This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
About This Book
So, now you’re geared up to journey into PR 2.0. The first section of the book should be somewhat familiar territory, providing discussion on how PR professionals are moving forward and learning the best skills to work and thrive in the Web 2.0 World. Chapter 1, “PR 2.0 is Here,” highlights several strategies in campaigns that worked in the PR 1.0 landscape, including viral marketing, online newsletters, and e-blasts news releases. The chapter’s real-world stories should make you feel comfortable reviewing strategies with impact that have caught on quickly for brands wanting to create greater awareness online. Chapter 2, “Getting Started with 2.0 Research,” is a thorough review of new research techniques, which is always dear to the PR professional’s heart. You know through your past experiences that continuous research can be the anchor in a campaign and lends tremendous credibility to a brand when working with third-party research firms. And, you also know how much the media looks to PR professionals for solid statistics resulting from opinion polls they believe might be of interest or influence to their readers or viewers. When you’re finished with an introduction to research, Chapter 3, “Research with Expert Resources,” drives home how to work with the online research experts. Here, you learn how easy it is to move your research and campaign tracking efforts online or at least be able to find a good balance between traditional research strategies and what the Internet has to offer.
Chapter 4, “Reaching the Wired Media for Better Coverage,” is your chance to hear what the media thinks about building relationships with them and the best way to communicate on a regular basis. It’s always important to know how journalists want to receive information and PR 2.0 is no exception to the rule. This chapter talks about reaching the wired media for better coverage. I didn’t run across many journalists who are enthusiastic if you try to pitch them through their blogs. E-mail and IM is a better way to proceed. There always will be those members of the media who prefer the accepted PR 1.0 methods. As stated in Bulldog Reporter’s December 11, 2006 e-mail newsletter to PR pros, “In this day of bold new PR technology...pitching journalists is still all about people and personal relationships.” Good old e-mail or sometimes an old-fashioned telephone call works really well. Chapter 5, “Better Monitoring for PR 2.0,” is critical to achieving campaign success. Now you’re not only monitoring your influencers, such as the media, but also citizen journalists who are blogging daily. Loss of control of communication is certainly a concern and on the minds of many professionals. Chapter 5 digs into the best services and how expert PR service providers use new monitoring strategies to help brands uncover important Internet conversations. If brands, under the guidance of their PR professionals, have the detailed means to monitor communication as it unfolds, there’s a greater chance to get more brands involved in social networking and sharing content with audiences across the Web.
Section I, “The Transition to PR 2.0,” is the briefing part of the book that bridges the gap between the PR of the past and the PR that’s to come. Its purpose is to prepare you for the journey through uncharted waters. Section II, “A New Direction in PR,” leads you in a new direction so that you understand in Chapter 6, “Interactive Newsrooms: How to Attract the Media,” why it’s so important to have your online newsroom interactive with many different resources and outside links for the media to pursue. Newsrooms today should be filled with video, podcasts, RSS feeds, downloadable images, presentations, and even sources beyond what your brand can offer on a topic of interest. Chapter 7, “The Social Media News Release: An Overdue Facelift,” allows you to hear firsthand from professionals about the use of social media in news releases, when they think it’s necessary to use these tactics, and what types of brands benefit the most. This chapter enables you to become more comfortable with the social media template. It was only in 2006 that Shift Communications unveiled its news release template, which has received a tremendous amount of attention and has prompted PR service providers to offer new media tools for the PR 2.0 releases.
As a follow-up to social media in news announcements, Chapter 8, “Social Networking: A Revolution Has Begun,” discusses some the most popular social networking forums, including MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and how people are conversing in their communities. Chapter 9, “RSS Technology: A Really Simple Tool to Broaden Your Reach,” details how PR professionals use Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technology for wider distribution. RSS feeds serve two very important functions. The first is to provide you and the brands you work with customized news and information that occurs daily. You can use RSS as a means to monitor the market, the competitive landscape, or to stay abreast of current events. The other significant purpose of RSS is to enable your brands to feed targeted news announcements to people who want to receive customized information via their homepages or popular news Web sites. Chapter 10, “Video and Audio for Enhanced Web Communications,” tours you through new and effective video methods as well as the use of audio files or podcasts downloaded to your customers’ computer or handheld devices. Podcasts are the Webcasts of PR 1.0. Professionals are finding that podcasts are extremely popular for use with interviews and roundtable discussions. Also provided in this chapter is the discussion about the PR value of sharing video content on the Internet, which is growing in popularity. YouTube.com, purchased by Google for a sizeable sum, has garnered consumer and media attention. Growing immensely in popularity, it should capture your attention, too.
With the fundamentals of PR 2.0 embedded in your brain and a presentation of the strategies available, one question arises: Where do we go from here? This question is answered in Section III, “Embracing PR 2.0.” Chapter 11 focuses on how to immerse yourself and your brand in social media. You are trained as a PR professional to listen to the market, to know what customers want, and to monitor how they behave. This is your chance to find out what 21st Century consumers are reacting to positively and how they have negative reactions when PR 2.0 strategies go awry. Chapters 12, “The Pro’s Use of PR 2.0,” and 13, “The Mindset of the PR 2.0 Journalist,” although opinion driven, provides you with firsthand insights from PR professionals and media representatives interviewed from a variety of sources across the nation. Several technology innovators, such as Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, share their thoughts on social media.
These opinions and the information presented are the perfect segue into Chapter 14, “A PR 2.0 Plan,” which is a closer look at how all the PR 2.0 strategies come together in a PR 2.0 plan that is representative of the true 21st Century company. Several companies discuss how they are moving forward with technology to reach desired groups. Like any PR plan, the PR 2.0 plan is stocked with the required plan elements, including a situation analysis, clearly set objectives, a well-planned strategic direction, implementation of the tactics, and of course, measurement, measurement, and more measurement.
As the book comes to a close, Section IV, “The Future of PR 2.0,” is the wrap-up with conclusions that support the text’s overarching main idea. PR 2.0 is the path to great PR and more engaging conversations through the use of social media applications that enhance the communication and extend the brand’s reach in Web communities. Chapter 15, “The Path to Great PR,” offers a discussion on the “Future of PR 2.0.” PR 2.0 is here to stay, and the role of the PR professional is very different. As a matter of fact, the dialog turns to “What will it look like in the year’s ahead?”
In The New PR Toolkit, I provided a glossary of “new” terms for PR professionals. It’s amazing how these terms are now common everyday language. I would be very surprised if words such as “archive,” “bandwidth,” “firewall,” “hits,” “server,” unique users,” and “URL,” were not used by you on a daily basis. If by chance you are not proficient in Web 1.0 terms, please feel free to peruse the book and its glossary to get up to speed. With that said, after reading PR 2.0 you will have a new PR vocabulary with terms that include “blogosphere,” “micro blogging,” “social networking,” “RSS,” “SEO,” “social tagging,” “wiki,” and “vlogs.” This technology jargon has to find its way into your everyday vocabulary in order for you to truly feel comfortable in a PR 2.0 world.
With insight from PR 2.0 experts such as Brian Solis, one of the Founding Fathers of PR 2.0, and Brian Cross, another PR 2.0 communications expert, Chapter 15 guides you on how to move forward in a PR 2.0 world, personally and professionally in your everyday PR regimen. The question, “How should I move forward as a PR 2.0 professional?” is answered in increments throughout each chapter of this book. PR 2.0 prepares you to take that susequent step toward what could be your next greatest PR campaign in a fast-paced, wired, social media-driven, and content-sharing PR 2.0 world. Good luck and enjoy the ride.