Online Advertising has been around for a while now in New Zealand, as have the search engines, but online PR is evolving out of a few different, traditional and new media disciplines. Here is what its likely to evolve to over the fullness of time… bearing in mind that online advertising spend is a princeley 6-7% of the total advertising pie. But with recessionery tendencies in The Land Of The Long White Cloud, companies often cut back on advertising and rely on good old PR- these days the new media make this all the more desireable…

Online Communications Audit

• Monitor non-advertising presence on the web as well as competitors.
• Develop strategy based on those findings
• Marketing Communication goals implementation
• Review of brand promise / content / service offering
• Google alerts program

Online Content Development

• Optimizing content for key words, seo.
• Strategic Communication Plan to get new users to your site / business
• Reviewing opportunities for blogging, online video, social networking integration, community building.
• Identification of eBook and white paper opportunities
• Response programs (with customers, prospects, the market, q&a, forums,)
• Newsletters program development – strategy and implementation.

Online Promotion

• Search engine listing strategy & implementation
• Search Engine Marketing
• Pitching to online media and co-ordinating firms blogger relations efforts.
• Monitoring and developing firms social networking presence on Linkedin.com, facebook, Google channels etc.
• Writing / editing search engine friendly media releases.
• Partnership development -Online Joint venture events / mailings /publicity- reciprocal link programs, shared service offerings

Online Research

• Perceptual tracking and analysis of company / product / service / issues / trends
• Instigation of discussions in forums for feedback
• Soliciting user reactions to products
• Competitor information

Media Relations

• Identify online / traditional media focussing on clients industry, product or service
• Develop contacts in online traditional media
• Suggest stories and article marketing about client to online / traditional media
• Follow story trends and pitch stories that feature the client
• Distribute and follow up releases online / traditionally
• Collect client news from online & traditional sources and report to client

Online Events

• Spokesperson tours (online video interview)
• Promotions
• “live” online meetings, webinars, teleseminars, training sessions
• Online press conferences
• Product launches

Online Crisis Management (Copycat sites, critics & stealth websites)

• Identifying, tracking and correcting misperceptions and false statements
• Rumour control
• Create landing pages, updated information, online repository of information during a crisis for media and the market.

Online Investor Relations

• Update investor relations info regularly
• Analyst briefings / supporting medium
• Investor contact
• Online q&a’s
• Cyberchats with company officials
• eMail and online newsletters to current and prospective shareholders

Many clients and their marketing departments I have spoken to are starting to cotton on to the fact that PR and marketing is evolving.

I recently spoke at the New Zealand Direct Marketing Class and the general feedback from the marketing professionals in the room was that they have realised that online is an important element of their lives, but are now trying to figure out how to fit “online” into their marketing programs.

I know from my own experience in launching a web community that online proffessionals – just like marketers all those years ago, love to use jargon that makes their area of expertise feel special.

The trick for New Zealand online practitioners and especially online pr professionals is not to go in so “hot and heavy” armed with jargon. The online concepts need to be translated and rolled out in stages.

Marketers that I have spoken to want baby steps and also want solutions that are practical and that demonstrate tangible results at least in the medium term.

So, this blog is dedicated to explaining how to make online pr work for you . If you are a progressive, busy executive thats been there and done that-have realised that things have moved fast and you want your business to benefit from the shifts that are occurring in online communications, then this is the blog for you. We’ll aim to cover off these subjects and more over time:

• Simple ways to “plug in” to online PR and achieve business outcomes
• Translated “plain english” techniques for building presence and profitability online
• Is it important to do an online communications audit? What are your competitors doing?
• An integrated view (traditional and new media) of content developement and promotion
• Integrating offline and online promotion, inclusing sem (Search Engine Marketing)
• Online research, media relations, events,crisis management and investor relations