This is a guest post by Alison Kenney.

Whether you’re looking for a job in PR or just interested in expanding your professional network in the industry, you’ve surely explored social media and online networking.

Social media differs from traditional media in a number of ways.  It can be professionally produced (e.g. by paid journalists) or can come from anyone with access to internet connection; it can appear instantly and you can interact with the author and other viewers (e.g. by leaving comments or simply sharing/voting on it).  Participating in social media, including blogs, wikis, podcasts, Internet forums and more, is a good way to keep up-to-date on developments in the industry and to share industry knowledge.  Social networking is a way to connect and network with other professionals using online tools, the most popular being LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Following are a few tips for taking advantage of the wealth of public relations knowledge and connections that exist on some of the most popular sites:

LinkedIn – have you ever wondered what to do after you connect with someone on LinkedIn?  The site has evolved over the last year, with new features that allow you to interact more with your connections.  Like Facebook, you can now update your status on LinkedIn, and there are other things you can do to start a discussion with your network, such as list the events you’ll be attending and share your opinion on books you’ve read.  There are also groups to join such as “Network of PR Professionals” “Marketing and PR Innovators” and “MarketingProfs” where you can start questions, respond to questions, see job postings and receive regular summaries of the group’s activities.

Blogs – I’m sure you know what a blog is by now, but can you fully grasp how many PR-related blogs there are?  Pretty much every agency has their own blog and many of the firm’s principals have their own blogs too – most can be accessed from the agency’s home page.  If you don’t already do this, set up a blog reader, such as Google Reader, Rojo.com or Bloglines, so that the blogs you want to follow regularly are streamed to your reader via RSS each time they’re updated.  Looking for new content or to ensure you’re on top of the top blogs?  Check out Alltop, Guy Kawasaki’s site for aggregating blog content by topic.  Do you blog?  If so, what kind of response to you get from your posts?  Sharing feedback, either in the comments section on the blog or by tweeting about the post, is a great way to strengthen a connection and share insight.  Make sure your blog is getting all the exposure it can by tweeting about new posts and using SEO to make it more searchable.

Twitter – the most basic way to build a PR network on Twitter is to identify industry thought-leaders and follow their tweets.  One easy-to-use list of PR pros on Twitter is here, but there are tons of other subjective lists, too.  Another way to make connections and contribute to professional development is to participate in chats on Twitter, which are designated by the hashtag (#) symbol.  For example, Chicago PR pro Sarah Evans (@prsarahevans) started #journchat, a weekly live chat that takes place every Monday at 8 pm EST on Twitter and features feedback from journalists, PR pros, bloggers and marketing professionals about industry topics.  And every Tuesday at 12 pm EST there is a #socialmedia chat on Twitter.

Facebook – I’ve heard it said that companies view their Facebook Fan page as the property of their HR department — meaning that it’s a great place to find basic information on the company and promote internal developments.  Typically you’ll find photos of company outings, links to company blogs, media coverage and other information, activities and events that are more casual than what appears on the company web site.  Many PRSA regional chapters have their own Group or Fan page on Facebook too.

Got other tips or links to share?  Leave your comments below.

Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.  She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries.  She can be reached at alisonkenney at comcast dot net.

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Last month’s PRSA Independent Counselors meeting on Dead Public Relations Tactics provided great insights coupled with funny stories from panel speakers, including: Connie Bryant, Newell Rubbermaid; Nancy Rogers, BOLDface Communications, Green Earth PR Network; Chris Schroder, Schroder PR; and moderator: Ed Van Herik, Independent Counselor. So Five PR tactics deemed dead, or near dead:

(Paper. Paper is so out, paper actually takes numbers 1, 2 and 3!)

1. Press Releases. While the press release itself is not dead (?), a printed-on-letterhead press release sent via mail or fax is certainly not necessary today. (Hint: rhymes with e-mail.)
2. Press Kits. Big money used to be spent packaging stories in pretty folders with series of four-color brochures, letterhead-printed fact sheets, business cards, etc. Big waste of money now. Reporters don’t have filing cabinets; today they work on laptops.
   • Some clients still insist on mass distributing press releases and press kits, in spite of assurances from their hired experts that journalists do not read them (and if you emailed it, you run the risk of getting blocked for being a spammer).
   • A fancy kit or picture may catch a reporter’s eye, which means wow, you might get them on the phone. But if they’re interested, you have to resend the materials because they “filed” it right away.
   • And yes, after we pitch and call and get the reporter on the phone and interested in the news/story, they ask for…wait for it…a press release. Sigh.
3. Faxes. See number 1. If it is paper, it’s not being read.
   • Newsrooms sometimes turn off the fax machines. If it’s breaking news, it cannot sit in a pile of paper until someone reads it.
     
     Exception: Paper can be the cut through, that thing that stands out–for the right outlet, pitch and client. Obviously not anything breaking, but PAPER could cut through the electronic din of emails, tweets, RSS feeds for the right story or event.
     ….
4. Press Conferences. Breaking, hard news gets press conference coverage, and that is not usually for a “good” story. Press conferences cover politics, crises, major stories impacting national or regional audiences, or other urgent news. Like Balloon Boy or annoying reality TV people.
5. Trade shows. Connections are down, fewer media outlets are going, and they send fewer reporters. They have their place for some marketing programs, but trade shows aren’t what they once were.

Exception: Product Demonstrations. Rather than a boring press conference or trade show release, a smart engaging product demonstration can be a good way to present a new product or service to a group of reporters. Bonus if you can pull together multiple brands within your industry and offer a joint demonstration where reporters can get more information for their time invested.

So check yourself PR pro. As professionals, it’s our job to keep current and understand how media audiences respond to our tactics and adjust those tactics for best responses. If you’re still sending out faxes, printing and sending pricey media kits, hosting press conferences for every news announcement, consider this a permission slip to stop it. You’re in danger of getting a headstone in the PR graveyard.

What would you add to Dead PR Tactics?

This was a joint blog post by Davina K. Brewer, with some great suggestions from Jenny Schmitt.

Link to Original

OK, there are probably a few exceptions.  But for the most part, small businesses—say, 98%—that have either static websites or websites that are separate from their blogs are missing out on two huge advantages:

1. search engine traffic
2. an inexpensive, easy-to-use content management system

Search Engine Traffic and SEO

Attracting search engine traffic is the difference between a website that’s an asset and one that’s nothing more than an expense. If your website is not a search destination for your prospective customers, it’s not helping you very much. Oh sure, if you have a website people can go to when they see the URL on your business card or your Yellow Pages ad, that has some value. But the old idea of a website being a sign alongside the information superhighway pointing to your business is outdated and not very effective.

The key to a website that helps you build your business is search engine traffic, even if your business is exclusively local. I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a local business person say they don’t need to be found in online searches, because their business is all local. Yet, they spend (lots and lots of) money on local newspaper ads and local radio ads. I guess they think local people don’t have an internet connection and don’t use it to look for local businesses? Think again!

The number one way people look for places to buy goods and services is by internet search, overtaking the Yellow Pages more than a year ago and widening the gap on a daily basis. And that includes checking out local businesses that people intend to drive to and do business with after they’ve determined online that the business offers what they’re looking for and appears to know what it’s doing (the quality of your site and blog posts have some influence on that one).

Blogs are search engine magnets, IF they contain focused, frequently updated content that your potential customers search for. Google’s algorithms favor focused, frequently updated content, the kind of knowledge and information you already have your head. Put it into some blog posts (frequently, and focused) and watch your business benefit from additional traffic from online searches.

Having your blog integrated with your website (what we often refer to as a blogsite) gives the non-blog portion of your website a higher pagerank than if the blog is completely separate from the website, moving it higher in search results.

Inexpensive, Easy-to-use Content Management

Secondly, a blogsite makes it easy for small businesses to update any part of their website using the same backend used to publish blog posts. The days of calling the “webguy” for simple content updates will be over. You may still need the webguy to add certain kinds of functionality or to make fundamental changes in the structure of your blogsite if and when that becomes necessary, but you will have full day-to-day control over the information it displays. And that’s important, because if people are finding your site, the last thing you want them to see is outdated information.

But beyond that, the information on your site can reflect what’s happening currently and can make your website an integral part of your sales and promotion strategy. Suppose you offered a daily special to the first person each day to say the word of the day that they could only get on your website? Suppose you gathered email addresses on your website from people who wanted to be made aware when there was a sale? You could email these opt-in, prequalified customers and save yourself the expense of a radio ad or newspaper ad announcing the sale.

These are just a couple of examples of how having greater control over the content on your website can lead to more business. There are other strategies, likely some that would fit your business perfectly.

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Edward Bernays, one of the forefathers of modern-day public relations, was a master of propaganda analysis. On the heels of World War II, after the world had seen Hitler’s PR machine in action, he wrote,  “Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.” We have learned much since then.

While propaganda has become as vile as dropping the “f”-bomb among colleagues in the Pope’s presence, we have and always will frame messages to emphasize certain features of reality and minimize others to shape perceptions.

As such, there are 12 laws of message framing we should know:

1. Any issue can be framed and presented in the marketplace of ideas.
2. Each frame influences a person’s goals, interest in the issue being framed, and how a message is received.
3. Dominate the framing of any issue helps to strengthen your communication objectives.
4. Your environment affects how you perceive and frame issues.
5. The right images and words packaged together resonate with people if they are credible, correspond to pre-existing notions, and tell a good story.
6. What you believe, how you believe and the amount of support generated among groups determine a frame’s power.
7. How you frame an issue determines how others perceive you.
8. Strong frames motivate people to action, which, in turn, strengthens the social bonds of that group.
9. Connect your frame to a cultural value and promote its news value strengthens its resonating influence among journalists.
10. Adopting and connecting your frame to larger social frames increases its influence.
11. Frames linked to moral values ensures a groups perception will be shared.
12. The more inclusive a frame is, the greater its influence.

In any public relations undertaking, it’s important to understand how you can make framing work. The success of failure of your campaign depends on it.

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