In this session for in-house Brand, Communications, and Marketing leaders, our experts discussed the many ways that dedicated Digital PR efforts can transform your audience perception, and what you need to get started.

From customer reviews to social media shares, in today’s digital age such activity has a significantly greater influence on your brand’s online reputation.

In our latest workshop, ‘Digital PR – Strengthening your Reputation and Building Trust in 2024’, our experts discussed how PR as a discipline has evolved in recent years, and the growing importance of a strong online ‘footprint’ for brands - including how to frame Digital PR within a wider marketing strategy, and ways to tackle common challenges facing in-house teams online.

Our experts:

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In this Article:

  • Poor Influencer Choices
  • Existing in your own brand bubble
  • Overfocus on online reviews
  • Ignoring your smaller audiences
  • Lack of internal resources

READ OUR KEY LEARNINGS FROM THE SESSION BELOW, OR WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP HERE

5 Common Mistakes to Building your Brand’s Online Reputation - and How to Tackle them

Poor Influencer Choices

Influencer marketing has undoubtedly risen over the years as a means for brands to drive credibility and expand their audience reach but how do you determine the right ‘fit’ when it comes to influencer collaborations?

Julia reiterates, “we often do work within this space and have come across some poor influencer choices – one big hero influencer who isn’t going to deliver a lot for that business, or selecting influencers that aren’t the right fit for a brand but are recommended by upper management.

A place to start when seeking influencer collaboration is to identify whether their following matches your target demographic.”

Key Considerations when Implementing an Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Existing in your own brand bubble

Alex says, “existing within your own brand bubble can often be barrier to audience expansion or creating content that they want to see.

This often stems from the type of content they create – more advertorial than editorial – which loses sight of the fact that PR exists within earned media, so there must be a reason for journalist to write that piece of coverage – does it reflect current audience search trends?

A brand launching ‘X’ product isn't a compelling enough story, no matter how much you internally might believe so.”

James Crawford, Managing Director of PR Agency One on building brand reputation.

Overfocus on online reviews

James highlights, the most common mistake is focusing solely on online reviews and what's being said online.

You should be studying your reputation first and carry out some sort of reputation tracker to figure out exactly what it is that your organisation is doing wrong and provide some sort of strategic counsel to that business.

If you’re solely going around commenting on the reviews and answering people's complaints, you're not getting to the crux of what the problem is with your brand reputation.”

View our Round-up: 4 PR Trends to Shape your 2023 Marketing Strategy

Ignoring your smaller audiences

Katy says “Often it can be those smaller audiences that are more engaged and perhaps more contextually relevant.

So, building communities and maintaining a profile with those audiences can help better serve your business objectives, whilst ensuring you have a balanced and sustainable strategy.

Which means not discounting LinkedIn newsletters because they seem a little more niche, and only focusing on global, top tier titles but having a blend of both those things.”

View our Round-up: Measuring the Impact of your PR Activity – How to Start?

Lack of internal resources

Hayley highlights, “it's about having the internal resources in place to capitalise on opportunities.

We have been in situations where we present amazing opportunities to a client, yet they don't have the time to review it, or they’re tied up in knots in terms of the approval process.

So, it's about realising that you need to act fast and take that targeted outreach to ensure you can capitalise on those opportunities.

WATCH THE FULL WORKSHOP TO LEARN MORE

If you're investing in a Digital PR Strategy for the new year, make sure you're getting the most from your time. GO! offer cost-free agency recommendations, pitch management, and more - get in touch to get started.

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