Professional PR Is More Valuable Today Than Ever

These are the common goals of our clients: reputation management, branding, search engine prominence. What we are doing as public relations communicators these days are monitoring blogs, online media and traditional media to determine where our clients are mentioned, where their competition is and how they can participate in online conversations and media opportunities. This is very much a PR function and it is not a new function, but there are new ways to gauge public opinion and develop ways to be part of the stories and to manage communication flow. Any good professional was already focused on establishing two-way communication. We were never about just issuing messages as was reported in a the book,
”Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” We are not in an aging business if we are working according to professional principals as those who are accredited in PRSA.org are doing.

Messages are still important but they must be incorporated in stories or discussion and backed up with real substance and be relevant to the audience. There is nothing new about that either.

What is really different is the speed of communication and the length of times it remains available for pick up. It can be very instantaneous and can also be dug up years or even decades later. That’s way it still must be thoughtful; there must still be corporate policy, parameters and controls.

What is said at the water cooler in a physical office space versus what is said at the electronic cooler (such as Twitter) are different. One is heard only by a few, and the other has the potential to be heard by millions and around the world—word for word.

We’re monitoring blogs and online exposure to establish what people in our markets are interested in and what the media is covering. It enables us to determine issues, find rumors that need to be addressed, develop story angles and opportunities to participate in the discussions.

Why? The conversation can point back to our web sites and thus us….

• Because we want to be thought leaders…
• We want our web sites to be valued
• Our participation can lead to real opportunities—work that will pay us.
Based on what we learn we can make blog posts, adjust our pay per click ads, modify meta tags within our web site, and develop story angles for presenting or writing in the communication channels important to us and our constituents.

The challenge now is finding the swiftest ways to do this in the course of business. Anyone that was “doing” spin was not a true PR professional in the first place.

September 22, 2009 | Filed Under Uncategorized | 3 Comments 

Social Media Issue for Women

Social media is all fine and well, but it shouldn’t remove the line between professional and social activity. Women should especially heed the fact that most female professionals only began to be taken seriously in the worlds of business, science, media and technology in the mid-to late-70s. Let’s not reverse the work of those who entered the workforce before us and fought hard for better positions by now being too casual in all of our online presentation. I personally don’t care what hobbies you have taken up, where you are shopping for clothes or how far you drive to an event, especially if you are entering my work space. I especially do not like it when vendors who are late on projects send me their casual tweets while I am waiting for their project deadline to be met.

September 11, 2009 | Filed Under New Media | 3 Comments 

Thinking Like a PR Pro

How can a business owner think like a public relations (PR) professional? That was the question I agreed to address in a recent interview with a business reporter. To answer the question one must first understand what PR is. It is not about promotional gimmicks, special events, press releases or “spin,” but rather a management-level function, based upon market research, and designed to manage the reputation of a company. When an organization puts this on the “back burner,” I am concerned because I don’t understand how anything could be more valuable than the corporate reputation.

In fact, in today’s dynamic communications environment proactive public relations efforts should be a bigger top priority than ever before. In this age of social media anyone can claim to be a journalist. If this is not a major concern for the CEO, then surely the risk management officer sees the red flags. Here are five reasons why PR should be top priority now, just to start:

1. Everyone is subject to a communications crisis.
2. Anyone can be a communications channel.
3. A global media environment means opportunities can multiply worldwide.
4. Our websites and online footprint define us.
5. Your competition will use the channels to define you.

Even without a huge budget, executives can participate in forums, write articles, maintain a web site and comment on articles of interest to the company. To keep this cost effective, I recommend choosing a theme that supports your mission and focusing most communications around that theme as much as possible. This enables you to repeat stories in many formats. In essence you will be recycling information, but establishing yourself as a “thought leader” on a subject that helps define you or your organization. An editor can help to polish what is written, and even a small PR agency can ensure that your knowledge is widely delivered through online and traditional media channels.

Web sites today are designed with content management software so that anyone in your company can easily keep the content current, adding articles, press releases and notices. It is also just as easy for anyone to use free Google tools to see the number of visitors to your site and where they go and what search terms they use.

Even with the inexpensive or free online tools available today, you would be surprised at the number of companies who don’t keep their sites current and don’t know what their visitors want to read or how they search for them. That would be like opening a store and then going on a permanent vacation.

What to do:
• Establish a proactive PR plan.
• Create branding and communications protocol.
• Develop processes for managing communications flow in a crisis.
• Train spokespersons to respond to media inquiries.
• Pump up the news area of web sites and keep information online current.
• Be your own channel of information.

September 1, 2009 | Filed Under Public Relations | Leave a Comment