Online PR: what’s the advantage?
September 28, 2007 by Gary Schlee
Greg Smith, an Australian practitioner and part-time educator, started blogging this week at The PR Lab and, in an early post questions the validity of online PR.
He cites three books on the subject written by David Meerman Scott, Lois Kelly and Tom Kelleher and notes they generally say online PR is about engagement. That, he says, is something he’s practised without the web. But, here’s the interesting part. Less than a week out of the blogging gate, his post attracted comments from two of his three cited authors (Scott and Kelly). One wonders if offline engagement could have attracted that kind of conversation.
UPDATE 10.05.07: As you can see from Greg Smith’s second comment below, the third author he cited–Tom Kelleher–has also joined the conversation at The PR Lab. It happened after Kelleher saw THIS post and linked over to Greg’s. This stuff continues to be fascinating.
4 Responses to “Online PR: what’s the advantage?”
Hi, Gary
Thanks for your comments. Yes, the response from David and Lois was amazing. Then again they are plugged in. The secret is to get everyone else wired, too. Hmm. I suppose I could have emailed them direct. Sorry I had the subscribe switch “off”. That’s what happens when you grow up with typewriters: some things just excape you momentarily.
Regards,
- Greg Smith
Off line would never have done it, in my opinion. This is a powerful illustration.
I love what you are doing with this blog, Gary. It is a wonderful resource.
Take care,
Les Potter
All this instant global conversation can be daunting. Since my post about Greg’s posting was a trackback in the comments on his blog, I heard back from him several hours later (well, several hours depending on whose clock we’re using!). It’s certainly part of the magic of this medium. As practitioners continue to work at harnessing it, the results should be interesting.
Thanks for the kudos, Les. Coming from you, they’re particularly meaningful. Glad to see your are on the mend (or perhaps already at the mend) and back in the classroom.
And thanks to you, Gary, I’ve now heard from Tom, who wrote (I believe) the first textbook dealing with online PR. Talk about reaching the Long Tail!