Interactive public relations

Interactive public relations, or interactive PR, is the practice of using Internet tools and technologies such as search engines, Web 2.0 social bookmarking, new media relations and blogging. Interactive PR differs from traditional PR in two important respects:

1) It enables companies and organizations to build awareness of and credibility for their message without relying solely on mainstream publications.

2) It allows organizations to build a two-way dialog directly with the public, their customers and prospects, and influential content publishers including traditional media outlets, industry analysts, blogs, online publications, portal sites and others.

The key elements of interactive PR are:

• Press release content optimization for search engines, to help with SEO efforts

• Promotion of press releases and thought-leadership content through social media sites, as well as participation in community discussions on these sites

• Promotion through bloggers who are influential on relevant topics

• Creation of an internal corporate or organization blog

• Establishment of relationships with new media editors and publishers (online news sites, portal sites and ezines)

• Web-based press release distribution

• Online press rooms

• Automated monitoring of online press coverage of the organization, its products or services, and the use of its brands and trademarks, often through a service such as Google Alerts

• Production and promotion of podcasts and webinars

External links

• Council of Public Relations Firms
• Interactive PR

Organizations Providing Interactive PR Services

• KC Associates (Minneapolis)
• Blueliner (New York)
• Racepoint (Boston}
• Deep Focus (New York}
• [http://www.basecampcomm.com Base Camp Comm (Jackson, Wyo)