‘Everyone’s a journalist’

 PR is changing. No longer is it a world where our sole aim is to influence journalists and editors of key media.

 Social media and the internet is rapidly gathering momentum. Suddenly everyone has become a journalist, everyone has a voice in cyberspace and the potential to influence consumer decisions.

 And that is precisely where Bridge PR is focussing a lot of attention. A recent example has been our work with the Good Garage Scheme and its ‘well oiled’ campaign which has taken up residence on the home pages of a number of key industry websites.

 The press release wasn’t issued to them but what excites me about this is that it perfectly illustrates how the world of PR is changing. If the article is not specific and more generic you have the potential for it to be picked up by websites and bloggers surfing the internet for quality material to populate their sites.

 In this case, the generic advice to motorists was the key to its success. The campaign aligned itself perfectly to associated industries and their respective websites.

 The potential there is clear to see and it’s the potential to influence not just tens of thousands of readers but hundreds of thousands and even millions. While the journalists and editors remain crucial to our industry and shouldn’t be cast aside, they no longer have the monopoly on influence and the generic approach has the potential to reach millions and what price can you put on that?