Strategic Internet Public Relations was an excellent course at Full Sail University that revealed now imperative it is for a company to invest in an internal and external PR strategy. My objective was to learn how to correct bad PR and initiate positive PR strategies. However, I learned that it is not just about correcting bad PR, but being proactive to help prevent it.
First, by creating an internal PR strategy that tells everyone in the company who is responsible for what during a crisis helps the company look more professional to the media while increasing response time. Most importantly, it can save a company a lot of money from repairing a damaged reputation. The internal strategy is also important for a consistent brand voice so when employees do respond to customers, they all sound like they are coming from the same company and not a shattered personality.
After the internal strategy is in place, an external PR strategy can be implemented. Because of the internal foundation that was created, all external strategies will move more smoothly as a result of employees knowing the brand voice and their responsibilities. The best way to start an external strategy is by setting up a place that people looking for information can come and share what they find. This would be like a socialized online press room on either your current website or a new website. It should be an aggregated page of the company’s press releases, blog posts, mentions of the company in the news, social media sites, and company produced multi-media. It would also be good to have a contact person for the media to get in touch with for questions or comments. Apple has an excellent example of this.
These internal and external PR strategies are just examples of the base of what you can build on for a strategic Internet PR strategy. I am surprised at everything I was able to learn from this course in such a short period of time and I have no doubt that what I mentioned earlier will be used in my next professional endeavor.