In past weeks, while planning our Online PR for Professionals Course, (you can read more about it here) Kat, Dianne and I have been giving a lot of thought to PR and what practitioners looking to get involved in online need to know to make the most of the tools available to them. The first part of this process has involved deciding what insight we have to offer professionals based on our own practical experience, and the second part has involved chatting to people about their current understanding of this area. Through this process, I have been told some fascinating things about PR. Among other things, I was informed that the acronym so often bandied about actually stands for Press Release or for Personal Relations.* Fancy that. Granted, this confusion does not arise from professionals working within this area, but it's safe to say that Public Relations is undoubtedly one of the most misunderstood industries in the 21st century.

In the good old days, journalists were hungrier for stories, news was in shorter supply, customers trusted brands more and there was less competition in the market place for both attention and sales. PR was simpler then. In today’s economy, time is short, attention from customers and journalists is in limited supply and the people we need to reach the most are suffering from terminal information overload. PR professionals are working harder to pitch their stories and to retain the interest of their audience. A key way to do this is through the content that PR professionals distribute – content that provides value to its readers will be understood, absorbed and passed on. That raises the question though, particularly for those who are entry level in the online game  – how do we make the content that we distribute more valuable to the people reading it?

Finding the best way to communicate could require knowledge of some new tools Image Credit: storm_gal

1. Understand your audience better

It is all very well to know who your target audience is but really understanding them and their needs is critical to ensuring that you are able to communicate with them effectively. Bear in mind that when it comes to the Web, your audience is broader than you realise. Not only does it involve the media and journalists who have a direct line to your customers, but in many instances (particularly if you have a press room or use a press office) your readers will include the eventual target market themselves. Creating personas around these readers, based on both your overall marketing strategy and some additional research will give you a great starting point. Bear in mind that information about your audience and their needs can be collected over time, through asking for their feedback on your content or showing an interest in their comments or opinions. However you go about it, this  mission is critical – if you really get into the heads of the people you are talking to and tailor content with this in mind, it will naturally provide more value to them. 

2. Plan your content carefully

Too often, content is hastily put together to accompany a new campaign or provide information on a newly launched product or service. Bear in mind that the content that you distribute both online and off will be a key source of information for potential customers and for interested parties. If, for example, you own an events coordination company and you launch a wedding planning service, you could do one of a number of things. The obvious thing to do online is to send around a press release to all and sundry, to update your Facebook fan page and to tweet up a storm. While this approach will ensure that some people do get the message, there might be a better way to go about it. With a little forethought and planning, you could publish a series of articles, distributable online around planning a wedding. These could include advice on budgeting, on venues, on decorations and dresses. Articles like these can be seeded to magazines and websites about weddings and marriage, be promoted through Twitter and other Social Media mediums and complement your other service offerings. This will position your company as an expert on weddings, and while some people will take that advice and apply it, others will feel comfortable using your services because you have proved in advance that you know what you’re talking about. Journalists too will find material about which they can write stories, and when they come to you for a quote or for more information for a story, you can subtly plug your brand. After all, you have already built the credibility. Granted, this is a limited example. In reality, the options are endless.

3. Think outside of the press release box

Press releases, in and of themselves, do not provide value to anyone. Journalists see them as a marketing ploy and customers on the look out for valuable information are unlikely to find it in sales material. In the words of an anonymous individual who Mark Naples describes as an industry gatekeeper, "What PR people need to understand is that the press release is dead. It's actually been dead for a long time." What this means is that PR people need to find new and innovative ways to connect with their audiences – people no longer want to be sold to directly. Fortunately, the Internet makes this easy offering a wide number of leveragable tactics to people needing to disseminate a message or build a community. And, providing you go about this dissemination in the right way, and provided the message is one worth receiving, it will have an impact on those who encounter it. 

4. Be generous with free stuff

Last night, Kat and I went to PR Net, in part to officially open registrations for the PR course and in part to listen to Sam Wilson from Media24 and Dax from Relax with Dax talking about Social Media, measurement and best practices for PR Professionals looking to get some coverage from journalists and bloggers for their clients. It was a good evening all round. One of the things that came through strongly in the presentation was that you need to be prepared to give something back if you’re expecting free coverage from someone. This applies whether you are connecting directly with potential customers or if you are looking for people to spread your message using their existing networks and readership. Free stuff offers value in itself, provided it is something that the recipient wants. This gives you a little more leeway to promote your offering with more vigour – if they took your free stuff, the least they can is spend 30 seconds listening to why you gave it to them.

5. Write the right way

Whether on or offline, the way content is put together will fundamentally affect whether users find it valuable or discard it after a brief glance. When it comes to the Web, PR campaigns can be made or broken in moments. There are a number of best practices for writing, and a number of ways to ensure that your content is valuable to the right people, but some of the basics include:

• Write clearly and succinctly.
• Get to the point and get there fast – save the fluff for your mother who pretends to care.
• Break your text up using bolding, subheadings and bullet points.
• Make sure the facts are easy to find.
• Apply basic SEO principles to everything you write.

Need to know more about practicing PR online? Take Quirk’s PR course for Professionals.

* Every time, someone says this, a kitten dies.

Also check out:

• 5 Tips for Effective WebPR
• Journalists Hit the Web