Public Relations and the Internet

The Internet has undeniably changed the way businesses and other bodies communicate and interact with their public  Communications and public relations help to facilitate the relationship between businesses and its audiences and play a significant role as it has become an essential communications tool for PR practitioners.

Constant global media demands instant information for many public and this requires companies to be constantly informed about their organisation, public and environment to be able to respond quickly and proactively.

Companies are investing more on online communication as it help to solve problems quickly and efficiently. This is done through well designed website with well-structured links, media materials such as press releases, archives, media clippings, latest news, ,photos and videos, virtual tours and films and even company executives profiles, public relations managers and practitioners contact’s numbers.

Media Relations

Media releases are not only for the media anymore today. Media releases which were traditionally described as a formal document designed to communicate to the public through the media were rarely seen by the public as only the output of the media release was shown in the form of news coverage. The web changed the paradigm, although there are still a number of professionals who still use to fax media releases. Media releases published on Internet allow organisations to communicate directly with their audiences through websites, social media, blogs.

According to Holtz, “The real benefit of doing media relations on the Internet comes from targeting the media as a dedicated audience and crafting a strategy that specifically addresses their needs. Ideally, the job of the media relations department is to help reporters do their jobs. That objective is entirely consistent with the broader goal of public relations, which is to manage the relationship between the organization and its various audiences (Holtz 1999, 115).

At Imagine…

During my work placement, I have constantly being exposed to the use if Internet as a day-to-day tool as all tasks had to be done quickly and as easy as possible. Starting from daily online media monitoring (locally and internationally), sending press summaries as quickly as possible to different clients, receiving important notices or demand which need to be done in one hour. But moreover, being constantly in relation which clients and the media although outside working hours and in the weekend.