For online practitioners its often about pushing the envelope, being innovative and introducing the next widget.

But many clients that I have spoken with are more focussed on

• How can this help me achieve my business objectives?
• How can I make this cost effective?
• How can you make this easy for me to try out so that I can see the results for myself?

As we potentially head into “technical recession” this will become even more evident. Traditionally PR does very well in these conditions and this cycle will be no different.

“Give me measureable results and I’ll give you my advertising budget” is a typical response from CEO’s and decision makers and the reason why PR (online and tradtional forms) will grow in the 2008 and 2009 fiscals.

What’s more – PR now has the power of search engine optimisation and online marketing as a discipline to help clients build their reputations and create inbound links to their profiles, stories, websites and products.

The onus rests on practitioners to keep it simple and have an empathy for clients navigating rising input costs and provide them with comfort that online PR can actually help reduce risks for them, increase brand awareness, build reputation and marketshare in an environment where competitors have gone to ground trying to keep their head above water.

Smart companies will use this time to gather momentum amongst their online users and audiences and smart practitioners will help them deliver value, not by delivering over the top innovation all the time (though this has its place), but by focussing on delivering tangible business outcomes.

Many people have given into curiosity and “Googled” their names -or put their names into any of the search engines for that matter and regularly keep tabs with what is being portrayed about them on the web.

Who is responsible in your organisation for monitoring the conversations that your customers or your staff or their friends or your competition have about your company, your brands, your executives? Do you know what is being said / written about your business in blogs, in the social networking communities.

If you did know- you would also be able to be proactive in managing the issues.

Some companies are finding it strategically valuable to monitor conversations and even engage with people who mention them in the social media. In the old days of marketing you would commission a very formal research report or conduct focus groups to understand trends and conversations about your brand values. These still have their place, but today it’s possible to gain some insight by simply being aware of the tone of your markets blog posts, social networkingchatroom conversations about your company and brands online.

Customer Q& A’s and complaints can also suddenly be captured by the search engines – blowing out small incidences into larger ones.

When last did you track one of your own media releases on Google – the major search engine in New Zealand? What environment do these releases find themselves in ? Is it favourable or hostile?

Barry Hurd, the author of a popular social media consulting business gives some simple tips like creating RSS feeds or using your personalised Google page to monitor key words and phrases. He also gives some great basic questions that companies should be asking themselves about managing their brand and online reputation in this article…

The press release is dead. Long live the media release!

The power of newspapers around the world have shaped the vocabulary of public relations professionals for decades, with those corridors of power dictating the shape, length and content of client’s release.

Today however, with the rapid assent of new media, the industry has moved to calling them media releases, since there are so many options for the eventual publishing of the material.

The Earth Times recently published a very good article on how to evaluate if your media release is making the grade. Does your release appeal to search engines? How readable is the release? and gives it a score. It’s a neat tool and its free. Not quite as comprehensive as fully optimising your release, however, it’s a good first step.

Link updated to a tool from Hubspot – Here is the link to the article.

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

One of the most balanced articles I have read recently was by AC Croft originally published in the Public Relations Quarterly 2008 and republished on redorbit.com has the following discussion points:

• The emergence of “New” / Emerging Media
• The difference between Traditional and New Media
• The Evolution of the Press Release
• Three simple steps for getting up to speed with Changing PR landscape
• What he’s learned so far?
• Emerging Media has already emerged
• The other side of the coin
• Finding your way through the media Abyss

What is interesting from a New Zealand perspective is that this article paints a view of our immediate future. Only early adoptor clients and PR agencies and indeed media are embracing New Media at the moment. However, this early adopter group is beginning to see results and will help bring the follower markets into the fold soon.

The most important outtake for New Zealand business is to get in there and trial before your competitors take the “hearts and minds” of your consumer base, build a relationship and a brand experience online and steal the show.