Now THAT is an effective use of PR Online....

Before showing an example of effective Public Relations online, i thought we should go over what effective PR is. Today, almost everything and everyone is online. Its difficult to imagine a world without the Internet. As the Internet has evolved over the years so hasn't the field public relations. It has had to grow and evolve and find its place within the world wide web. Here are some strategies to approaching public relations online:

1) Identify your desired audience. Who are you trying to reach ? - create a customer "profile".

2) Define the goals you would like to achieve. What are you trying to say ?

3) You must be aware of the large masses of people you could potentially reach. The information that you 
    post is out there for most of the world to access.

4) Make sure you have a distinguished public website. Your company needs a home, a place where people
    know where to find information about you and your products.

5) Take advantage of social media. Use facebook, twitter, youtube, blogger and all other media sites you
    have access too.

Perez Hilton! Oh how i love Perez Hilton. Perez owns and operates his site perezhilton.com and he calls himself the Queen of All Media. He covers all the social & celebrity gossip out there. His site started out very small where he would write his blog daily from the coffee bean cafe in Los Angeles. You wont find him there anymore as Perez has built his brand over the years and is now a world wide phenomenon. His site receives thousands of visits per day equaling millions per year. I know I myself visit the site maybe 4-5 times a day.       (shhhhh, i shouldn't admit that)
Perez has expanded his blog to include other sub-blogs including CocoPerez (Fashion), FitPerez (Fitness), TeddyHilton (for animal lovers) and Perezitos (focuses on celebrity family and children).
Perez heavily uses social media, including his facebook and his twitter page.He posts videos, pictures and even creates full photo albums. He also has Perez TV which shows interviews he has conducted with celebrities , TV shows he has been in or skits he has created.
Perez is a great source of marketing as he will change the background of his site to promote an upcoming television show, event or upcoming movie. He also has a few advertisements that run down the side column of the site.Every once in a while he will have a pop up add, which most certainly can be annoying but they also do grab your attention.
Perez is the ultimate promoter. He gave Lady Gaga a kick start of her career by diligently following her and posting information about her career as she was trying to break into the music business. By posting photos, announcing shows, posting links to her new songs and constantly mentioning her people started to take notice.
He not only reports on celebrity news but he is a HUGE fan of Glee so he is constantly promoting that show. He has helped Oprah, Ellen and many day time and nigh time shows by posting clips of their shows and giving out "spoiler alerts" to get people to tune in.
Perez is a smart business man - yes he may spend his time reporting about other peoples lives but i would hire him as my PR agent in a jiffy if i could.

Did you just say 107 TRILLION E-mails ?

This week Prof Boone assigned us an article titled Communicative Informatics: An Active and Creative Audience Framework of Social Media written by Professor Boone herself and Professor Gallant from Emerson. The topic of this weeks class discussion was the role of social media in PR. We compared the new rules of PR to the old rules of PR.
It is most important to note that Social Media gives PR professionals the ability to directly communicate with their audience. So long are the days where PR agents must rely on the media to get the attention of their potential clients and current stakeholders. It is vital to practice a two way form of communication, where  not only do you give out information, but you also take some in. You listen to your customer and pay attention to any feedback they are offering.
While Social Media is paving a new path for those practicing Public Relations it is also opening the door for us to access more information than we could ever conceive. One line in the article listed above, Professor Boone specifically pointed out to us states; " Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003... pictures, instant messages, and tweets all add to this."
Do you have any idea how much information that is ??? Lets have a look at some of the numbers posted by pindom blog

in 2010:
107 Trillion - emails were sent on the Internet
255 Million - number of websites as of December 2010
1.97 Billion - internet users worldwide ( this is a 14% growth since last year)
152 Million - number of blogs on the Internet
25 Billion - number of tweets sent in 2010
600 Million - number of people on facebook at the end of 2010
30 Billion - pieces of content ( links,  notes, photos etc) shared just on Facebook along per month in 2010
2 Billion - the number of videos watched per day on YouTube
35 - hours of video uploaded to YouTube every hour.
5 Billion - photos hosted by Flickr

Those are amazing, astonishing and scary numbers !
Now what is important is to find a way to differentiate your information and your story from the trillions of other posts added to the web each day. How will you make sure your company does not get lost in the shuffle ? You must get creative. One proposition listed in the Communicative Informatics article is that the Audience is Creative.
Each day new photos, videos, releases and articles are being published on line. We live in a creative world with the most imaginative, inventive and inspirational people.

The Internet has truly revolutionized our way of life and social media is right there as well. Social media has provided us with ways to reconnect, ways to  tell our story and share our ideas. It has introduced us to a new form of communication and with this ability to freely communicate you have endless opportunities at your finger tips.... now we just have figure out how to best apply these opportunities.

New Semester, New Class, Same Internet

Today marks the beginning of the Fall 2011 Semester at Suffolk University. Its hard to believe that summer vacation is over. One of the courses i am taking this semester is New Media and New Markets which of course focuses on the Internet, marketing, web design and new media. Millions and Millions of people use the Internet. An estimate of 2,095,006,005 people are estimated to use the Internet as of March 2011. But how do you use the Internet ?

If i had to guess why people use the Internet i would have to guess... 1) Social Networking 2) Communication 3) Research 4) Entertainment 5) Marketing.

I know i personally use the Internet for social networking and for communication purposes at work.
I of course am a member of facebook and as sad as it is, i cant remember life before facebook ( i know i know - don't judge) I use facebook to keep in touch with friends, make plans, see what everyone is up to, etc.
My job 100% relys on the Internet. You learn the hard way when Internet goes down for a day and i cant get anything done - only left to play major catch up when the system is back up and running. I am constantly e-mailing, sending out reminders, logging ticket requests, setting reservation, making travel plans. Every aspect of my job relies om the world wide web. To be honest, i don't think my job could exist ( or at least function properly) without the web.
My friends and family do not rely on the Internet when it comes to work as much as i do. My mom uses it to play bejeweled, forward us those silly e-mails or check up on us on facebook ( there should be a rule that a mother cannot be friends with her daughters on any social networking sites) My father uses it to watch comedy videos before going to bed or catch an early new segment when he wakes up. My sister is always logged onto facebook catching up with friends.
There are quite a lot of people using the Internet right now -but each for a different purpose.
Why are you logging on ?