Chapter 1. PR 2.0 Is Here

Public relations is an evolving profession. As a communications professional, you work very hard every day to build relationships, maintain existing ones, craft targeted messages, and deliver news that's timely on behalf of your brand. Prior to the advancement of technology, increased bandwidth, and a Web 2.0 platform, PR pros relied heavily on third-party influencers, such as the media, to endorse their brands. The power of the pen and editorial coverage goes a long way in terms of credibility. That's the nature of PR—to build solid relationships and have someone else talk about the benefits of your brand, rather than your brand talking about itself through advertising or other marketing strategies.

If you've practiced good public relations in the past, then you've probably focused your strategic communications on carefully developed messages and you know the value of the third-party endorsement. PR professionals have always prided themselves on being strategic counselors. They strive to achieve successful campaigns through the delivery of strong communication programs, whether that's a program to change an opinion, build a reputation, maintain a brand's image, develop relationships, launch a product, deploy crisis communications, or use the power of a third party to endorse their product or service.

But now, the Internet changes everything: how you view your role as a PR professional, your delivery of effective communication, and the way your brand interacts with its customers. Everything you do, from the research phase and monitoring of brand communication to the way you reach out to people in their Web communities and use new social media tools to create compelling information, is changing. The Internet enables you to extend your communications in ways you never could have imagined and to connect with groups you probably never thought you could reach.

As you read PR 2.0, keep in mind that whether it's 1.0, 2.0, or any .0, you must set your mind to delivering great PR. That means creating and disseminating excellent communication with meaning and value. You not only provide important information that is useful, but you also give your customers a means to communicate in two-way conversations with you at all times. Welcome to your new and improved industry. It's the Public Relations of PR 2.0, where you learn, embrace, and engage in the true convergence of the Internet and the public relations profession.

The Web has evolved from thousands of separate Web sites into thousands of communities. People within these communities all want to share information to make informed decisions. PR 2.0 is the greatest means to provide different groups with the communication they need. It gives you the ability to use new social media applications—including blogs, wikis, social networking, Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technology, streaming video, and podcasts—to reach consumers in ways PR pros have not experienced before. Social media applications enable you to go directly to the consumer. Although brands always have their top influencers, such as the media for editorial coverage, they also use the Internet to engage in direct communication with their customers. It's exciting to realize that through social media you have the ability to have a 24/7 focus panel (just by listening to what your customers are saying) on your brand's Web site. This type of communication is invaluable!

There are many exciting facets of PR 2.0, from how it evolved to all the many intricacies of its usage today. Brian Solis, Founder of FutureWorks (www.future-works.com), who is also interviewed in the last chapter of this book, "The Path to Great PR," started promoting the PR 2.0 concept in the 90s. He was a founding father of the PR 2.0 concept and realized early on how PR, multimedia, and the Web would intersect and create a new breed of PR/Web marketers. Although you might not know it, Solis has been talking about PR 2.0 for almost ten years.^[1]

PR 2.0, as exciting as it appears, also is creating controversy over the new ways a brand needs to communicate. Frankly, it makes brand executives and their communications professionals nervous. Does communicating direct to the consumer and not following the general rule of the credible third-party endorsement through an influencer lead to loss of control of communication? Face it—communicating direct to consumers on the Web might not always lead to a "credible" third-party endorsement (especially when a greater number of citizen journalists get their hands on information and want to publish it). However, that's not a reason to avoid PR 2.0 or be hesitant of social media applications that ultimately enhance your brand communications. With PR 2.0 comes the incredible ability to monitor the communication of citizen journalists and your influencers (and, yes, now many of them are bloggers).

To digest all this information about PR 2.0, embrace the new ways to communicate to audiences in the chapters ahead, and to visualize how the PR profession is moving toward the best PR ever practiced, it's important to know where you've been and how you got to this crucial point. You need to understand what has worked in the past so that you can incorporate some of the greatest PR practices as you propel forward. There are many strategies on the Internet that have worked for years and now, coupled with new social media applications, the result is powerful and meaningful communication with consumers who demand information and want to gather, organize, and share content within their online communities.

You Can Discover a Better Way

You've probably figured out by now that the Web in its infancy was a crazy time; that craziness had to end somewhere. But, despite the turmoil of the dot-com explosion, which eventually led to the dot-com implosion, it wasn't a completely negative experience. Many professionals walked (okay, maybe they limped away if they invested in e-brands that met an early demise). with some real and valuable lessons learned. Hopefully, you and the brands you supported were not "burned" too badly, and, with any luck are still in existence today. However, every experience is an opportunity to do it better the next time around, to make wiser choices in the next phase, and to rise above each and every communications challenge you face.

When you left the Web infancy phase behind, you should have gained new insight and managed to salvage many innovative Web-based PR resources and functional tools that still serve you well and still deliver successfully for you today. The short list of these Web-based tools include

• Online media databases that offer quick and targeted list generation as well as editor pitching techniques and strategies (Cision MediaSource Database is discussed in more detail in Chapter 2, "Getting Started with 2.0 Research")
• A customized method to e-blast news releases to hundreds of news outlets just by pressing a key on your computer
• The use of online media kits or Cyber newsrooms with easily accessible company news and information (some good examples include Ford Motor Company, AT&T, and Dell's online media centers/newsroom)
• Many more opportunities to get brand coverage in publications that have cyber versions (with a separate online editorial department in desperate need of updating content daily)
• Internet wire distribution services for wider yet more targeted distribution, such as PR Newswire or Business Wire
• Video news releases (VNRs) for products and services that deserve visual PR
• Video on demand (VOD), which is the ability to archive video footage for easy download and review on the Internet
• An e-based tracking program to monitor promotional coverage with the capability to analyze how intended messages are received

That's only a partial list. So, despite the tragedy and trauma experienced by many companies, their executives, and business owners/entrepreneurs, the Internet implosion made PR pros more watchful, a little more selective, better prepared, and definitely more experienced in the proper use and management of Internet technology for brands. In addition, survival of the fittest dictated that you quickly learn how to use the Internet to work smarter—fast tool, less paper! The transition from Web Infancy to PR 1.0 showed you how to be a vital communicator, more than a paper pusher. With less paper to push and more time and energy, you focused on being a strategist and planner. More importantly, professionals found it easier to communicate at speeds never achieved before in the history of the PR profession (both for publicity programs and to employ crisis communications or damage control, when necessary). You entered into PR 1.0 ready to use the errors of the past as a springboard to a better PR future for the brands you represented.

Go Ahead, Let the Good Times Roll

One way to sum up PR 1.0 is to say that it was a time of good, solid functional Internet capabilities. The Internet is a tremendous communications channel with greater speed, flexibility, and customization than any other channel I know. Communicating via the Internet hopefully made your job easier, helped you to control information to some degree (as long as you were using the proper brand tracking and monitoring strategies, which are discussed in Chapter 5, "Better Monitoring for PR 2.0"), and provided you with simple technological advancements that were not entirely confusing. You didn't have to study IT or Web programming to understand the practical and creative benefits of utilizing e-newsletters, viral marketing, e-blast communications, Webcasts, Webinars, and so on. Most would agree that the gradual acceptance of PR 1.0 was so much easier than the struggle you might have encountered when the Web was in its infancy stage. Luckily, after the dot-com bubble burst, PR 1.0 was a period of stabilization. When PR 1.0 evolved, it wasn't threatening. The days of PR 1.0 should have made you feel good about your role as a professional. Many professionals were able to grasp the PR 1.0 concepts and carry them forward—with excellent tools, skills, and lessons learned.

There are so many reasons PR 1.0 made you feel at ease, and even more reasons you would want to hold onto many of the strategies as you journey into the unfamiliar PR 2.0 territory of today. Let's touch upon three main reasons why PR 1.0 was so good to the PR professional.

Reason #1: A Two-Way Highway

The best communication is a two-way communication highway. Every time you send an e-mail correspondence, e-newsletter, an HTML e-blast, participate in a chat session, forum, or newsgroup, and partake in a Webinar (Web seminar), you are able to immediately talk back. You can give your opinion and you don't have to wonder how your audience feels, or guess if they like or dislike something. They tell you what's good or bad in an instant. Remember, it's the PR professional's job to understand the wants and needs of the audience and to listen carefully at all times.

Reason #2: Easier Editorial Coverage

You could provide audiences with more information than they could have ever imagined. For example, the concept of the online media kit or Cyber newsroom became very popular. Not every brand had a fancy newsroom with bells and whistles. However, many brands learned that the best way to be included in a journalist's story was to make sure up-to-date company news and information was available at all times—with or without the help of a PR professional. Journalists found it extremely easy to log on to a brand's Web site, navigate to the media center, and access news releases (in some cases up to five years of archived announcements), executive bios of the management team, high resolution images and logos for download, event calendars, speeches and presentations, past publicity, and white papers. Most of all, they wanted to find the PR person's contact information to set up an interview. With all the information in one centralized area, the chances of the brand being included in a story were far greater than that of the company that didn't have easy access for the media person to a newsroom or media center.

Reason #3: Longer, Stronger Relationships

The ability to build better relationships through targeted communication is the key to brand success. The Internet gives you the capability to review Web sites of news organizations that tell you what they want to cover, online media guides that replace their paper ancestors, and newsletters and other resources that help you to refine your approach. Relationships with journalists, for example, can be built and nurtured more quickly through research on the Internet. You know that the PR pro who demonstrates a clear understanding of a media outlet and the journalist's area of interest is taken much more seriously than someone who hasn't done his homework. Not only is the Internet an excellent channel to build relationships with media, but it's also a vehicle that provides information on a brand's market and competitors. With an abundance of information at your fingertips, it is so much easier to learn about your audiences and customize communication to suit a variety of their needs.

Your Best and Most Remembered Communications Resources

In my experience, some brands were communicating quickly and regularly via the Internet, and others took a little longer to embrace the PR 1.0 strategies. There are so many recognizable and effective strategies. However, three of the most popular early Internet communications strategies that are still prominent today include e-newsletters, viral marketing, and news release e-blasts. These are discussed in the sections that follow.

E-Newsletters

There are obvious reasons why a communications professional would want to develop an e-newsletter outreach program. E-newsletters are versatile and can be used to inform and educate a number of audiences: potential prospects, current clients, employees, the media, stockholders, and the like. Remember, when it comes to newsletters as a form of communication (print or online), the optimum word is "educate." Think about how much e-correspondence you receive daily, and how many brands are deleted from your inbox. Your time is limited, so it's important to stick with the communication that informs, teaches, and provides you with the best tips on a subject matter or perhaps some type of industry information. That's the best kind of e-newsletter.

Sure, I'd like to know what's new at every company that sends me correspondence, but I only have time for the brands that send information that helps me get through my crazy day, and even better, the ones that can provide advice on how to make my day a little easier. That's why I take the time to look at e-newsletters from only PRSA, Bull Dog Reporter, Ragan Communications, TEC Papers, BrandWeek, Adweek, and Information Week. Although there are many more, these are a few good examples that come to mind. They enable me to know what's going on in the industry, from Webinars and events to which brands and executives are making important moves and have found campaign success.

The benefit of using e-newsletters continues. With an e-newsletter you're not limited to a set number of pages. The easiest way to create an e-newsletter is by designing a template. The number of pages in the template is not restricted. It's the exact opposite to a printed newsletter publication, which is usually developed for four- or eight-page spreads. You can't have a five-page printed newsletter, but you can with an e-newsletter. Each month or quarter (depending on how often you distribute your newsletter), you need to decide on the amount of news and information you want to share with your audience and then drop the contents—which can include articles, news briefs, Q&A's, Quick Tips, and so forth—into the template. Some companies don't like to commit to a printed newsletter because at certain times of the year they feel they might not have enough news for even a four-page newsletter. When you begin your newsletter program, it's a commitment to your audience. You can't send one issue as a monthly publication and then wait another three months to send out your next issue. Communication has to be regular and consistent to capture your audience's attention.

The use of an HTML cover e-mail introducing the e-newsletter, with links to the actual PDF newsletter, is very effective. When your audience receives the cover letter communication, they are able to pick and choose the articles that are of the most importance to them. By clicking links within the HTML cover e-mail, you can access those specific articles immediately and then review the entire newsletter later at your leisure, if you like. Because you can turn each e-newsletter issue into a PDF, they are easy to archive on a brand's Web site for quick access and referral.

In addition, there are two other very obvious reasons to use e-newsletters. The first is that the e-newsletter is extremely cost effective. There is no print charge for physical pieces. Although you may incur small programming charges for the HTML cover letter with programmed links, it's still much less money than the printing fees. Additionally, the images you use for Web communication in your newsletters do not have to be high resolution, so they are often less expensive than if you had to purchase high-resolution images for a print publication. Web-ready images at 72 dpi are cheaper than 300 dpi print-ready images. It's also inexpensive to track who is viewing newsletters in the PDF format on your Web site.

GotMarketing (gotmarketing.com) and iContact (icontact.com) are both good programs and cost-effective. The former enables you to track your e-mail marketing efforts for approximately $50.00 a month (up to 5,000 emails for that price). There are different monthly packages that you can subscribe to. The software starts tracking the e-newsletter or any e-blast communication immediately (as it lands in recipients' mailboxes). You can know within seconds if your intended audience has opened their e-mail to review your correspondence. The first message you receive after a GotMarketing distribution is: "Your email campaign entitled 'xyz' has been sent and real-time status reports are now available in your account." In addition, a report is sent to your inbox that details the success of your e-blast. It lets you know the number of entries that successfully uploaded and provides you with the e-mail addresses and information on the unsuccessful files that need to be resent. GotMarketing is an extremely useful tool that saves time and money for clients who want an agency to take on an in-house approach to distribution and immediate tracking.

An alternate approach is iContact, which is an entry-level online marketing program for clients who are just getting started with e-mail marketing efforts. The program enables you to create, send, and track your own e-newsletters, surveys, and releases. For example, with the "Sharp" plan you are allowed to have up to 1,000 e-mail addresses in your database for only $14.00 a month.

One final and critical reason a brand uses e-newsletters is if that brand has a technology edge. For example, if your products or services are Web based, then it would be only natural and expected that you would capitalize on the benefits of e-newsletter communication. Michael C. Fina is a great example of a company that has Web-based communications programs. Headquartered in New York, Michael C. Fina is the fastest growing employee recognition company in North America. It's known for exceptional quality products and services that many Fortune 500 companies rely on for their recognition programs. Although Michael C. Fina is also recalled by many for its beautiful retail store on Fifth Avenue, home to exquisite jewelry, china, and silverware, the larger portion of the company's business is dedicated to perfecting the way employee recognition programs are implemented to set them apart from competitors.

The Michael C. Fina e-newsletter clearly follows all the e-newsletter rules. It's branded to represent the company so that when recipients receive the newsletter, they know it's a Michael C. Fina correspondence. The color, design, imagery, tone, voice, and messaging exude the Michael C. Fina brand—so much so that if you removed the company's logo, you would still know it's from Michael C. Fina. Their e-newsletter educates and provides tips. For example, Michael C. Fina launched its very first newsletter in November 2006 with an issue that discussed an educational training seminar series for professionals, the latest trends in employee recognition, what's on the minds of HR decision makers, the latest version of Web-based e-recognition tools, and the hottest employee recognition gifts ("We all Scream for Flat Screens"). Sure, there are subtle hints of news regarding Michael C. Fina's business, such as the company being named with a Platinum Vendor in 2006, and how it won the Hearts on Fire Retailer of the Year Award. But, the company information is not overpowering or too "in your face" so much so that your audience doesn't benefit from the editorial content presented.

Michael C. Fina is happy with the results of using the e-newsletter program. It's an excellent way for the Michael C. Fina brand to remain top of mind for audiences that live in the HR world and need to access good information. The goal of the program is to educate and help audiences when they need to set up or expand an employee recognition program.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is a marketing phenomenon that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. I like to think of viral marketing as the "Word of Mouth" of the Internet. It reminds me of that simple Breck Girl shampoo commercial that aired on television years ago. The Breck Girl appears in a box on the TV screen that continues to multiply with images of her, as she tells her friends about the benefits of using Breck shampoo. Then, those friends tell their friends and so on and so on and so on, until the entire TV screen was filled with small images of the same girl. It's the same principle on the Internet. Marketers are looking for a high pass-along rate from person to person to increase brand awareness through this viral process. You might have heard the term "Astroturfing." According to Wikipedia, that simply means, "fake grassroots support online." Viral marketing is Astroturfing on the Internet.

There have been some great viral marketing campaigns. I remember when the Blair Witch Project was being talked about prior to the movie release based on its Web sites, trailers, and promotional information that almost made you believe the movie was a real life story. Sony always did a great job with the launch of its PlayStation products, with the exception of the latest version of Sony PlayStation 3. Sony's viral marketing campaign was uncovered as a sham and caused backlash for the brand (but nonetheless still talked about). It didn't take consumers very long to figure out that Sony's viral marketing campaign was created by an agency, Zipatoni, that created false video and blogs with young people pretending to be Sony PlayStation fans who desperately wanted the Sony PS3 for Christmas.

Smarties candy, the well-known brand you ate as a kid, recently launched a viral marketing campaign. It's a family business that has been around for decades. If you think about the little fruit flavored, colorful, sugar candies, how much marketing (especially online) have you seen from this brand? The answer is very little. In June of 2006, Ce De Candy, the makers of Smarties, wanted to use Web marketing to move their brand to a new level. At that time, Smarties had a simple Web site, the brand's first and only attempt at marketing. The site was designed with children in mind. It's vivid, with blocks of bright colors on the homepage, and very kid-friendly in the games section where children can play the Smarties Word Game, build a Smarties Jigsaw Puzzle, or play Smarties Air Hockey. There's text when it's appropriate (at the Smarties Store to give product descriptions) and there are many enticing images of Smarties' candy. The site is not fancy, and it's not complicated with layer after layer of unnecessary pages.

The company came up with a viral marketing campaign called Stoopid.com. The new concept was drastically different from anything Smarties' had ever seen or done. Stoopid.com looks different, it reads different, and it's not really meant for little kids. There are no bright colors or kid-friendly pages with games or images. Instead, Stoopid.com is a viral marketing spoof that appeals to young adults and college students with a site set up to joke about the "stoopid" things that people say, including politicians, celebrities, and average individuals who just make stupid comments. The site is viral with a definite pass-along effect where you can nominate or commit someone for his or her stoopidity. The Stoopid site also enables you to find the cure for stoopidity. When you fill out a short survey of ridiculous questions and multiple-choice answers, you are able to sign up to receive the "cure" which is, of course, a jumbo roll of Smarties candy.

News Release e-Blasts

No one really knows how PR professionals survived prior to Internet e-blast programs. There are many available for you to use.

JVC Professional Products Company relies on specific media to receive releases in a timely fashion. Because JVC deals with broadcast equipment, projection systems, and security products, it has to be very careful about targeting lists and tracking each and every news release. At times, releases are sent out over PR Newswire. But, there are so many releases that require an in-house targeted media list. JVC's PR team has found a tremendous amount of success with the GotMarketing program. In a normal month, they send upwards of five news releases to hundreds of media outlets. And, during JVC's busiest season, right before the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) tradeshow in April, the PR team can be writing and distributing as many as 30 releases.

"One year we were up to 34 announcements! I can't imagine how difficult and time consuming it would be if I didn't have the ability to take my media lists and customize my e-mail blast to each and every editor," stated Candace Vadnais, the senior PR manager who's been on the JVC account for years. She watches each and every release go out and then looks to see if her editors are reading the announcement quickly.

"If a few hours go by and I don't see certain editors opening my e-mails, I'll jump on the phone to let them know that something exciting is going on at JVC." There are two popular ways to blast out your news. JVC uses both ways, depending on the number of announcements. If it's a single announcement, the company uses GotMarketing with a simple e-mail blast that has the news release in the body of the correspondence. JVC avoids sending attachments to editors. This was a lesson learned about five years ago when viruses were forwarded through attachments and no one trusted an attachment that was unsolicited. However, if two or more news releases need to be sent, JVC's PR team crafts an e-mail for the blast and within the body of the e-mail directs the editors to click on a link that takes them over to an online newsroom that has all the releases. JVC can then track the amount of traffic in the newsroom, which should spike post-announcement distribution. Other advantages to using e-blasts include the obvious: speed, ease of communication, the capability to blast to large audiences, and the ability to brand your company with a graphically designed e-blast that captures the look and feel of the brand.

There you have it—three strong communication tools pre-PR 2.0, which are proven communication methods. But, if you think this is good PR, as they say, "You ain't seen nothing yet." Social media applications lead to more information shared among more people, using stronger visual imagery and in a manner that people want (and now demand) to receive in their communities. Although PR professionals can easily administer e-newsletters, viral marketing campaigns, and e-blast programs, social media is just as easy and these new media applications are not expensive (as one might think). The widely recognized PR 1.0 strategies are comfortable, familiar, and not technologically confusing or challenging for most. But, the 2.0 strategies are effective and a powerful means to engage customers in conversations. And, even though communications professionals choose to adopt tried and true strategies and carry them forward from period to period, that doesn't mean you can't be flexible with your communication and deliver information about your brand in new ways that people prefer and practically demand.

If you feel relaxed and at ease about the ideas discussed in Chapter 1, great; you have successfully progressed from the Infant Web through PR 1.0. At this point, you need to remember that comfortable and familiar may feel "good," but they don't push you to the limits of your creative and technological ability. Comfortable and familiar do not open your frame of reference. You have a lot of work to do to achieve effective PR 2.0 communication and to feel content in that realm. That's the ultimate goal. If you drive yourself to want more, to learn more, and to adopt more, you'll get there a lot quicker. And, as you practice with new techniques over and over again, they'll begin to feel comfortable and familiar too. That's when the learning process should start over again.

Remember that you are striving for great PR, which ultimately involves credible, accurate, and timely communications. You will always be communicating, facilitating, and monitoring relationships on behalf of your brand. With that in mind, you're ready for Chapter 2, as you gradually ease into PR 2.0, with the new research methods available to your brands online. You can't stop now. Forge on!

Endnotes

1. Several other early PR 2.0 adopters and influencers along with Solis have carried the PR 2.0 flag forward. They include Tom Foremski and his outcry for the death of the press release; Todd Defren, who offered the first social media template and continues to help PR professionals understand how to engage in the new landscape; Chris Heuer, who helped lead an effort to propose a standard for construction and distribution of Social Media Releases as well as helped define how marketing can and should participate in communities; and Shel Holtz who hosted the original NMRcast (NewMedia Release Cast) and continues to demonstrate the value of Social Media and how to join online conversations.