Published by Jenny on 19 Feb 2009 at 11:05 am
Little advice online for people learning about online PR?
Here’s a recent quote from Daryl Willcox, chairman of DWPub: “There are tons of people out there blogging about how important online PR is, but there is very little in terms of actual guidance – especially for those who have limited online PR experience. (Source)
Mr Willcox is promoting a white paper he has written about online PR – and this campaign is pretty successful. I’ve come across references to it several times accidentally – and the quote above annoyed me enough to repeat it! Great campaign management…
We are trying to offer practical advice, along with adding our own personal spin on what’s happening right now.
I’m sure the DWPub is full of great advice (they are a good company and we use their press wires), but you will get widely differing views on this subject from people, depending on their background.
Daryl Willcox is from a PR background and understands the value of targeted campaign management, use of key contacts, the human reaction to content.
I’m constantly dealing with people who view our work from an SEO perspective only – they see the “link farm potential” in our international news network, or they are only interested in reports that can prove direct referrals.
The boom in social media (and it seems to be all that clients and the search industry alike are talking about at the moment!) is actually proving to be a good thing for the way PR is perceived. Creating a buzz, trying to build up word-of-mouth interest, devising events / issues that will make people care – suddenly these are becoming important again – almost as important as keyword density…
I’m watching this space with interest…please share your thoughts on the latest online PR developments
EDIT – Please note the clarification in the comments. Thanks for the feedback Andrew.

Andrew Bruce Smith on 19 Feb 2009 at 11:57 am #
Hi – thanks for the post – just to clarify, DWP published the whitepaper – but I wrote it. I entirely agree that there is a lot noise and misconception flying around the subject of PR and SEO. The whitepaper is intended to try and bring some clarity. The following post + comments from Stuart Bruce probably provide the most useful debate on the subject at the moment
http://www.stuartbruce.biz/2009/02/public-relations-is-about-reputation-not-seo.html