PR finds its webbed feet in 2011

ost disrupted by the rise of Social Media and online content in the last few years, Public Relations is - as a matter of necessity - bobbing back to the surface with new and sophisticated methods of doing PR on the Web.





As communication becomes instant and the public gains more access to talk directly to companies online, PR is evolving to capitalise on the power of real-time communication, social-sharing and crowdsourcing, while making use of a wide cross-section of media and content forms to get traction in the new media environment.



The social-sharing dynamic





Newspapers, websites and "channels" are less important than individuals are to the dissemination of information. PR’s need an acute understanding of the social sharing dynamic and know how to create content that is likely to be shared; by using controversial or catchy headlines that are more likely to be tweeted, for example. An article on a website (unless it’s circulated by people online) is a dead duck. This might mean PR’s need to include more multimedia content such as video, podcasts, infographics, graphs, original research and stats into PR pitches to get the attention of not only journalists, but their readers, and their reader’s readers, ad infinitum.



Crowdsourcing to create buzz and interaction

Crowdsourcing has emerged as a creative PR technique in which a brand issues a challenge to a crowd, rather than a press statement. Crowdsourcing is an ideal way to involve customers in the development of your value proposition and products, and results in brand awareness and close relationships with a large prospective client base.



In a recent case, FNB involved crowdsourcing platform, Idea Bounty , in a unique approach to solve a key business and communications challenge. They asked the online communities on various social networks to pose solutions to drive FNB’s Premier Banking clientele to move to the online banking functionality. This brave move resulted in 130 crowd-generated ideas, 7000 interested people engaging with the "brief", sustained conversation on Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and a 1600% return on investment on the PR generated by this remarkable campaign.



Learn from the best: Take a course

Quirk Education offers a four-week WebPR course to help communications professionals master effective WebPR strategies to increase the reach and relevance of marketing messages using the power of the Internet. The next course kicks off on February 4 and is conducted entirely online, making it ideal for busy professionals. Sign up now.



Places are filling up quickly, so sign up now as registrations close on the 2 February. For more information you can also visit the Quirk Education site or contact Dianne Shelton at Dianne.shelton@quirk.biz or 021 462 7353.



Also check out:



PR, Social Media and the Wisdom of Experience

PR and the Web: After the Fallout