Is PR the new link building?
Companies are constantly developing new methods and strategies to draw more attention to their business. With companies such as Google stating that link building can harm your business, PR enlightens us with new methods to promote business.
Emerging PR methods
Link building is still active, but PR has begun to show its advantages. PR is no longer simply sending out emails, in hopes that journalists will respond and write about your business. PR includes a range of strategies to attract people. PR use social media to develop the reputation of businesses to large online audiences. New methods also include inviting bloggers into promoting businesses and products, with competitions and link related blog posts. Publicity stunts are an interactive method of promoting businesses that are becoming more prominent, focusing on memorability and social engagement. Sponsorship is another PR method that can highlight your businesses reputation, although this is a costly approach. What all of these methods demonstrate, is interaction with the consumer, which gives the company a sense of value and credibility. This is something that link building cannot produce as well as PR methods, as links can easily be manufactured, but may fail to be of complete relevance.
How bloggers can promote your business
In the new digital age, blogging has become a full time career for some. Bloggers are a great example of how PR and link building can be combined to fulfil needs of businesses, bloggers and additionally the consumers of both these. Those who blog about products are often sent items by companies to review and publish upon their blogs. The blogger usually responds by creating a link on their blog post that allows the consumer to access the website from where the product can be purchased. Additionally, the blogger may use social media to promote their blog post. This can result in the companies' name being used as a hashtag on social media sites such as Twitter and Instagram, which can draw in additional consumers to both the blog, and the website that distributes the product.
Competitions across social media
Likewise, competitions are another interactive method that uses link building. A company may choose to directly hold a competition, or they may choose to have a blogger or another website offer a prize to their audience. Posting the links for the competition across various social media networks can gain a large audience quickly, with Twitter offering âRetweets', and Facebook offering âShares' and âLikes'. This will allow the content to circulate around the networks as they gain popularity.
Penalties for those who buy into link building schemes
It would appear that PR is branching out, giving businesses a range of numerous options on how their business can be promoted to various audiences. It seems as if this could be a step into the future for how companies will endorse and advertise their businesses. As PR begins to grow, search engines such as Google will penalise those who purchase link schemes across the Internet, which will lower their websites dramatically in the rankings, and are ultimately encouraging businesses to build links naturally in the future.
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