10 reasons why PR provides the best online communication

(This is an English translation of a French post. Original -with links- here)

(Ceci est une traduction d’un post en français. Original -avec les liens- ici)

For some time I’ve been meaning to write a little note outlining the benefits of online PR. So here we go, with this catchy title: ten reasons why we PR professionals provide the smartest online service

Based on the customer’s objectives (generating traffic or sales, enhancing public image, etc.), the ten reasons are:

1. “Eyeballs” dodge online advertising. They go straight to the content. Eye-tracking surveys are astonishing in this respect. Moreover, refer to the Ipsos Australia study of November 15: “Internet users becoming adverse to advertising”.

2. Content cannot be purchased. Not without taking a serious risk.

3. Free advertising from “the buzz” is more of a myth than anything else.

4. It turns out, the Internet is not a mass media. It is made up of a set of affinity networks know as – exaggeratedly – “communities”. The Web is a highly decentralised realm, in which one needs to identify opinion leaders and know how to address them. According to Arthur Kannas, founder of the Heaven agency:

“Our vision takes the decentralised nature of the Web as its starting point. We believe it is better to teach brands to take into account all the places where their consumers are, rather than make them spend a lot of money to take them to a single place, for instance a brand website.”

5. User-generated content is credible. The brand is not alone in expressing itself, audiences gain a share of voice.

6. To address audiences effectively, one needs non-intrusive, interactive, personalised and sincere relations. Bad practices create bad noise.

7. Search engines have become reputation management systems. They only offer up “official” information as one of many sources, so it’s better to generate coverage than be subjected to it.

8. Take a look at the tips for website referencing suggested by online experts: their leitmotiv is always the quality of the content.

9. Even a purely technical reading of referencing criteria take us back to good PR practices. In particular, incoming links are an important factor – and what’s the best way of generating incoming links if not… a PR campaign?

10. Web-writing is not so specific. What’s important is… writing well.

It is quite clear that “PR lives”. Of course, everything I say refers to good PR. The kind that respects its audiences and follows Seth Godin’s brilliant rule:

“So, the smart PR folks (the successful ones) struggle to make their lists smaller and smaller. The lazy ones just try to make them bigger.”