the(new)mediaslut

This blog has a trackback from Singapore Entrepreneurs’ post on PR strategies for startups but I don’t seem to be able to find a link.

There are some good points highlighted at the post, but I would like to add a few other points.

It is important to first define what is Public Relations.

The Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines public relations as the art, technique, or profession of promoting goodwill between an organisation or an individual and the public, employees, customers, etc.

Traditionally, the best way to do so is via the mainstream media. The whole idea is that to have a third party writing about this goodwill is more believable than the company shouting it out themselves.

Some have used the later method to describe it as advertising.

However, throughout the years, many have taken this approach of getting the media to be the extended arm is being seen as a means to an end of a PR strategy.

Hence, most PR agencies will use get media coverage as a measurable rather than to gauge what the perception that the public have of the brand.

Somehow it seems like an Asian phenomenon of relating PR to getting media coverage rather than “promoting goodwill between an organisation or an individual and the public, employees, customers, etc”.

With the arrival of Web2.0 applications where I love to define as applications that helps you get your message on the Internet without having to worried about the technical parts of it. You just have to concentrate on the content.

In comparison, Web1.0 you had to worry about linking Page 10 to Page 5 and back to you homepage at the same time have a great understanding of html.

Blogs, therefore, can be an important and essential tool that startups can use to start their Public Relation program.

Blogs shouldn’t just be a place where you publish your press release or announce the latest products. Use it further to start a conversation on the issues that the industry needs to address everyday.

Take for example the PR industry in Singapore. One of the ironies I have spotted is that while the big agencies out there say to the mainstream media how much they are into the blogosphere and engaging it, some of the agencies do not even have a blog itself or even a communication rulebook that employees can refer to if they are looking to blog.

This itself is something a small PR agency startup can blog about how did your agency come about with the rules for your employees can follow if they are looking to blog for either the company or for personal reasons.

Use your corporate website to boast about your latest press release, but use the blog to discuss about the issues, thus creating the conversation with the public, which is itself promoting the company’s goodwill to the Public.