A New Survey on Public Relations Provides Some Up-to-Date Answers
In 1963, John Marston wrote a book, “The Nature of Public Relations,” saying that “public relations is planned, persuasive communication designed to influence significant publics.” Almost 50 years later, the definition hasn’t changed all that much, but how we go about those “persuasive communications” certainly has.
In a new study released yesterday by PRSourceCode, titled “2010 Top Tech Publications, The Evolution of Tech PR,” the state of public relations in the online world was summarized by questions like “How do you measure your social media impact?” and “How do you work to engage different media?”
“Mad Men” it isn’t.
The results of the study came from an online survey of 112 tech PR professionals conducted between March and May 2010. Interesting findings include:
– More experienced PR pros are better likely “to reach publications by commenting on their blogs.”
– A fourth of PR agencies reach out to journalists through Facebook and LinkedIn.
– Almost 60% of “participants measure impact by counting ‘outlet reach,’ based on counts of followers/friends/links.”
Equally interesting are the recommendations:
– “Evolve Your Outreach: Focus editorial efforts on top publications that match your target audiences. Automate base-level activities such as editorial calendar tracking. Then re-purpose staff on growing relationships with top pubs and lead anchors.” This will equate to excellent results and budget savings.
– “Treat Each Medium Uniquely: Focus on the best methods for the individual medium.” Phoning might work to reach a print reporter, it likely will not for a blog.
– “Aim for Comprehensiveness: Develop a standard weighted scale to measure PR impact uniformly throughout all projects.” Conduct reviews and adjust the weights to react well to change.
The results of the study indicate just how much we need to keep learning about the best methods of modern public relations. SIPA will do its part by co-hosting, along with Mequoda, a July 13 Webinar titled Online PR Tips, Tricks and Traps: Steps to Make Online PR and Link Building More Successful.
If you begin to understand the online PR environment, you will begin receiving more visibility on Google and gain more Website traffic by doing so. “I will be talking about online PR and discussing how I use it in my overall audience development work,” says Mequoda’s Chris Sturk. “I plan on starting with some background, get into the creation of press releases and then discuss both paid and free distribution sites.”
It’s a brave new world, and surveys like this and Webinars are just part of the job you must do to keep up. Good publishers can turn into good online publicists, but only by educating themselves. For example, according to the survey, almost 70% of PR pros use Twitter to connect with online publications. Oh, and when it does come to measuring social media coverage, nobody really has the answer. Six methods were named by more than 40% of those surveyed!
Just as the online publishing environment has changed, and is still rapidly changing, the face of online PR is further developing into a resource that can mean more visibility for a company. The Internet has become a diverse, multimedia resource for PR professionals to reach their publics directly, and often.
Stay tuned.
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SIPA/Mequoda Webinar
Online PR Tips, Tricks and Traps:
Steps to Make Online PR and Link Building More Successful
July 13, 2010, 12:30 p.m.
There’s not much more we should have to tell you
about the importance of public relations in today’s i- and e- world.
So join us as we divulge the best practices of an Online Publicist.
During the 90-minute Webinar, you will learn:
• 2 main online PR strategies for using free press release distribution
• 4 tools used to plan and report for online PR campaigns
• 6 components needed for creating a successful press release
Online PR Tips, Tricks and Traps will provide answers
to many of the commonly asked questions.
Sign Up Now!
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