Global PR Blog Week 1.0

Peeling back the tech details

The most important thing about the technology in front of you is that it does not get in the way of the message you need to promote. So if you want to penetrate the online world with themes that sell product for your client, your flavour of IT cannot be daunting in any form or fashion. Although I may rewarm some familiar points, I believe they bear mentioning in the context of making PR work.

[Declared interest: I have used Radio Userland since late 2000, Movable Type since 2001, Blogger in 2002, Live Journal in 2003 and Typepad for a year. Each has attractive features.]

If you decide to embrace blogging, ensure your blogware allows you to syndicate separate channels. This means you need to be able to quickly designate a new directory on your blog AND that directory must have its own RSS feed. The separate directories and distinct feeds give you presence, reach, and standing.

Set up your blog to facilitate efficient printing. Many potential customers want to print out what they read. The templates used on some blogs get in the way of that--just like some online newspapers fail to render their content in a friendly way. A simple Javascript PRINT link will normally generate a clean page with one-inch margins and no extraneous decorations around the sides of the text.

The faster senior management accepts the reason for blogging the better. When you get up-channel endorsement, it's time to ensure people at various levels of your organisation can nominate content for posting to the blog. To prevent problems, your blogging tool should let some be superusers, others be editors, authors and junior authors. Each category has distinct levels of capability.

Add specialty content to your blog. Thinks like link lists, blogrolls and newsfeeds will ultimately help extend your reach.

Be ready to prune, correct and delete comments and trackbacks. If you let your blog become a two-way Web experience, spammers and link sluts will show up on your site.

Work out time to upload new content and clean out unwanted debris. The blogging experience should not add to your work day--it should streamline existing processes and make you more efficient.

Listen to your referrers. People who visit your site often arrive for intriguing reasons. Their search engine referrer string can suggest new target markets, emerging prospects, and competitive interests. You must mine that visitor intelligence or you miss a valuable resource that is tapping at your windows.

Don't be afraid to ego surf and see where your URL, your client's products or your memes stand in the minds of aggregators like Technorati and Feedster.

Have fun blogging. It's one of the most enjoyable activities you can get paid to do.

Author: Bernard Goldbach | Jul 14, 04 | Permalink | 1 comments
Category: @ Bernard Goldbach | Topic 3 Making PR Work

 

 

About

The Global PR Blog Week 1.0 is an online event that will engage PR, marketing and business bloggers from around the globe in a discussion about blogging and communications. The event is scheduled for July 12 - 16, 2004.

Links

The New PR Wiki

Recent Entries

Looking forward to 2.0

Site Statistics and Trends

A participant’s final thoughts

Traditional PR is dead - Long Live DIY PR

Quiet is the new loud

Recent Comments

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