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How is the Internet changing public relations activities of companies such as software vendors? The growth of the Web is rapidly increasing the importance of Web-centric media relations, which we refer to here as Net Relations. The Web is joining print and broadcast media as an indispensable communications platform for reaching target audiences. Indeed, as this bulletin outlines, the Internet is rapidly and radically changing the public relations profession! Interestingly, the Web combines attributes of both print and broadcast media in its creative and efficient packaging and delivering of messages. The Web is arguably surpassing television and will soon rival the printing press in its impact on mass audiences.
Why Pay Attention to Net Relations? The Web has reached mass-market proportions, driven by declining PC prices, and much greater use of the Internet at home and work, and the explosion of e-commerce and Internet stocks. IDC estimates that 150 million people worldwide now access the Web (75 million in the United States alone).
While it took only four years for the Internet to reach a base of 50 million users, television and radio took 12 and 35 years, respectively. Internet use is predicted to grow annually at double-digit levels by virtually every organization that tracks it, with projections for burgeoning new Web audiences in major emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil. The rapid growth of the Web has led to a specific new marketing communications discipline called Net Relations; the combination of traditional direct marketing, public relations, and the Internet.
Net Relations provides companies with a new suite of integrated communications tools that reach buyers by capitalizing on the Web's global reach, instantaneous communications and functionality. Web-savvy marketers are using online events and promotions, live chat, multimedia product announcements, Web site advertising, online media relations and a host of other emerging services to help grow their businesses.
The best companies understand that the Web is an essential component, not just an adjunct, of the marketing mix. The approach of online marketers is growing in sophistication. Many so-called "brochureware" Web sites have evolved to include important new elements, such as online stores, powerful communication tools and intranets, extranets and other private-access domains for working with customers, suppliers and employees. This evolution has been fueled in part by major improvements in security and storage technologies.
Cases In Point
Web marketing "best-practice" integrates these new elements and technologies to create sites that truly engage and empower the customer on a one-to-one basis.
* Nearly two-thirds of Cisco Systems' 1998 orders were generated through the Internet. The Cisco Web site enables business customers to configure, price and order their routers and switchers online. While direct-to-consumer channels represent vast new Internet growth opportunities, over 80 percent of e-commerce today takes the form of business-to-business transactions.
* Dell Computer features extranets for its best customers, allowing them to gain access to customized configurations, support and pricing information.
* Tel-Save, a long-distance reseller, forged an exclusive marketing agreement with AOL. AOL members receive a competitive rate on long-distance service, access their call detail online and charge their use to a credit card.
* Online auction houses such as OnSale and eBay provide growing, interactive bazaars, of sorts, for both business customers and consumers.
In general, the competitive landscape of today's Internet is populated with "new" entrants that have seized the power of the Web to surpass traditional competitors. Amazon.com, drugstore.com, Virtual Vineyards and E*Trade are examples of online services that have generated (or promise) substantial growth to the detriment of some longstanding players who have been caught napping.
Online Media Relations Media relations represents the core of the public relations profession. However, online media relations is still not well understood by most PR professionals, let alone by their companies, despite the enormous growth and impact of the Web.
A study by the Pew Research Center revealed that the number of Americans getting their news online at least once weekly has more than tripled in the past 2 years, from 11 million to 36 million. The Internet is now the first place to turn for breaking news, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. Important news events are now buttressed online by live events, such as commentary from journalists in the field, sound-and-picture updates, message boards and live chat, instant polls, downloadable sound, video and photo galleries, and e-mail capabilities targeted directly to newsmakers and journalists.
The online news trend has come at the expense of traditional media. The latest statistics show a 13% decline in television viewing over the past two years, while newsmagazine and newspaper readerships are down 13% and 8%, respectively. Journalists consider the Web an indispensable tool. A recent survey of 46 business and technology journalists by Tsantes & Associates found that every one of these journalist has access to the Web. Eighty percent of these journalists spend three or more hours per week conducting research or sourcing stories on the Web. Long gone are the days when surveys reported that journalists do not want to be contacted by email; it's now essential.
By comparison, a 1996 survey showed that technology editors spent just one hour per month online. While a late 1997 survey of non-technical journalists found fewer than half going online, anecdotal evidence suggests that Internet use today has been fully "mainstreamed" into traditional media. Virtually every major print and broadcast media outlet now has an online equivalent, many with separate online news staffs, locations and methods of operation. ABCNews.com, CNBC.com and the WallStreet Journal Interactive are all good examples.
However, a compelling and rapidly growing number of online media have no traditional counterpart. These powerful new platforms for journalism and advertising exist only in cyberspace, although their impact is felt far beyond the Internet. Internet "wire services" such IDG News and CNet News are good examples, as are electronic magazines (ezines) such as Salon, Slate and IDG's The Industry Standard. Portals, search engines and directories, such as Yahoo!, Excite and Lycos also carry news and feature material, competing head-to-head with traditional players such as CNN. Those three sites alone report generating over 80 million unique online monthly impressions.
The BusinessWire, PR Newswire and IDG.net services are routinely used by PR professionals to distribute press releases to traditional media, with tremendous spill into the online world. Online-only services such as Internet Wire can be similarly purchased for distribution to thousands of online editors, reporters, writers, analysts, site reviewers and news headline aggregators. The Tools of a New Interactive Trade Companies that truly understand the value and direction of Web-based public relations see it as providing a distinct competitive advantage. These firms are making the relatively modest investments needed to augment, not replace, their traditional public relations program.
Some of the ideas being employed are:
* - Virtual press rooms * - Personalized on-line services for journalists and analysts * - Specific content targeted at journalists and analysts * - Online hosted news conferences and interviews * - Multimedia press releases * - Scenarios for crisis management * - Use of on-line editorial calendars * - Use for employee communications
Virtual Press Rooms
Some leading companies now feature "virtual press rooms" on their Web sites, offering journalists access to the latest press releases, corporate backgrounders, executive biographies, key speeches and articles, product brochures, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and company contact information. Smart companies provide this information in several languages, if for no other reason than to underscore that they are serious global players.
Personalized Online Services for Journalists and Analysts
Best-practice firms have taken online content to new levels of sophistication. On these sites, journalists can register to receive specific items of interest, such as annual or quarterly reports or information on future product developments. Like customers, they can access pricing guides, technical specifications and product advertising. In some cases, journalists can view animated product demonstrations and receive customer profiles and testimonials in both text and audio formats. Journalists can be linked to the key industry financial analysts and retrieve recent analyst reports. They can access still and video images and even be linked to newsgroups and other Web sites that follow the company or its industry.
Balancing Content Targeted at Journalists and Analysts
Most companies lag behind Web-savvy competitors, in using their Web sites to provide meaningful information to journalists. The Tsantes survey of business and technology editors found that 52% are dissatisfied with the level of information available on company sites. The biggest complaints are the lack of in-depth and substantive information and the absence of precise contact information. Some companies are struggling, however, with just how much content and communications to provide journalists online. Indeed, this is a new frontier in media relations. Companies are attempting to strike a balance between being helpful to journalists and, of course, presenting themselves in the most positive light while avoiding directing journalists to negative information or unfriendly news sources. For example, some newsgroups can be downright hostile to the companies they follow, providing journalists with ample, colorful story leads that, unfortunately, may or may not be true.
Best-practices companies routinely monitor newsgroups and attempt to neutralize any incorrect information. They also reply to the broadcast inquiries of new users seeking recommendations for products and services.
Online Hosted News Conferences and Interviews
Net Relations tools offer extensive functionality for public relations executives and journalists. Some companies have hosted news conferences, presentations and executive interviews online. However, the industry is in the earliest stages of online news conferencing. Of the technology journalists in the aforementioned survey, 83% said they have never participated in an Internet press conference, although half of them said they would consider doing so if it was easy. This will happen because products are now available that allow journalists to attend web-based conferences and view a vendor's presentation in real-time on their browser. Not only can the vendor control the progress of its presentation, but the presenter can even go to Web pages and all viewers will see that page (as part of the presentation) on their browser. Just as journalists once rejected the now ubiquitous email as a preferred contact method, there is every reason to believe that online news conferences will shortly be a routine enhancement of personal and telephone interviews.
Multimedia Press Releases
Some companies have issued multimedia press releases, which, for example, use text as well as streaming audio and video to promote new products. Both PR professionals and journalists routinely use the Web for research on competitor companies and to retrieve past stories about these firms.
Scenarios for Crisis Management
The Internet is fast becoming a critical tool for crisis communications. Increasingly, PR professionals are planning crisis scenarios and posting them to secure intranet sites that are accessed by password and only by members of the crisis team. These sites contain pre-determined questions and answers, draft press release language, important contact information for opinion leaders and government officials, executive bios, approval procedures, crisis team contact information as well as photography and television video.
Online Editorial Calendars
Just as journalists find the Web to be invaluable in researching stories, Internet-savvy PR professionals use it to develop and target editorial opportunities. Online editorial calendars are readily available on most news technology web sites. Online media are not just emerging; they are exploding on the scene as enormous influencers of the Internet and traditional media. A "hot" story over IDG.net, for example, can be quickly picked up by CNN.interactive and, in turn, run on CNN itself. In fact, IDG and CNN recently announced a formal alliance that will significantly expand this type of activity. In fact, the amount of shared news content on the Web has grown at such a rapid pace that it's virtually impossible to accurately measure the online reach of a particular news story.
Employee Communications and Employee Relations
Public relations and human resources executives also understand the growing power and peril of the Internet for employee communications and employee relations. Many companies today post intranet sites for the exclusive use of their employees. These sites contain much of the comparable public content and functionality available to journalists or customers, however they may also feature items such as CEO letters and information regarding benefits programs. Of course, company email has rapidly become the electronic equivalent of gossip at the water cooler, spreading truth and fiction almost at the speed of light. Some companies have initiated informal "rumor control" functions that attempt to detect and understand rumors in their infancy and address them forthrightly on their intranet sites.
Powerful Part of The Online Marketing Mix
Web-based public relations adds a powerful dimension to the online marketing mix. It is no substitute for traditional public relations, however, nor can it ever eclipse traditional PR skills that are grounded in effective writing, production values, message development and audience segmentation. Indeed, the cacophony that is today's Internet places an even greater reliance on clear and concise messaging with crisp and colorful graphic presentation. Marketing online has been seen as supporting Internet activity. Online marketing is used to build awareness of and site traffic for new and updated Web sites and online stores. Companies are optimizing search engine and directory placements as well as their reciprocal links in an effort to generate a higher quality and quantity of site traffic. Online direct mail, sponsorships, promotions, contests and sweepstakes are also used for this purpose.
Conclusion
For public relations to grow in its strategic value, however, the profession will have to educate itself and its clients about the online world and the next generation of communications. This means understanding that success online should readily translate to success (i.e. publicity, better image, new customers and business, crisis avoidance) in the traditional context on effective public relations. The growth of the PR profession online will also require that it develop and promote information and ideas that make Web sites and online stores themselves more engaging and newsworthy in a substantive context and in creative, promotional terms. Only in this manner can public relations to the next level and, with it, propel the Web to the next generation of greater human interest and more compelling news value.
Mike Spataro, the guest author of this bulletin, is vice president for Net Relations at Miller/Shandwick, an international public relations firm focused on technology companies. More on this subject can be found at http://www.miller-shandwick.com/dm.html.
Copyright 2000 by TheBostonChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.