What Is Reactive Digital PR and Why Your Brand Needs It

Digital PR builds relationships, gives brands visibility and builds an audience of loyal readers. But there’s another aspect of digital PR that often goes unnoticed–yet has huge potential to make your brand both relevant and authoritative. It’s reactive digital PR.

If you’ve never heard of it or aren’t sure how to do it effectively, then this post is for you. Read this article, and learn what reactive digital PR is, why brands think it’s a game changer for them and how you can go about implementing the same successful strategies yourself. By the end of this blog, you will have actionable tips which will help take your PR strategy to another level entirely.

What Are Reactive Digital PR?

A strategy that reacts to the news at the soonest possible opportunity, Reactive digital PR involves brand responding briefly to recent trends and conversations relevant to their industry. This is like doing press releases in real time. Instead of creating and serving up on a silver plate your long-term campaign, get into the conversations that are today happening about how things around you and your brand are talked about. Never wait until tomorrow when things are finished too many people know half of what is gonna come next too soon.

It might mean commenting on emerging industry reports; adding your brand’s voice to trending topics; or responding to unexpected breaking news events with a reinforcement of your authority and visibility–branding that also happens to be very close to product messages. Reactive public relations works best when done promptly and effectively, so one’s sense of timing must be taken into account.

Examples:

If the latest research to come out exposes something shocking about office efficiency, a productivity tool business can whip up a rapid reaction blog or social media post that links the study to its products.
Or if a major pop culture event triggers discussions of a sensitive nature, you might put together witty and brand-relevant content which resonates with audiences.

Think about all of those companies who hopped on the viral “Twitter blue check” conversations–that is direct, reactive digital PR in action.

Why Reactive PR Can Change the Game for Brands

Can Be Instantly Relevant

By speaking to a trending topic or breaking news, your brand becomes part of the most relevant conversations around. This instant exposure helps you to stay at top-of-mind and presents your business as being current and involved. People like it when brands appear to be “in-the-know.”

Improves Credibility and Authority Within Industry

Whenever news breaks, your insightful or opinionated response in your area of expertise shows off that you’re knowledgeable and authority. Journalists, bloggers and influencers often seek out industry experts to feature of which you might be one, gaining you valuable backlinks and mentions on your SEO.

Increases Engagement and Social Sharing

Consumers love seeing brands jump into trending conversations, especially when it is done creatively or fun. A tweet, Instagram post, or short turnaround infographic that’s right on the money to a current event can stimulate engagement and lift brand awareness.

Provides Many Good Opportunities for Link Building

Reactive digital PR naturally brings about media exposure, guest blog opportunities, and referrals back to your website or sponsored content. Quality backlinks are crucial for SEO, and staying relevant in your sector raises your domain authority.

Deepens Your Brand

Not all brands are capable of pulling off successful reactive campaigns with agility or creativity. If you can consistently deliver smart, relevant answers it sets your brand apart from the crowd as agile, modern, and innovative.

How to Carry Out an Effective Reactive Digital PR Strategy

Stay Updated on Trends and News Related to Your Industry

Reactive PR starts by monitoring what’s happening in your field. You should have Google Alerts set up for the keywords that are relevant to your industry or profession and be on top of all conversations taking place on twitter. Tools like BuzzSumo, Mention, and SEMrush can help you track all the trending topics or mentions that line up with your brand.

To make sure you don’t miss any opportunities, do this daily or even several times a day during peak times. In reactive PR speed of response is everything!

Set Norms for Content Creation

Not every topic will be the right fit for your brand to comment on — so establish some guidelines that will help you decide. Is a particular trending topic in line with your company’s values, target audience, and expertise?

Ask questions like:

Is the topic relevant to our brand or industry?
Can we offer unique value or a fresh perspective on this?
Will it resonate with our audience?

For instance, an educational app may well avoid commenting on political events but will gladly grasp opportunities when the conversation turns to new directions in online learning.

Grab The Bull By The Horns

There’s no time to lose in reactive PR. If you take too long to respond, buzz surrounding a topic dissipates quickly and the power of your efforts is greatly reduced.

Streamline your approval processes as much as possible. Give your PR and marketing teams the authority to act when breaking news occurs with as little red tape as possible. If more timely responses are necessary, perhaps you can develop pre-approved templates for brand message.

Don’t Just Follow the Trend

Without tying a trend or news piece back to your product or brand where you can, one common pitfall of reactive PR is to take it as a promotional mouthpiece and therefore deleted promptly.

Example:
During a large power failure affecting millions, it would be sensible of a portable power bank brand to create a useful content piece offering tips for staying charged during emergencies. All the same, they should at the same time position their product as the one that best solves the problem.

Content that’s reactive should not only make the audience feel that’s current, it should also add value. When you shoehorn your brand into conversations where it isn’t appropriate, it can look as if you’re pandering, or even as if you’re trying to take advantage of circumstances.

Use the Right Channels

The type of reactive content you produce will depend on the topic and the platforms your audience frequents. Here are some ideas:

Twitter Threads for quick comments on breaking news
Press Releases or blogs to offer detailed thoughts on industry developments
Infographics for a visual dot-point breakdown of a trending topic
TikTok or Instagram Reels for creative spiels about trends that are going viral

Repurpose content when suitable by tweaking its format or tone for different platforms.

Measure and Optimize

After you have started a reactive PR campaign, measure its performance in order to understand its effect. Keep an eye on metrics such as:

Engagement in social media (likes, shares, retweets)
Website traffic that PR placements of gotten you
The number and quality of backlinks earned
Media mentions or exposure
Leads or conversions driven from reactionary campaigns

By studying this data, you can refine your future strategy and make any necessary improvements.

Examples of Successful Reactive Digital PR

Oreo – Dunk in the Dark

During the infamous 2013 Super Bowl blackout, Oreo quickly tweeted, “You can still dunk in the dark.” In an instant the tweet went viral. It is a clear example of the power of reactive PR when carried out with creativity – as well impeccable timing.

Innocent Drinks

As rising stars of social media, this UK-based juice and smoothie brand provides humorous and engaging content that ties in well with their playful, friendly image again and again when new trends or fads emerge. They seem to be past masters at melding those current topics with just the right touch of their own brand.

Netflix

Netflix’s ability to humorously respond to memes or viral trends, in addition to pop culture events, has really appealed to their quick and digital-savvy audience. And once again this new wave of thought has helped them significantly raise viewership rates around their shows general publicity for the platform.

Making Reactive Digital PR Your Brand’s Strength

Reactive digital PR is a powerful tool to boost your brand’s relevance, credibility, and visibility. As with any element of marketing strategy, however, it requires careful planning and thoughtful execution. By keeping yourself informed and acting quickly, as well as ensuring that your content always provides value, you can amplify your voice and emerge from a crowded space.

If you are enthusiastic about taking up reactive PR but are still not sure where to start, consider one of our custom PR solutions that will take your message and media exposure to a higher platform. Start creating a reactive PR strategy now and watch your brand’s reputation soar.