You know what public relations is, but what is digital PR?

Digital PR is not exactly new, but it’s been gaining prominence over the last several years as two concurrent trends have taken place: 1) social media has taken over the world, and 2) local journalism has undergone an equivalent retrenchment. Although Digital PR is not just another term for social media, it typically does incorporate social media into an overall marketing and PR strategy designed to put people and organizations into the spotlight.

Journalism — and journalists — are still important to a strong and successful Digital PR campaign, but not in the same way they used to be. All across the country, local newspapers are going out of business. The ones that remain typically have seen increasingly deep cuts made to their budgets over the last several years. Additionally, given the shrinking press rooms, individual reporters are having to take on ever-increasing responsibilities with less and less support, which means they don’t have much time to focus on you and your press release. That’s especially true if the world doesn’t already know your firm’s name and if the release is announcing anything that’s less than truly revolutionary.

Perhaps the worst news of all is that none of this appears likely to end anytime soon.

So, where does this leave the small business that’s just looking for some good PR? Well, it’s become a bit more of a DIY effort. But happily, you won’t have to do it all yourself. NCG can help. And there’s a mix of PR tools and PR and marketing strategies that can help with the promotion of your firm to those people who are most interested in what you have to offer. That might be a specific reporter who covers your firm’s beat, business executives in a particular niche, or consumers who find themselves in your target market.

What’s the key takeaway? There are a couple of them. The first is that the old ways are dead, and although the new ways are always in flux, something you can bank on is that the tried-and-true, scattershot, “spray and pray” approach to PR no longer works to get you the media coverage you’re looking for. The second takeaway is that stories matter. In fact, stories are everything. So, if you have a cool story, anything is possible. As has been said a few times, do not hide your lamp under a bushel; you just might have a very interesting story to tell.