Comments on: Is online PR losing its real definition?

By: Ryder Sugden

Ryder Sugden — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 07:50:48 +0000

I find it annoying when you go onto web design agency websites and they say that one of their services is online PR. They don’t know the meaning of PR. SEO, and backlinks is not online PR. They are marketing tools.

By: usdigital web design leicester

usdigital web design leicester — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 10:01:27 +0000

backlinks, traffic and seo are the jobs of web design agencies not pr agencies in my opinion

By: Graeme Davidson

Graeme Davidson — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:45:36 +0000

Online PR is the building block of developing a dialogue between your business and your relevant Internet community. Every day there are conversations going on online about your brand and issues in which your brand will benefit by being highly visible.

Online PR is the first step of interacting with your community delivering the information that they need. Through Press Releases and Articles we give the community information they are actively searching for, seek to minimise the affect of bad online press to the client, increase backlinks and more.

Information gathering and analysis are the bedrock of any online PR campaign. The more known about you and your brand the better we will be able to locate relevant online conversation. This knowledge allows a greater online community penetration. Having high quality information ensures that a campaign will run more efficently and deliver better results.

I agree about building trust through blogging with no sales undertone. It can be hard to do though for someone in my position, although I do try my best!

By: Roger Warner

Roger Warner — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:14:26 +0000

Good call…. but I think you have the lense the wrong way around. You’re right that many agencies are now positioning themselves as ‘Online PR’ outfits (mine included), but this isn’t because we want to exist in a ’small (technical) segment’ of PR.

The fact is that most smart clients and agencies now recognise that SEO (and every other online marketing exercise) is built around some core ‘PR-like’ skills and disciplines – like gaining trust, improving reputations and being more social.

The driving principles here are creating great content, seeding it in the right networks, winning friends and influencing people. A byproduct of this – thanks to Google’s algorithm – is backlinks, better PageRank, and traffic – which of course is incredibly measurable and compelling to fee-paying clients…

So rather than think about digital agencies carpet-bagging some niche PR plays, I prefer to think of how SEO is disappearing as a technical discipline, and how everything we do online is simply ‘PR.’

I have no doubt that this will pass because more and more of our clients’ marketing plans will be devised web-first. And this ought to make some PR agencies a little hot under the collar if they don’t possess some web smarts…..

By: Is online PR losing its real definition? | Flack Me

Is online PR losing its real definition? | Flack Me — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:22:01 +0000

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By: Usaha Online

Usaha Online — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:39:32 +0000

ya, we have to re-formulate our seo strategy. more backlinks, good content, do not guarantee high pr. paid content, link, or just parked domains, some of them get PR 3 or higher…

By: Lewis Webb

Lewis Webb — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:37:22 +0000

Good to bring up those questions… and sorry to weigh in so late! (I missed this one as I was in Amsterdam) I think agencies across the board will have a hard time defining online marketing terms and services over the next year… too narrow and you risk losing business, too broad and you risk appearing like a jack of all trades. While I don’t think there’s a land-grab on the horizon, the important thing is identifying what combination of services your clients need to help them communicate online and being able to explain them clearly.

By: Ashlee

Ashlee — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:51:26 +0000

This was my first time reading a public relations blog and I strongly agree with your mentality of refraining from posting negative comments. The way I found this site was through google by typing in Entertainment Pr blogs and clicked on one of the first links. I feel that instead of posting negative comments you can give a person constructive criticism instead. Also this being very public you never know who may be reading the comments. You do not want to give yourself a bad reputation, just as if you were a public relations professional representing an organization.

By: Dan Johnson

Dan Johnson — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:06:40 +0000

PR is the process of managing reputation: the channels of broadcasting your message (through blogger relations, independent review sites, good ol’ press coverage) will always change.

When people search for a product or service on Google they’ll click on the first links they see, so if these take them to a website or blog where there are negative comments, you’re in trouble.

Encouraging positive sentiment ‘is’ the role of PR – this is what sets us apart from online marketing agencies.

Let online marketing bods generate the traffic, and let PR people manage the reputation – and work together to get the best of both worlds.

By: John

John — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:44:32 +0000

I am inclined to agree with Mihaela V. about SEO setc are simply tools or methods of achieving specific goals all geared towards increasing communication. However I am not sure why there needs to be such a distinct separation between online marketing and online PR, surely both are trying to increase brand/cause awareness, address target audiences and ultimately increase the bottom line?
I feel that PR practitioners are better placed than other marketeers to communicate via social media, blogs, podcasts, etc. We have been communicating via traditional methods for so long why should this be any different?
Online PR and Online Marketing are the current buzz words, being used to as an attempt to differentiate one communications company from the other. It won’t be that long before we erase the ‘online’ aspect of the phrase, simply because approaching a target audience online will be the norm and clients will just expect this to be a part of any campaign. I doubt there are many practitioners that still promote Print PR, Radio PR, and TV PR as separate entities, surely it is simply PR?