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Interactive PR
Related pages
Interactive public relations (PR) has two key components:
Traditional PR
was about sending press releases to journalists hoping
they'd write about your product or service, and schmoozing
editors over the phone and at industry get-togethers.
Basically, you tried to establish credibility for your
message by getting the mainstream or industry media to cover
you.
Interactive PR
is about using the web to establish a dialog with the
marketplace, and is often utilized through an interactive agency. It enables you build credibility directly with
customers and prospects as well as through traditional media
and new media outlets such as blogs, podcasts, ezines and
portal sites.
Blogs and
social media sites let you establish a public, online dialog
with your customers and prospects that builds credibility
for your company if managed properly. The market is probably
already talking your company, products and/or services on
these sites. Recognize that you can't control this
interaction, but you can participate and help shape the
conversations by being straightforward, honest, and avoiding
overt self-promotion and hype.
Among the
elements of interactive PR are:
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Optimizing
press release content for search engines. Make sure
press releases include relevant keywords and phrases,
and include additional keywords using an online press
release distribution service such as
Marketwire or
PRWeb.
-
Promoting
social bookmarking links. This means including
easy-to-use "Add to My del.ico.is," "Add to Newsvine"
and potentially other social bookmark site links to your
press releases, and tagging your releases on
Web 2.0 social tagging sites.
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Establishing new media relations. Research, contact, and
get to know the influencers in your space. This list has
always included the industry press and analysts, but now
also includes bloggers, podcasters and writers of ezines
and portal sites.
-
Developing
a blog strategy. As a start, find and read influential bloggers in your market; searching on
Technorati is an excellent way to discover important
blogs relating to your topic, gage the importance of
each, and monitor conversations about your company and
competitors.
The second level level, once your comfortable with the
blog environment, is commenting on existing blogs. You
can mention your company, but make sure your comment
contributes to the discussion and isn't purely
self-promotional.
The third level is contacting key bloggers and
inquiring about opportunities to guest-blog (many
bloggers appreciate content they don't have to write
themselves, as long as it on topic, helpful and not
excessively self-promotional.) Finally, if you're
willing to make the time commitment,
start your own blog.
-
Distributing press releases over the web. All of the
major wire services do this now.
PRWeb,
my personal favorite, is cost-effective and widely
picked up by online news sites and blogs.
-
Building an
online press room. Make sure your website includes an
area just for the media (old and new), and contains
content such as your latest and archived press releases;
company logos in various formats and sizes; photos of
your product and key executives; a corporate fact sheet;
and bios of your management team members. And of course,
your contact information.
-
Automating
your monitoring of press coverage, branding and
trademarks. Use
Google Alerts for Keywords or another
online monitoring / current
awareness service to track mentions of your
company/product/service/ brand online, as well as
keeping up competitors and related companies in your
market.
-
Checking
online editorial calendars. Published editorial
calendars and the online versions don't always match up,
and online publications frequently only use the
(sometimes frequently-changing) web version. Check the
online editorial calendars of key publications
periodically to discover opportunities to contribute
content.
-
Podcasting.
According to MarketingSherpa's
Business Technology Marketing Benchmark Guide, 78%
of technology buyers say they have listened to a
technology-related podcast more than once. There are an
increasing number of
podcast production and
podcast promotion tools available,
-
Producing
webinars. Like podcasts, webinars are an excellent way
to share thought-leadership content online. Choose the
web conferencing
service that best meets your need and budget.
Related pages:
How to
Develop a Web Marketing Plan
Why Write a
Blog for Business?
How to Create an Effective
Business Blog
Search Engine Optimization Basics
How to Write
Effective Email Newsletters
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