Capturing attention, owning or engaging in a public debate, and crafting the story of your brand, industry, or company have long been central to public relations.

The execution of public relations strategies and methods in today's digital context is known as digital PR. In reality, I used to think of content marketing as a function of public relations and communications in the context of marketing initiatives. You just create the narrative using owned or earned media rather than paying for ad placements or purchasing inventory.

 Ultimate guide to digital PR(Plus tips and tools)

The goals of public relations have been consistent: garner positive attention and boost brand recognition through earned media.

However, in the case of digital public relations, your analytics may contain the following: Returning visitors new unique visitors website traffic referral, Traffic, Backlinks, SERP visibility / search share Backlink velocity and Backlinks appear to be the most important measure in digital PR.

It is an oversimplification to equate digital PR with link building. Digital PR is both something that already existed and something that should be dealt with its own tools and approach, just as 'growth' is tied to traditional marketing, but it's not just a fancy repackaging.

In terms of SEO and link building, digital PR considers links to be one input into the total efficacy of their efforts, and the quality of the link and publishing is very important.

The worth of a link in digital PR is its value for both earned media (i.e., is the publication widely read and prestigious?) and owned media (i.e., does this placement assist us increase our owned content in SEO and content?).

Although link quality was important to SEOs in the past, they rarely tracked referrals or defined specific target accounts for link placements. Digital PR combines the practical approaches of link development and off-page SEO with a public relations professional's attitude. And, certainly, digital PR sounds more fancy than any of the other terms for this task.

Digital PR is only one aspect of public relations, but it is usually always carried out with an SEO plan and toolbox. As a result, it's not accurate to argue that digital PR is simply link building, nor is it the same as traditional PR before it. Digital PR is a hybrid of SEO and public relations, and the goals and KPIs will reflect that.

Conclusion

Traditional and digital public relations have the same goals: to raise awareness, shape the narrative, and capture attention for your brand. Digital PR operates solely on the digital terrain, which implies that tracking performance is a little different.

The metrics you use to measure digital PR performance have far more in common with SEO and growth, putting digital PR at the center of various tasks such as content marketing, SEO, communications, brand, and demand generation. It's a multi-functional, multi-disciplinary effort that's all too frequent for digitally native brands.