Additional Reading: Why PR Pros Need Liberal Internet Access At Work
The Media is Online, Everywhere
In order to reach the media, organizations have to be online. A late 2008 study on online newsgathering conducted jointly by Cision, George Washington University, and Don Bates, found that “…editors and reporters in all age brackets are now heavily dependent on the Web, with more than 90 percent using it as their primary tool overall in editing and reporting. In fact, respondents who reported that they use the Web ‘all the time’ was highest, albeit by a slim margin, among those 30–49, with those 50 and above the second-heaviest users, followed by those 29 or younger.”
Companies are integrating social media – the competition is there!
A record number of email marketers plan to bridge the gap between online social networks and their email marketing campaigns in 2009, according to research released in April, 2009, from Ball State University, the Email Marketer’s Club and ExactTarget. The study surveyed 351 email marketers in March and found that while only 13 percent leveraged the power of online networks last year to grow their email subscriber list, more than 46 percent plan to use social media and email in tandem in 2009.
Online communities are incredibly influential in driving consumer behavior.
A study conducted in 2008 by Rubicon Consulting found that “Most web users… are strongly influenced by the things they see there, especially product reviews and recommendations. Those reviews are now second only to word of mouth as a purchase influencer for web users….this means companies that turn away from web communities because they’re populated by only enthusiasts are missing the point… it turns out that the web has also become the number two source of product support information for web users.
The current focus in public relations is not “should social media be integrated into campaigns,” but how to do it most effectively.
Lee Oden‘s Online Marketing Blog offers a number a insightful blog posts on the intersection of public relations, digital marketing and SEO. (Full disclosure: PRSA works with Top Rank on SEO.)
Lucinda Watrous also has written thoughtfully on Social Networking and the Workplace.