Getting in front of the audience
Here are some key takeaways for PR professionals from the Meet the (New) Media panel that I moderated for the New York chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) on November 29, 2006.
- Know where your audience is online.
- Get in front of your audience. Use techniques like search engine optimization, online marketing and content syndication to increase visibility.
- Read the blogs and publications your audience reads. Pick up the RSS (really simple syndication) feed to stay on top of updates.
- Know who produces the content and what sort of information they find most useful.
- Personalize your information to the writer’s interests. A colleague of mine often says that online, “the riches are in the niches”.
- Brevity is essential. Forget the press release. Instead, craft a succinct, relevant and compelling overview.
It’s all pretty basic stuff and shows that PR professionals really can and must take advantage of online communications. The most important thing is to understand what works online. This comes through experience and familiarity with the online space. As a bonus to readers of this blog, I am offering a document called The Changing Media Landscape (PDF 170 KB) that I prepared for my colleagues at Fleishman-Hillard. This is a good primer for those less familiar with digital media and online PR that outlines some of the tools and techniques we use to navigate new communications.
The PRSA panel of experienced new media types included:
- Rod Kurtz, Senior Editor, Inc.com
- Will Femia, Blogger, Clicked
- Bart Feder, The Feed Room
We also celebrated the most popular Meet the Media event in the chapter’s history with almost 100 registrants. It’s definitely a sign of the times. Congratulations to Paula Horri (pictured below in the lower left corner) who organized the event.
Technorati Tags: prsa, newmedia, meetthemedia
November 30th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
The Sum of the Parts
Thank you, David, Paula, speakers and all organizers for hosting the panel. Each speaker was so informative on his own; the bonus was the play-off between them during q&a. I felt they peeled away one layer of the blog-onion for me, thanks to their collective discussion. Would you consider hosting a continuation? Perhaps with a focus on how this new media stream motivates users to act (following on Will’s anecdote about the people in China who are fund-raising for tsunami victims from their activity on Second Life).Thanks again for enlightenment!
November 30th, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Thanks for the comment, Sarah. I’m glad the session was useful. We can definitely explore a continuation. I suspect that PRSA will probably host another session in 2007 given the popularity of yesterday’s event. In the meantime, we can always do something less formal and pull together people who want to explore social media over drinks or dinner on a monthly basis. If anyone is interested, leave a comment here and we’ll figure out the best way to continue the dialogue.
David
December 1st, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Hey David, great event, glad I made the scene! (I’m in that pic somewhere). Two quick thoughts: first, congrats on including Bart Feder. I’ve been to a lot of things about online video and he’s the first to bring it from a TV journalism background. He was way more dynamic than I would’ve guessed at first blush. Second, I hope someday we can dispense with the ‘how to pitch’ portion of these events. It takes up like, 30 minutes of a 90 minute event.
Did you detect a mild undercurrent of hostility in the room to new media? I often feel it and it kinda saddens me. PR people are in the ultimate curiousity business. We should all be interested in anything and everything to do with new ways to communicate.
December 1st, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Hi Jason. You’re exactly right about needing to be interested in new ways to communicate. I find the evolution of communication incredibly exciting. I don’t know that I’d describe the undercurrent as hostility. I think for many, it’s a general resistance to change. But just as the media industry has decided to embrace change, so must PR professionals. Many are with great success. I often tell people that what we do hasn’t changed, but the way we do it is changing and will continue to change. It takes a while to come to terms with this, but when I see people “get it” there is an incredible amount of passion and rejuvenation. The business of communication is more exciting and more diverse than it has ever been.