Blogging for PR

Before I got into blogging, I thought it was a nerdy thing that teenagers used to vent out their emotions.  Blogging can be a diary for some folks, but it can be a lot more.  Blogging is a great tool for public relations practitioners.  Blogs can be used to educate, inform and answer questions.  Blogs will help show a human side of an organization.  You can’t be funny or playful on your organization’s website (unless you work for Google), but you can be creative and witty through a blog.  A major key with blogging is to be personable.  If I work for home depot, I am not going to blog about what we sell.  It would be much more effective and entertaining if I blogged about DIY projects that weekend warriors could accomplish in two days.  I would get more traffic on the blog through comments and questions about the project rather than a blog that says “Buy Lumber from Home Depot”.

Here are a few keys to blogging for the PR practitioner.

You must monitor your blog.  If I worked for Home Depot, I would never blog about any racy topics, but someone could leave a nasty comment about Home Depot.  It is important that I monitor those comments so I can remove the nasty ones, but more importantly so I can get help that one person and change their perception of Home Depot.

You must participate in the blogging process.  Without any action or new blogs, you will get very little traffic on your previous blogs.

Blogging is a collaborative tool.  When I post a blog with an open ended question, I will get a lot of comments and drive more traffic to my blog.

Blogging is a great way to get the word out.  Visit wordpress.com today and create your own!

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization is crucial for organizations to effectively get their web messages to an audience.  Without Google or Yahoo how would we find information on the internet?  We would probably have to know the exact web address of what we were looking for.  Thanks to search engines I can type in key words such as Entourage season 4, and with the click of a button I am bombarded with results.  I can see an episode list on imbd.com.  I can see the Entourage homepage on hbo.com.  If I scroll further down I can watch Entourage via Netflix or I can purchase it through Amazon.  Why did the IMBD link appear before the HBO link?  It is listed first because of search engine optimization.  There are a few tips that can make a webpage more popular than others.  Let’s look at IMBD for an example.  There are multiple links on IMBD and it repeats the word “entourage” more than thirty times.  Certain things like links and words counts make a web page appear high on a search engine’s result list. Naturally this is important if you want your organizations website or blog to appear high on Google’s result list.  A public relations practitioner must work with a web designer to ensure that this happens.   Good partnership with a web designer, and good concise organization and writing will ensure an effective website.  94% of internet visitors conducted a search in 2010.  How many of those searches were for your product or organization?

Think on Your Feet

If someone asked you five years ago “What is an OtterBox?” what would you have said?  I probably would have guessed that it was a way to trap a wild otter.  If I went out to the quad today and asked a student “What is an OtterBox?” someone would probably pull out their iPhone or Blackberry and show me exactly what I was asking for.  Businesses can spurt out of nowhere these days.  Suddenly a need can arise; a need that we never knew existed.  Five years ago the average American did not have a need a fancy protective case for their phone.  Now that phones cost as much as rent, we have a need to protect them.  When new products hit the market, public relations professionals are immediately in demand.  The link I have posted is a mini-interview with Kristen Tatti, a public relations specialist for OtterBox.  Kristen worked for the Northern Colorado Business Report, which reported the advancements of the OtterBox Company.  She became familiar with the product and saw the innovation within the company and soon after became an OtterBox employee.  Kristen says, “OtterBox is working in a very fast-paced industry, which is truly a blessing. It can be personally overwhelming to stay on top of the trends.”  Public Relations is often about staying on top of the trends.  A public relations practitioner must think on their feet and be ready move when the new craze hits the market.  Kristen says it simply, “There is just so much going on.” 

 

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110910/BUSINESS/109100349/PR-specialist-move-fast-paced-industry

Building Relationships

Last blog I said that communication is the most important quality for a public relations practitioner to have.  Having good communication skills can benefit you in multiple ways.  However, the most important use of communication skills is using them to build relationships.  You should build relationships with certain publics you want to reach.  A public relations practitioner should know his or her audience.  Just like it is easier to talk to a friend than a stranger; it is easier to talk to a client you know rather than one you’ve never met.  One example of this is to take your client to lunch.  Encourage them that you want to be easy to get in touch with, and easy to talk to.  I have a real life example for you.  Today I woke up, went through my morning routine only to go downstairs to find my Honda with a flat tire.  It had enough air so that I could drive to Warren Tire on University Boulevard.   Warren Tire said they may or may not be able to get to my car today, and that there were eighty other flat tires in line ahead of mine.  I called my dad who is a salesman for a tire distribution company in Birmingham.  I think sales and public relations share a lot of their core values.  Salesmen know a thing or two about building relationships with customers.  My dad called a tire distribution and service center in Tuscaloosa named Stephens and Sons, which a previous client of his now owns.  Stephens and Sons had my tire fixed within the hour of the first phone call.  Not only did they fix my tire, but they gave me a ride from campus to my car.  Building relationships gets things done.  You never know who can help you out down the road.  As Garth Brooks says, it’s good to have friends in low places.

What is public relations?

So what is public relations?  Is it putting a spin on a message to try and sell something?  No.  Is it organizing events for corporations so they can donate a certain quota of their earnings to charities?  No.  Is it trying to pull money out of people so a University can build a new dormitory and recreation center?  No.  Is it running around like a chicken with your head cut off?  Maybe.   

Public relations is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organizational leaders, and implementing plans of action, which will serve both the organization and the public interest.  That is the definition you will get from a textbook, but what does that really mean?  Public relations is having a critical eye, knowing what consumers will want and using the right medium to get that message out.  Public relations also is having the communication skills to meet with clients to create a plan.  Communication is THE MOST important quality for a public relations practitioner to have.   A public relations practitioner has to communicate with clients, coworkers, and most importantly audiences.  A goal is an end result.  The goal for a pr practitioner is to effectively get your message out to the public.

Public relations is found in every industry you can imagine.  Everyone needs press releases and communication.  Me?  I would love to work in the food industry with public relations.  I love food, and I love to cook.  If money were no factor, I would be in culinary school.  I know the food business can be intense.  A meal can go wrong in the blink of an eye, and it is part of the public relations practitioners’ job to make sure that problem does not occur.  Stay tuned over the semester for fun pr stories, links and advice.