I have come across some great articles this week outlining how the channels, tools and activities of the PR industry remain in a major state of shift. No time to set a process or get comfortable really. I think this will continue to be the case. As the channels that are used by the public to communicate, seek and provide information change so must the channels those used by PR people.

Below I will provide these links along with a quick learning from each. They are broken down into sections based on specific areas or tools that have emerged and now need to be within the skill set and awareness of PR professionals. I will write an update on this topic every few months to catch up and see what is sticking around, what is new and what is on the horizon.

  • New Media and PR

Why?
Learning: New media channels (blogs, social networks, RSS, podcasts) are becoming more important to some consumers than traditional media channels.
Read @ Readwriteweb

Examples of where New Media and PR meet?
Learning: PR people should read blog posts and decide if their pitch is actually relevant before sending it. Should prove relevance in pitch. PR people should check outreach with tools like Cision for relevance as well as guidelines provided by the blogger. PR ppl will participate in the online communities of clients, no cold calls. When emailing messages shoud be customised, not “FYI, press release” etc. Being ignored is not an invitation for harrassment.
Read @ PR Squared

  • SEO for PR

Learning Do keyword research and USE keywords.Write press releases for bloggers, provide a website link for more info if it is there for those that want to seek it out. Use a search engine friendly wire (Business wire, market wire, PRWeb, Prime NewsWire suggested in the US). Count clips and blog posts.
Read @ Social Media Today

  • Twitter (Microblogging) for PR (Follow me on Twitter @Lucindigo)

Learning: Some companies only accept pitches from off Twitter.
Read @ Marcom Professional

Learning: MediaSurvey published a list of PR people who are on Twitter. Twitter offers
1) Personal Branding
2) Knowledge
3) Relationships

Read @ PRSquared

Learning: Twitter hasn’t yet caught on with mainstream web users. Twitter adds a new dimension, described as “a highly efficient way to share, discover, and market ideas.” Bloggers/Journalists send out twitters when they post a new item. Twitter needs more stable infrastructure, but danger in messing with the simplicity of this service.
Read@ News.com

Learning: The potential upside of this trend is enormous. Anyone who runs corporate events should be scared of what transpired.
Read @ Social Media Today

  • Micro PR

Learning: Public Relations –> Personalised Relations. Micromedia is refining and improving how we communicate with each other. PR people have to condense pitch to 140 characters! #TwitPitch - Some only accepting pitches via this medium. These days, you’ll hear it first on Twitter. Twitter is a channel for casual conversation and network for breaking news. “MicroPR: forcing PR firms to approach us in the open, on open social flow apps like Twitter, and in the small, where they have to jettison all the claptrap of the old press release model.”

Read@ Brian Solis Blog

Learning: PR people should “Get out of my inbox and engage in a conversation”
Read @ Marcom Professional

  • Social Networks & Media and PR

Learning: What Metcalfe’s Law is:
“the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n²). First formulated by Robert Metcalfe in regard to Ethernet, Metcalfe’s law explains many of the network effects of communication technologies and networks such as the Internet, social networking, and the World Wide Web. It is related to the fact that the number of unique connections in a network of a number of nodes (n) can be expressed mathematically as n(n-1)/2.”
Read @ Broadstuff
Learning:
1. Use Technographics: See if your customers are using these tools.
2. Decide if it is right for your company.
3. When talking to executives about a shift to new media/social mktg focus on the value, not the technology.
4. Be prepared for the questions CIO’s and CFO’s will ask. See a full list of “COO and CFO Q’s” at the second link below.
Read @ Web Strategist- How to talk to executives about social media

Read @ Web Strategist - COO and CFO questions

  • Blogger Relations for PR

Learning: When pitching…
1. Relationships Matter, make comms personalised
2. Give Me the Information, but don’t drag on - make it succinct.
3. Is it on Topic, for readership base and their interests.
4. Who else has been provided this info? Is it breaking?
5. Give specifics on all things, who, what, when.
Read @ ReadWriteWeb

Learning: A case study of how people launching a new book pitched to Bloggers. Key - Creativity.
Read @ Social Media Ready

  • Writing for the Web and PR

Learning: Don’t veer into “undue verbosity.” On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely. Landing Page copy in particular should be in tight, readable form.
Read @ Web Pro News