PR 2.0 Essentials

Public Relations is Changing

The world of public relations is experiencing a major change.

While the primary objective - to communicate and share information - remains the same, the techniques used to accomplish this goal are changing. Old-school channels such as press releases, white papers, and media pitches are making way to social networks, consumer-generated media, and other cutting edge tools.

This new frontier in public relations is known as PR 2.0. Savvy PR firms are incorporating PR 2.0 knowledge and skills. Many firms simply don't get it - yet.

One of the public relations agencies that is shaping the new world of PR is SHIFT Communications. SHIFT specializes in high-tech public relations and social media. Other PR firms are catching on.

Keep reading to learn more about PR 2.0 and what it can do for your business.

RSS - Really Simple Syndication

RSS is a form of Web syndication that rapidly distributes up-to-the-minute Internet content.

RSS prevents information overload by allowing users to subscribe only to news that is important and relevant to them. Most major wire services offer RSS-enabled press releases, so announcements will be delivered directly to interested subscribers.

Here's a list of RSS resources (readers, feeders, etc.)

Bloglines: Bloglines is a free online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content.
Feedreader: Feedreader is a free RSS news aggregation solution that provides robust,
state-of-the-art features in an intuitive, user-friendly environment.
NewsGator: NewsGator develops and markets RSS aggregation solutions for individual end users, enterprises, publishers and other online content providers.

People use NewsGator aggregators to access news, information, podcasts and other relevant content efficiently and effectively.

Integrates with Outlook
Feedsee: Web feed finder.
35 Ways You Can Use RSS Today: Get your creative juices flowing with these ideas for ways you can use RSS.
Ponyfish: Ponyfish is a free web-based tool that allows you to create your own RSS feeds from almost any web page.
How to Keep up with it All: B.L. Ochman's post on his What's Next blog describes the tools you online research tools to facilitate blogging or tracking your company or client news.
RSS Starter Kit: The what, why and how behind RSS.
RSS Directory: All about RSS. The RSS Compendium links you to information about RSS readers, resources, tools, RSS directories, RSS news.

Blogging for PR

Blogs are personal or corporate journals created and maintained on the Web.

They make for great technology public relations tools, allowing companies to provide information, answer questions, start discussions about relevant issues, and more.

Businesses can create their own blogs, or form relationships with bloggers who discuss topics related to their products and services.

The links below provide more information on how to blog for PR success.

Blogging 101: How does corporate blogging fit into the PR plan. How it is measure, and muc more.
Blogging Tools A-Z: Extensive list of blogging tools, platforms, services and ways of making money from blogging.
Blogging in the Corporate World: In this blog article Jay Weintraub looks at two types of company blogs, the corporate blog and the employee blog.

Podcasts

In a podcast companies publish files (primarily audio files) to the Internet, and allow users to subscribe to receive those files automatically.

Podcasts are an effective, yet inexpensive way to promote products and services directly to potential customers, as well as the media and other members of the Web community.

Broadcasting Made Simple: An introductory article to podcasting.
Hipcast: An audio and video podcasting service.
Evoca: Do it yourself podcasting.
Audacity: Do it yourself podcasting. Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

Social Media Press Release

A press release that is optimized for new social media channels, offering a brief summary, some pertinent quotes, links to background information, tags that identify coverage and issues similar to those highlighted in the release, and images or video.

These releases can broaden distribution and publication, and give journalists an opportunity to put their own spin on original news.

Social Media 101: Learn more about social media press releases on the Squidoo lense Social Media 101 where we cover social media, PR 2.0 and more exciting things!

Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites utilize tags to locate, classify, rank and distribute Internet resources.

Businesses can use these sites to share timely, relevant Web content - such as articles and blogs that provide information about the company - with potential customers, journalists, and other Web users.

We've focused on the most popular social bookmarking site, del.ic.ious, below.

Habits of Successful Del.ic.ious Users: How to get the most from your del.ic.ious account.
del.ic.ious Example: An example of a del.ic.ious page to track resources. This happens to be mine and it really helps to keep track of places I want to visit again, and I've found it keeps the paper level down in my office!
Pitching with del.ic.ious: Some bloggers now request you pitch via del.ic.ious. A really slick idea to get on top of email!
del.icio.us Tools: Comprehensive list of official del.icio.us tools.
del.icio.us Example 2: Here's an example of a del.icio.us page used to track media coverage of the company BzzAgent
Jon Udell demo: Jon Udell shows how he uses del.icio.us to tag information.