Online PR and joining the conversation

I SPENT an interesting few hours at the Cube gallery in Manchester last night where a talk on using the social tools of the internet for PR was given.

There were three speakers offering a range of tips and advice on using blogs, podcasts and more to help both clients and the PR agency itself to engage with readers and listeners.

The first presentation was by a pal of mine Jane Smith who looked at some of the opportunities and pitfalls of online PR - her key message was that the only way you can understand how to work in this arena is to get your hands dirty and try things out.

And for those companies who are a little reticent there was no harm in experimenting in a controlled environment, from her own experience Jane has been working with a client for a number of months on launching a blog so that they are comfortable with it once live.

The second speaker was well known blogger Stuart Bruce, who has a growing reputation on "all things social media" within the UK public relations industry.

He provided a quick overview of the basics of blogging and highlighted such tools as Technorati and Feedburner as ways to measure the effectiveness of a blog and an online campaign.

That is one of the key questions that comes up when I have spoken to businesses about running a blog, just how do you get a grasp of the impact your work is having?

Besides using the two sites mentioned above, your website stats are a key element, but there is something else that is rarely mentioned and that is both the number and quality of the comments being left on a site.

Tracking these will give you more of an insight and a better feel of how your campaign is progressing, be these comments on your own blog or those of others, they will provide an instant method of feedback and allow you to flex, bend and move with the conversations.

There are a number of ways that you can follow this "buzz", the simplest of which is to follow a website's RSS feed for comments, and if sites don't offer this facility (I can't on this site), then take a look at something like CommentFul which allows you to track individual posts and tells you of updates via RSS.

Finally the evening was finished by Jonathan Bowers of UK Fast who featured a selection of podcasts that offer a way for businesses to connect with customers in a creative and personal way often away from the computer screen as shows can be simply downloaded to an MP3 player.

For those who were not able to make the talk, organised jointly by the CIPR and Manchester Digital, I think the presentations will be available on the event management blog of Don't Panic and there could be a similar presentation in the near future.

Comments

[Linda]

Since "dipping my toe" into blogging in recent times, I have found the PR community to be one of the friendliest and most willing to engage in a conversation. I'm not sure that should be a surprise.

Just one little bit of anecdotal evidence about the up-side of having a blog. We had a meeting with a new client - and he came in really smiling and looking at me a bit funny - when I asked him why he was smiling so much he said: "I feel like I know you as I have read your blog."

Well I think it was a good thing. :)