Grayling Insights

The complex challenge of reaching thousands of content creators

Přidal Na 28.10.2011 Od Jorge Mezcua V Germany, Switzerland, Grayling Blog, Global, World Cup, Austria, Grayling Insights, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Western Europe, Olympics 2012

The change both press and content creators are experiencing represents a great opportunity for corporations in their PR strategies.

Up to the confirmation of blogs as great trend and opinion setters, and with the arrival of the crisis to the press, corporations had content creators clearly identified, thus it was very easy to provide them with corporate information to help them do their jobs. Currently by e-mail, and through slides or fax not so long ago, the press received photos or documentation to publish in a limited number of publications directly from agencies and PR departments.

More or less a decade ago, with the proliferation of blogs and online press, communication and information have ceased to be limited to a certain number of newspapers or magazines. More than 100,000 blogs are born each day worldwide, although a minimum part of them end up being relevant and exert any influence on their readers. However, the relationship between corporations and online media must be fluid and promoted by agencies and PR departments. Online media is shaped by ordinary people who buy, acquire services and, as citizens and consumers, communicate their opinions and assessments. They are not professionals, but they share a common feature with the journalists who are paid for writing, they are influential.

The influence that this new online media exerts on consumers is enormous and as significant as that of a newspaper or even television. For better or for worse, there are tens of thousands content creators who influence the general public’s decisions. And in view of such magnitude of influential media, the challenge faced by corporations is tending to these content creators’ needs; making their work easier, providing them with the most adequate images, the accurate information, the latest data...

We know that anyone can talk about us, whether we like it or not, it is something we cannot control, but we can take the opportunity to make our information easily accessible to them, so that they will not have to depend on an e-mail that never arrives, by providing simple access to historical databases of press releases, videos, the company’s representatives accounts in social networks, photos, financial data, all kinds of resources. And in the event of a crisis, making this information available quickly and adequately is of vital importance.

Today, the only way of reaching those thousands of content creators is through the so-called “2.0 Press Rooms”. At present, these tools are crucial in order to perform an effective communication to all our publics, who are both consumers and content creators. These online press rooms must be an essential part in the corporations’ PR strategy, and must integrate all the necessary aspects so that traditional press journalists, bloggers and the general public may equally access the information, our information, easily and quickly.

These online press rooms give corporations the advantages that have traditionally made them keep their customers happy: a quick response, the possibility of talking with the actual and potential customers, capability of listening to what is said about the brand, identifying those users and customers who may have influence on your corporation. But, above all, the 2.0 press rooms are able to provide a brand’s features directly to more audience than we would have ever imagined possible.