Why Is Digital PR So Important for Financial Service Providers? Buzz Dealer’s CEO Uri Samet with the Answers

Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Uri Samet, founder and CEO of the leading global digital PR firm Buzz Dealer, which had opened an additional office in Cyprus earlier this year. While many financial companies already understand the importance of shifting themselves to the digital age in terms of service and implement their strategies accordingly, there is still much not known about how to make your public relations efforts take that step as well.

In our conversation, Samet took the opportunity to explain what digital PR actually is, how it is different from the traditional version we are all accustomed to, and how it has to do with online reputation management (ORM), as well as to provide us with some insightful tips on how to do digital PR the right way.

“We founded the company back in 2008, when the world of digital PR was still in its diapers – so we were basically pioneers in it. Today, after over a decade and a half, I can truly say that we not only specialize in digital PR, but we literally developed alongside it, and that means that we are always up to date with how it is evolving (and it is always evolving).

“Buzz Dealer was one of the first firms, for example, to dive into the world of online reputation management – but I guess we will be talking more about that later. Recently, as you know, we expanded our outreach and opened an additional headquarters in Cyprus, which reinforces our focus on the financial services sector in Europe.”

What exactly do you mean, when you say ‘digital PR’? How is it different from the PR of the old world?

Public relations (PR) is all about getting yourself heard, and getting your message out there. If, in the offline world, that meant making the right connection in order to spread your word – mainly through journalists and people from the media – today, in the digital age, the rules have changed.

The World Wide Web is a source of many new opportunities to spread your word faster, stronger, and wider – but you have to learn how to play the game. You need to know how to do proper SEO, link-building, organic and paid social media work, and the list goes on. These are all part of public relations in the digital age.

In short, if ‘traditional’ PR is a wagon going down the road, digital PR is more like an airplane flying at super fast speeds. It is a completely different game with different rules in terms of how, when, where, and most importantly how fast things are done

Why is digital PR so important for the financial sector?

I actually have a special connection to this sector, as I did my bachelor’s degree in economics. In the financial B2C sector the client’s trust plays a key factor in their decision making process on whether to engage with a certain brand or not, more than most other sectors. When your business is people’s money, you just can’t get anywhere without trust.

Now, we all know how hard it is to earn a customer’s trust, and how easy it is to lose it. That is especially true, once again, in the digital age, when anyone can cause damage to your reputation and image with just a few letters of a keyboard.

One of my first clients once said to me that ‘trust is one of the hardest things to earn, because it is very hard to show the efforts that you put into the process of earning someone’s trust’, and that saying has stuck with me ever since. You need to work hard, not only to earn trust, but also to show that you appreciate the trust you are given, and you don’t take it for granted. Digital PR is all about that – about getting that message through.

How long has Buzz Dealer been doing digital PR? How did you start off?

Well, technically, our first venture in the field of digital PR was back in 2014, with an online self-serve service for submission of press releases that we established called “Bring the Press”. We at Buzz Dealer wanted to find an innovative and technological solution to spread press releases online, when press releases on the internet were still a bit of an enigma. This project was successful, and it opened our appetite for further exploration

I think that this is what drives us: our hunger to always learn and not to rest on our laurels. Today’s digital PR know-how will probably not be enough for tomorrow, so you should never skip class. If you don’t make an effort to stay ahead, it won’t take long till you stay behind, and that is especially true in the world of digital marketing.

You mentioned reputation management before, and that’s another service you present as one of your main strengths. What is it, actually, and how is it connected to digital PR?

Alright, let’s try to explain what ORM is all about. Simply put, we are talking about online reputation management, meaning controlling how you as an entity are seen online. When I say entity, I mean a person, a brand, a business, an organization, a movement, you name it.

In other words, when it comes to ORM, the entity is in the center. That means that you need to control what people see about you when they search you up online. Thus, you need to first and foremost make sure that you are there, in the online world. Whether it is a website, social profiles, or branded blogs, your entity has to show up and get predominance.

The next step is to make sure that you are noticed, and noticed the right way. What are news sites saying about you? Is your business getting good reviews? When you release a statement, who quotes it? And so on. As you can see, ORM has some overlap with digital PR, but the focus here is on you (or your company) and everything that can be found on you online, and not just on the specific message you’re looking to spread.

Okay, so that naturally brings us to the next question: What is the relationship between ORM and digital PR? Don’t they contradict each other, in a sense?

Not necessarily. I would say they complete each other. Part of maintaining your entity’s image is sending the right message to the right places, so digital PR is a part of almost every ORM process. But digital PR also serves many goals other than ORM. I would even say that even if your online reputation is spotless, you might still need digital PR for other purposes.

How did Buzz Dealer develop its status in the financial services and fintech sectors?

I can definitely say that we started off slow and built ourselves in the process. After working with several initial clients in this industry, the team at Buzz Dealer was able to identify its unique challenges, and to find customized solutions. Again, back then there was little understanding of what digital PR is, but people did grasp that in order to do PR in the online era, you need to do something different.

From there, I guess it was word of mouth. One success story led to another new client, and then it kind of snowballed. This means that we are doing something right, even if I can’t really describe it in words. We do work with other sectors though as well, such as medical, tourism, legal, real estate, lifestyle and others, alongside personal ORM for public figures and even private people who wish to be better represented online. I will always have a special sentiment for the financial sector, though, which pretty much kick-started our journey and got us to where we are today.

Alright, we won’t finish off without a few golden tips for every CEO and CMO reading us now, who want to know how to improve their public relations efforts.

Here are my three rules: First and foremost, Google yourself as if you were a client. In order to understand where, when and how you are present online, you should think like someone who can potentially have interest in you. Try different versions of your brand name, different industry keywords, even different geo-locations. Before you start doing digital PR, or managing any other aspect of your online reputation, you should have a clear picture of where you are standing.

Also, try to find the blindspots and warning signs. Check every possible corner. Is your website not indexed properly? Are some competitors getting in your way on different keywords? Is negative or misleading information about you receiving extra attention for some reason? Try to find out what you could possibly be doing wrong, in order to fix it.

Last but most importantly, own your digital assets. Make sure that Google knows you. That includes any external source that Google relies on for information, coherency of your social media profiles, your Google Knowledge Panel or Google My Business, etc. If this sounds like a foreign language to you, don’t worry. Your digital marketing department will know what we’re talking about, and if they don’t, we’d be happy to connect with them and assist.

Thank you! When will we be seeing you in Cyprus? When do you plan to open your new headquarters?

Actually, Buzz Dealer is already there and operational. We are also recruiting some additional team members to join our local team. Talk to us if you think you have a skill that you can offer us, or if you want to know more about what we can do for you. Our working hours are Monday to Friday from 9AM to 5 PM, and we’d love to hear from you.