Over the past decade, we’ve seen a surge of digital communications through new technologies that allow for better communications online. Every form of online communication contributes to a personal or brand identity. Whether it’s how you communicate with your friends, reply to emails or interact with influencers, every online communication piece contributes to how you identify as your own personal brand.
So, the same now applies to businesses and their brands. Every time your brand participates in online conversations, from sharing a blog or social post, to liking a comment or replying to a direct message, it is communicating its own brand identity.
It is, in fact, critical for your brand to have an online identity in today’s society. Unfortunately, the popularity of digital platforms have advanced so far that if your brand is not online or is off social media, it is perceived as outdated, and often unprofessional.
However, the beauty of online communication is that you have control over the image and curation of your brand and its content. You can choose what, where and how you interact with other people and brand accounts, and curate content to align perfectly with your brand’s identity in a digital capacity.
Digital communication has changed so much in recent years, that the identity of your business online is critical to your internal operations. If your company has a bad online reputation, or aligns with controversial brands online, even if there is no actual business translation involved, it can damage your business and its success altogether.
In recent years, brands have gone as far as to assign personalities to their online communications. One brand that does a great job of this is Go-To skincare, which uses consistent sarcastic, playfully boastful humour in all digital communications, from Instagram posts, to comments and copywriting in emails, as a smart marketing strategy that makes the brand more approachable and ‘human’. Just like Go-To, when working on PR strategies for your business, consider employing a tone of ‘voice’ to your brand’s communications online.
Trends in Digital Communication
The newest social media platform, with 837 million monthly active users, is the video sharing app, Tik Tok. While the platform mostly consists of personal accounts where users share videos of themselves and their personal lives, many brands of all sizes have taken to Tik Tok as part of their digital communications.
While you may think that Tik Tok is not the right market for your business, the increasing popularity of the platform and the tailored algorithm that allows users to see the exact content that they’re interested in, gives your business a larger audience scope and can put your content in front of the demographic most interested in it.
Another example of the importance of digital communications from your brand is a recent trend seen on Tik Tok. User @emilyzugay started a series of graphic design satire, where she redesigns famous brand logos, and makes them ironically worse. When her videos went viral, the world’s largest brands from Amazon to Apple and NASA, started to jump on the trend and request that she redesign their logo. When she did, they all changed their logos to her new designs.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7e8q4/brands-beg-woman-to-roast-them-on-tiktok
This was a great form of digital communication for brands who were trying to establish a new tone of ‘voice’ through their digital communications. If your brand’s content is traditionally more educational, jumping onboard digital communication trends can be a great way of reaching a new demographic or even expanding the scope of your brand’s identity and how it is perceived online.
So, what does all of this mean for brands looking to explore digital PR?
Firstly, you need to be comfortable with shameless self-promotion for your company. Your brand needs to have consistent communications across a range of digital channels, and you need to know exactly what you want those communications to look like (of course, a PR agency can help strategise these communications).
Think of your brand as having an identity, and then take that identity online. Consider how you want this identity to be perceived. Is it playful, informative, relatable? Once you’ve fleshed that out, set a tone for all of your digital communications that align with this identity, and maintain communication in that style.
As we know, PR is about expanding your company’s reach (amongst many other things), and we know that one of the best ways to do this is online. However, don’t disregard the importance of traditional PR when it comes to digital communications. Your brand needs to be creating content across a range of platforms, from news sites, to blogs, social media and email marketing, all digital communication is vital.
The best thing for your business is to stay educated about new forms of digital communications, the latest platforms, trends and marketing strategies, and how they can help you to achieve your business objectives. And for the times that you can’t keep up with the rapid pace of digital communications, PR agencies are here to help!
For any questions about digital communications and how to use trends to benefit your business, contact info@agent99pr.com
By Agent Emma.
