Monday, March 16, 2009

Integrating online and offline communications

Marc Hausman has an interesting article about a recent survey of journalists. It seems that journalists themselves regard blogs as more important than trade publications, which is alarming if accurate.

• Journalists use blogs almost as often as trades as part of the reporting and editing process.

• For monitoring responses to stories, only Web sites and blogs are considered important. Reporters lump conferences, trade journals, social networking sites and podcasts in the “unimportant” category.


I would have thought that any response was an important response. Conferences are especially indicative of industry trends.

A good PR plan must integrate the offline with the online. It is necessary to identify the bloggers who cover your industry and invite them to your events whenever necessary. Get to know the bloggers within the local user groups.

Blog posts and Twitter chatter will amplify the impact of your event. Even a brief mention of your booth at a trade show has value.

Finally, advertising has value. Advertising guarantees visibility. Advertising on trade journals insures gives your company an image of being a serious player within your industry. It also contributes to the survival of an important industry resource.

2 comments:

Marc Hausman said...

Excellent post and thanks for the thoughts on my byline.

OK...you use the word "value" several times in citing the business case for companies to invest in certain communications activities, such as advertising.

My take is that there has been a dramatic shift in expectations a company has of its PR/communications program. Yes, there is value in brand positioning and awareness. Yet, we as PR professionals need to align our work with more measurable benchmarks, such as lead generation and SEO.

Much of this shift is attributable to the current economic environment. But, I also believe it is a result of the increasing time people are spending engaged in social networks.

Alice said...

Thank you for your comments. They ad such value to the blog :)

Social networks are where the conversation is taking place, so PR needs to focus on social networks.