity for brands to build close relationships with show hosts and leverage the power of their multi-platform distribution,” writes Kurt Kaufner, who is CMO of a leading audio industry media company.
It’s no surprise podcasts are all the rage right now, and for brands wanting to find creative new ways to build a community, shore up brand identity and establish themselves as leaders and innovators, podcasts represent a golden opportunity to establish a dedicated and engaged audience.
So what are the key things to keep in mind when producing a podcast? Experts recommend building a podcast around content that would resonate most with audiences, engage them by answering their questions via email, messages and DMs and focus on discoverability by writing killer titles and episode descriptions.
Need PR and marketing tips?
Pick up new PR tactics for small businesses, find out what your PR rep really wants you to know before engaging their services, learn how to put together a media kit and more on the HM&M Insights blog.
