A White Paper by Vocus - Maximizing the value of Your News: From Twitter to Google - underlines the changing role of PR that Web 2.0 offers. It suggests 'Rethinking your Audience' - not just media, but consumers and investors as well. To this I would add employees, dealers and agents. What the web gives us now is an opportunity to communicate beyond the traditional third party route of having news published in papers, magazines and on TV and radio and in particular what has been coined Web 2.0 enables us to not just talk to but converse with customers and prospects. This might be a very strange concept to some clients. In short PR has the tools to build brand values at all levels. The White Paper quotes research from TNS "Digital World, Digital Life", December 2008 that '81% of users worldwide used search engines to find information and 76% looked up news.' Add to that e-mail (the most popular use of the Internet) and we have communication, information and news - three primary pillars of PR and the Internet providing he tools to deliver to customers. Whether it is widely broadcast or targeted at very precisely defined groups, even to individuals it is all about favourably presenting the brand but now not just issuing press releases but joining conversations and dealing positively with negative feed back. The Virtual News Office from Technical Marketing provides the foundation for a range of publishing tools- news with image, searchable archives, e-mail news and RSS. By integrating a Virtual News Office with any company web site not only can companies easily communicate with their customers but by building highly relevant links into their site, also improving Google rankings.
