I am speaking this week at the IAB’s seminar, demystifying online PR. It is interesting that in their blurb on the seminar they say…

Demystifying Online PR - Online PR has changed the roles of creative and PR agencies in a client’s communication strategies. This seminar is aimed at both – showing how you can combine an understanding of online as a powerful marketing channel as well as an appreciation of traditional public relations best practice.  With experts from the industry this event will provide a thorough introduction to the subject, share key case studies and illustrate how you can use online communities to spread your marketing message, monitor online commentary on a brand and distribute press materials online for the best results. 

The idea that online PR is another marketing channel is a common mistake. And completely forgivable. We all want to fit online PR in a box: to understand how it integrates with our other marketing and PR efforts. So it is easy to see why it has been billed this way.

But online PR and social media relations is unique. Why? Because it is the only medium in which your brand can be ‘marketed’ without you!

OK, maybe not marketed. But it is the only space where your advocates will shout and your detractors will shout louder! To approach the discipline with the intention of spreading a marketing message is to misunderstand the huge shift in brand ownership online.

It requires marketers to change their mindset completely. I often get asked to justify budgets against recognised online marketing ROI. Online agencies and brands want to push all online activity together and create metrics that work across the board. They want to compare online PR campaigns with ad campaigns, affiliate marketing, SEM.

But it doesn’t work that way. There are no comparisons for reputation in the blogosphere. No way to benchmark the feedback and loyalty you engender by being active in communities.  

Yes, online PR will drive traffic to your site, it will increase your visibility, done right it can also generate advocacy and positive sentiment. But it is a much more complex discourse. It requires greater integration with a company’s ethos, transparency, adaptability, and basically a change in marketing mindset, from pushing messages to starting dialogue.  

Technorati Tags: Online PR, social media, online marketing, blogosphere

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Digital marketing agencies are increasingly looking to tap into the conversation on social media. Those that have expanded beyond the marketing push are reaping the rewards and finding that buzz around online campaigns can dramatically shift perceptions, drive visitors and enhance objectives.

I am on a panel at the next BIMA Dialogue on the 24th May. Matt Morison of RMM chairs the panel discussion called, ‘Igniting buzz with social media relations and online PR’. I shall be sat alongside Mark Rogers at Market Sentinel and Dan Light at Picture Production Company.

They both have some amazing case studies to example. Mark’s are Avis and Intuit and Dan will show he engaged with bloggers for the Warner Bros release, 300. I am intrigued to see how he organised an advance preview screening of the movie for an audience of UK bloggers using PPC’s island on Second Life.

Me, well I shall be outlining the success of the Sony BRAVIA ‘Paint’ campaign that we managed last year. Already pretty full, I understand there are a few places left. So feel free to book a place on the BIMA website.

Technorati Tags: Digital marketing, social media, buzz, Market Sentinel, Second Life, Sony BRAVIA

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