Virtual Reality and 3D platforms not just a child’s game. “Second Life: The Dream Platform for PR Professionals,” was the last session I took while attending PRSA International 2008, but it was one of the most effective. Why you may ask? Because Second Life isn’t just about creating an avitar and playing in a virtual world it is about jumping on board to the future of interaction.

Second Life not just another social media site, and these statistics prove that:

• 14 Million Users
• 100 Countries represented
• 35 Million hours spent on Second Life a year
• $1.5 Million UDS earned per day on virtual goods
• 35 Median age of users on Second Life

What do these statistics say to us? They say that there is an untapped market that is not declining, but growing rapidly. 35 is the median age of the user, there are 14 million users in over100 countries, and $1.5 million dollars are made each day. This tells us that Second Life is not going anywhere but up. Vitrual worlds are now not only for children they are for adults.

Listening and continued engagement. This is how Craig Newmark, creator of Craigslist, explained the success of his business during a PRSA International keynote address: “How Social Media Creates a More Democratic Society”. Newmark explained that you have to do what makes sense and continue to engage your community. By engaging you build a culture of trust where shared values are expressed and followed. Success is achieved.

Craigslist is almost 99% free, with only 1% being charged for a services. To be successful Craig Newmark realized that he didn’t need to overtly charge the public who viewed and used Craigslist, but instead offer services to help cultivate and aid in the public’s growth. By helping to shape your community you are helping people try to succeed. You are doing well. Craig Newmark beleives by doing well in his business strategy he is doing good in his community.

“To do well in business by doing good,” is the simple business philosophy of Craigslist. PR and Social Media has a bad rap as not being a service for anyone but ourselves, as not being honest, but we are doing well in business, we help promote small businesses, we encourage growth of communities. Aren’t we doing good for society.

Tuesday’s with Morrie, the bestselling memoir by Mitch Albom speaks of the influence that we all possess as individuals. How we all have a certain power to cultivate the people we encounter. Morrie Schwartz was a professor of Mitch Albom’s when he was an undergrad. Morrie helped shape the way Mitch thought and the way that Mitch viewed his future. One man influenced another and from that a great journalist, sportscaster and motivational speaker emerged.

As PR and Media Relations Professionals we have influence on people. Every day we are shaping the way people view our clients and their products/services. We have the honor of cultivating the way people view what we have to say. We can impact society. Mitch Albom’s question as keynote speaker for the PRSA International 2008’s last day conference was, “Are you impacting people in a positive way? Are you learning from people as you are influencing them?”

New influencers are creating new sources of media, who are these new influencers? You, me and even Joe the plumber. How is this possible? We are now publishers we are able to report, comment and even create news content, we have the news and the media is now coming to us.

Paul Gillin, author of The New Influencers, states that there are Ten Secrets to Success of Social Media. But to understand these we must first realize that traditional media is declining and that search is the new circulation. Once we understand this we as PR professionals will be able to understand how each person is an influencer of media marketing and will become more successful in our marketing and media strategies.

Secret # 1- Don’t Fear Negativity. We must learn to accept that we cannot control what people say, but that we can contain negativity to a certain degree. There are always going to people that may disagree with what you say or what you do, but the trick is to realize it and accept it. If you make a mistake fess up to it. After all if you don’t and it is proven that you were in the wrong you are just adding fuel to the fire.

Dr.Pepper and Guns N’ Roses, two things that couldn’t be further from each other -  yet Ketchum - has found a way to connect these. On behalf of Dr. Pepper, Ketchum launched a promotion, if Guns N’ Roses finally released their album Chinese Democracy, then Dr. Pepper would give everyone in the United States a free Dr. Pepper.

Guess what? Next month, Guns N’ Roses is releasing their much anticipated album. So what does this have to do with PR and Media Relations? Joanne Puckett, Vice President of Global Research for Ketchum and presenter of “Deriving ROI for Interactive Communications,” believes it relates due to the platform on which the promotion was sent. Ketchum realized that mass media is slowly declining, and that to create buzz around their client there needed to be an embrace of a new platform of communication enter Social Media.

By using social media to connect with an audience that may have never drank Dr. Pepper, Ketchum did something amazing. They connected two brands that probably would have never joined together, but by doing this they connected to a wider audience. This is proof that those who use social media are not just generation Y, but also generation X, baby boomers and everyone else in between. Dr. Peppers awareness has increased and they are now seeing an increase of 15% on their ROI. Ketchum embraced social media to derive a greater ROI for Dr. Pepper.

What are the most commonly used marketing objectives? What variables are used when planning a marketing strategy? What is the most influential contact point? These questions were the opening of, “Marketing, Media and Word of Mouth.”  We know the answer to all these questions right?

• Awareness
• Target
• Word of Mouth

Presenter Jeffrey Graham, executive director, customer insight, The New York Times, stated that, ” there is a huge disconnect when it comes to word of mouth and context.”

What does this mean? For a person just starting out in PR and Media Relations it means we may be overlooking a significant part of our target market. By not paying attention to where information and opinions about our clients or their services are coming from we are missing what could be a either fatal or significant loss or win for out clients. How does this really effect us and our clients? Gabriel Tarde stated, “Conversation is the strongest agent of imitation, of the propagation of sentiment.”

Constantly things are changing, communication itself is experiencing a renaissance of change, but can we handle it? Detroit, MI - once the center of the motorized world - is experiencing a rebirth from industrial motor plants to hosting international conferences like PRSA International 2008. If this once industrial city can evolve into a  robust and vibrant city of culture and information, then we can learn to adapt our methods of communication.

The programming of the 61st PRSA International conference demonstrates that once traditional approaches of PR are now giving way to a digital world.The first conference session that I will be attending is titled, “Word-Of-Mouth Online and Off: What’s the difference?” The session is going to examine how traditional word-of-mouth sells, the messaging is the same, but how we communicate that message is changing.

Example, in the 1920’s people found out how amazing automobiles were, this was done by talking to people that had one, had seen one or had heard about them from someone else. Now almost a hundred years later automobiles are advertised by word of mouth, on the radio, in newspapers, on social media sites, on television and on the internet. By learning how to evolve messaging we are able to influence our customer base and increase our clients ROI.

The buzz about SEO in the public relations industry has grown steadily over the past 2-3 years. Press releases were the easy target for promotion as candidates for optimization. With the growing use of Google and Yahoo News, optimizing press releases have been an easy way to gain prominent visibility with nominal effort.

As both a SEO and a PR practitioner for the past 8+ years, I get to educate clients and audiences at both PR & Search Marketing conferences. At public relations conferences, I’m the SEO guy talking about optimized PR. At search marketing conferences, I’m the PR guy talking about using PR for SEO.

The continuing convergence of both PR and SEO is inevitable. Neither is based on pay to play, although there are advertorial and paid editorial placement offerings. Editorial visibility in offline and online publications is for the most part “earned” as are the top rankings of web pages on search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Public relations practitioners have significantly warmed up to well documented possibilities and opportunities to extend their effectiveness for clients through implementing search engine optimization into their programs. The reality is that PR doesn’t have control over all of a companies digital assets.

By Lee Odden

In the world of using search engine optimization tactics for extending the reach of media relations, optimizing press releases alone leaves a tremendous opportunity untouched.

Increasing numbers of companies have realized this and are adopting more formal holistic news content optimization strategies. Digital Asset Optimization is a SEO Point of View that our search marketing agency, TopRank started developing in early 2007.

Limiting news content optimization to press releases with a web site rich with news, media coverage and digital assets leaves a lot of the “good stuff” out of the scope of SEO attention. There’s a tremendous opportunity for a competitive advantage in search engine PR when all of the news content digital assets involved with the SEO effort.

The first step to managing a news digital asset optimization program is to take inventory of the media assets and content types that are currently being created. It is important not to discount content because it is not published online. Many types of press clippings, news coverage, digital communications, video and image assets can be repurposed for news content optimization and promotion.

One of the most valuable resources at an event like the recent Media Relations Summit conference in San Francisco is the opportunity to listen to what journalists themselves have to say about how they interact with PR people. I attended several panels with reporters from publications ranging from the New York Times to CNET. The reporters were fairly candid about works and what does not. Here are some key tips I gleaned from the summit reporter sessions.

• Reporters STILL hate PR spam and irrelevant pitches. Such tactics are unlikely to generate coverage, it turns out. Shocking, I know.

• The press release is still important. With all the talk about new media, I was surprised to hear virtually every reporter sing the praises of the good old fashioned press release, which they use to ensure accuracy and to organize information.

• Print journalists are no longer breaking news. This is a major change that has happened over the last several years. Now, more than ever, journalists are looking for stories that analyze recent news trends. Online media, on the other hand, can be fiercely competitive for breaking stories.