Blogging as a Tool for PR!

According to http://www.mmimarketing.com/white-papers/the-small-business-blog-as-a-public-relations-tool, public relations agencies can benifit by blogging in several ways.

1) Using the blog as a public forum for discussion about new and current products or services, company news and events.

2) They are a tool that can be used to posistion yourself as an expert and your company as a leader in your industry.

3) Blogs can be used to build trust with your readers, stop false rumors, respond honestly to criticism and nip a public relations crisis in the bud before it spirals out of control.

4) Blogs enable you to tap into conversations already taking place about your company, industry and competitors.

5) Blogs are used to gain search engine prominence through RSS (Real Simple Syndication)

Five years ago "blogging" was a relatively unheard word but now, in 2007, it is a word that we seem to hear about every minute. It is becoming such an increasingly popular tool in the online community that companies and agencies are wanting a piece of the action as well. A blog can do great things for an organization. It can generate buzz, also known these days as viral marketing. For public relations practitioners a blog is simply another tool to reach out at customers and give them the inside scoop.

A blog can also be used to see what people in the workplace are thinking. From a public relations perspective, it would be nice to see what blogs are saying about your product, service or company. Blogging can also eliminate "PR Nightmares." People love to talk and that is precisely how rumors are also spread. It doesn't take long for simple and meaningless speculations to snowball into crises. Since blogging is an increasingly popular tool, there is a strong liklihood that these so-called speculations and rumors would be discovered sooner rather than later. Once discovered, the organization can take immediate action to stop the rumor and make clarifications before the rumor got out of hand.

Blogging is a type of social netowrking. Some social networking sites you might have heard of are MySpace and YouTube. There are many advantages for PR companies because most of these networking sites are free, and they are a cheaping way fo branding an image rathern than having to spend thousands of dollars on media and advertising. Using blogs, companies have complete control over what they say in their blog and what they promote. This is key becuase now they are seen as a corporation who actually has a passion for whatever they are promoting.

In my opinion, blogging will not disappear anytime soon. It is still a rising trend and I think we will see more and more companies and agencies jumping on the bandwagon!!