Things to consider in online PR

Today a friend asked me what Online PR was. Here's my topline summary:

Online PR is the process of using digital channels for communicating messages about a company, brand, product, service or person. This includes influencing online news channels, search engines, bloggers, forum discussions, social networks and video channels.

Before you can consider any of this, you need a home for your online PR efforts. This is your website and/or blog. A place that people hopefully want to visit, that people can find easily... and of course a place which is interesting, inspiring and useful for the people that visit it.

Making the most out of your website
Make sure that your business and marketing strategy is executed through your website. Ensure that your website communicates your messages in a consistent way but uses creativity to deliver the message so that it doesn't get tired. Create content that your target market wants to read, find out through other business channels such as customer service or site search statistics what that is for your company. Make regular content updates and create more reasons for people to keep visiting your website.

Use your blog to publish your own news releases, offer feeds to RSS readers and by email and provide ShareThis functionality to allow readers to share or bookmark your content. Make it useable.

Getting your story picked up by news channels
It is best to use an online PR distribution service to help you get your message to all the people that might be interested in seeing it. This includes journalists, international news sites, bloggers and various special interest groups. Popular newswire site PRWeb manages your press releases so that they don't get missed in the masses of PR that gets released every second of every day. PR Newswire is an alternative service that offers similar services. The following video explains in plain English how PR Web's newswire works:



Writing influential press or social media releases
It's not enough to just write a release and expect it to be of interest outside your company. Make sure that you find an angle and keep it concise and focused and keep it to about 400 words. If you make it timely to your audience it will be more relevant. Also use relevant examples that support your message. Don't forget to include images, quotations, video, or audio files as these add interest to the story. A short background on your company at the end creates context but doesn't detract from the main message.

Your press releases should not be the same as your advertising and they should not sound the same. Think about what people want to know, provide them with the facts and keep it objective. Marketing campaign headlines and copy are a definite no-no. Transparency is key in social media channels. See what PRWeb has to say about how to write an effective press release.

If you want your press release to be shared, make sure that it includes tags and links to the relevant news sharing and bookmarking sites such as Technorati, Digg, Delicious.

Optimising press releases for search engines
To be found by the search engines, your press releases need to be optimised for the web. This means that the press release needs to have search friendly headlines. The number of characters in a search engine friendly headline varies by source Jacob Neilson says on average 5 words, Digg headlines are 60 characters. It's important to include relevant keywords in the headline, in the description or summary and also in the body copy. Don't forget to include keywords on your images, video or audio files as these will be picked up too. SEO is important for online PR because this is how your content is picked up by the search engines to be found by potential readers.

Influencing bloggers
To be considered as part of the blogosphere you have to participate. That means, write a blog, comment on other people's blogs, link to other bloggers' posts. Not only is a blog the best place to update your content on an ongoing basis, it’s a permanent place for content on your brand to live on your website.  Once you have your blog, make sure you keep it updated with relevant content that your target audience want to engage with. Interact with other bloggers, link to relevant stories that they have written and they will do the same if it's of interest.

Be warned that sending a press release randomly to a blogger that you have no relationship with, my result in a negative blog post. Or at the very least, amount to nothing. Also be aware that bloggers can now get fined up to $11,000 by the FTC by not declaring financial incentives they may be receiving for blogging on a particular brand, product or service.

Influencing social networks
Social networks are the new buzz in marketing. Neilsen report that social networks are now more popular than email. There are many different kinds of social networks; the most popular ones include Facebook, My Space, Twitter, Friendfeed and Linked In. More and more businesses are finding ways to integrate with social networks, providing reason for people to link with them.  With 96% of US online retailers say that they either have or will have a Facebook Fan page and 91% will be using Twitter in the next year, marketers need to start focusing on the quality of their social media interactions.  See more emarketer stats on social media adoption.

Presence on social networks needs to be engaging. What does your audience want and expect from your brand. Will they subscribe to you for news and information, like Mashable on Facebook and Twitter? Will they become a fan because your brand is cool and provides entertaining content, like Rubberduckzilla on Facebook. Are they interested in a new campaign you've created, like Lucozade Energy on Facebook? Do they want to know about offers, like DellOutlet on Twitter? Whatever your message is, you need to be delivering value in your social network activities or it will not work. Social networks are consumer spaces and they will link with you if you provide reason to, not just because you're there.

Becoming part of discussions
By monitoring what people are saying about your brand, your company, your products or your competitors on the web, you are more likely to be able to engage in real-time conversations. Buzz monitoring let’s you know who’s saying what, where they are saying it and when it was said. Social media monitoring services such as Radian 6 track real-time conversations and enable you to act quickly on the buzz whether you are responding to a sales request, customer service issues or reputation management issues.

Getting your message watched on video channels
The usage of online video continues to rise. Video is an effective way of communicating a message, particularly if it's explaining a new service, demonstrating a new product or showcasing interviews. Video is also a great to enhance creatively-led messages or enhance social media campaigns with video blogging posts. Video sites such as You Tube, Hulu, Vimeo and Metacafe provide content providers with the opportunity and network to upload videos which can be search for by hundreds of thousands of online video users.
 
Skills of a new PR person
In an online discussion about social media today, the skills of an online PR suggested and retweeted as being a mix of branding and marketing, search marketing, blogging, social media and someone technology capable. PR is an all encompassing discipline.