Perry Rogers: How the Internet Has Changed Public Relations

The nature of marketing is changing. Not only is it getting more complex, but the growth is happening at an alarming rate. Identifying the nature of each marketing job is nearly impossible, and journalists and Internet experts are as involved as marketing as public relations. I have worked in PR for my entire life, and people approach Perry Rogers and PR Partners because we have managed to stay on top of the newest trends.

About Perry Rogers:
Serves as the President of PR Partners (Started in 2008). Graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in Accounting as well as attended the University of Arizona where he successfully completed his law degree. Mr. Perry Rogers is a board member of one of the most popular theme parks in the country, Six Flags. He knows business very well and he has several ventures which continue to be a success. One of those includes being a co-founder of Meadows Bank. He also has held an interest in PURE Nightclub which is located in Caesars Palace Las Vegas. [Full Resume for Perry Rogers]

His company, PR Partners, focuses on managing the careers, PR, and legacies, of the highest valued sports professionals. They offer a variety of services including endorsement management, NBA contract negotiations, media packets, TV, Radio, Print & Web exposure . A few of their clients include Kyrie Irving, Harrison Barnes, Todd Wilbur, George Whitfield Jr., and Shaquille O’Neal. His company has proven to be successful in their client’s careers and even beyond. One of the biggest benefits of his firm is not only his personal experience but to their contacts which can provide tremendous opportunities not only for sports professionals but actors as well.

You can read much more about him and his company on his LinkedIn below:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/perry-rogers/98/b73/a79

The Changing Climate

How has my job changed? Well, today I do not just wriggle brands into the public eye using journalists. I need to influence people online using social medial. I market content to improve public image. My company deals with sports professionals as much as newspapers/media. Regardless of how much the field changes, there are two overriding principles I believe will always hold true:

1) Trust matters. If a person does not believe in my client’s brand, the client’s business suffers. Whether he or she fears the ability to perform a service or deliver a quality product on schedule, trust guides purchasing decisions.

2) The message must reach as many people as possible. It does not matter how great your message is or how trustworthy the brand appears. If nobody knows about a company, they cannot use their services.

Improving Reach

Speaking very broadly, the internet has divided reach into a two-pronged campaign for every client we take on:

1) Journalists. PR experts have historically relied on journalists to convey their message. Press releases and articles are written by or on behalf of clients, and they need to be published somewhere. Journalists are a trusted source of material. Reading the newspaper used to be a daily or weekly occurrence. The hard-working father reading the newspaper with his morning coffee was a stereotype for a reason.

However, a journalist’s reach is limited by what medium he or she uses to reach the public. There is a stark difference between publishing in a local paper versus The Washington Post.

2) Online. Influencing customers online and establishing trust is perhaps more dynamic than using traditional print and TV media, but the basic principles are the same. Customers have to be aware of the brand, the company’s message, and its content. Content quality and customer interaction are much more important. Social media determines how effective a company is at interacting with and responding to customer’s criticisms and concerns.

Both of these outlets for improving reach are important, and each company needs to use them differently. A company selling software specifically to younger audiences will rely more heavily on internet marketing, while an established, respected corporation will likely use both more evenly.

Other companies strive to let their customers do their work for them. Not directly, of course, but there are a lot of industry bloggers carving out their online niches and customer bases by simply reporting on certain fields. The best PR firms know how to influence those bloggers, either directly or indirectly, by personalizing their reach and pitching marketing campaigns directly to those bloggers.

This is a great approach because the public more implicitly trusts bloggers than they do direct advertisements. Ads are created by a company, and thus they are biased. Bloggers and internet personalities are seen as a kind of defense: a public phalanx set to weed out potentially misleading material and promote what is best for the consumer.

Changes Due to Social Media

Social media is turning PR into the dynamic, challenging field it has become today. The question we often get is, “How do you use social media to control public image of my company?” This is a valid question because simple mistakes now go viral and can cost thousands, if not millions, of dollars in damage in a matter of hours.

Let us think back to the Encarta Encyclopedia. This was seen as one of the best, most powerful informational tools of its time. Developed by Microsoft, it appeared on the surface to have every possible advantage. After all, Microsoft is a Forbes 100 company with a near-infinite budget, and it had cornered the encyclopedia publishing market. This was not just due to marketing; Encarta was a great product that offered better information for a lower price.

Then Wikipedia came along, and in less than a decade, the Encarta giant was dead. In another ten years, few people will remember the name. Wikipedia was created for far less money and written by the public. Experts from all over the World have donated millions of hours writing billions of words.

Social media operates much in the same way. PR firms no longer write the entirety of their own content – the public does it for them. What companies need in a quality PR firm these days is the ability to guide that content and ensure the information spreading around supplements your brand and improves your overall image.