BALTIMORE, MD (October 17, 2006) -- Jeffrey A. Davis, partner with Sawmill Marketing Public Relations in Baltimore, presented the latest trends in media relations technology and public relations outreach at a recent meeting of the Baltimore Public Relations Council.

One of three featured speakers on "Virtual Visibility: Technology and PR," Davis shared insights on trends in online public relations, including how PR professionals are taking advantage of online tools such as RSS feeds, podcasts, the new Social Media Press Release and blogs. Joining Davis were Steve Sullivan, executive news editor/multimedia, The Baltimore Sun, and Kevin M. Hoffman, director of web and electronic communications, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). During the presentation, Davis covered the following points:

Sign up for an RSS feed today

The most important activity PR practitioners can undertake today - if they're not signed up already - is to subscribe to an RSS feed and begin reading syndicated content - from thought-leaders in public relations to news sources covering their organization or clients.

Use the paid wire services

This is not a new technique, but it's one that is critical to taking advantage of technology in PR, Davis said. By using a wire service, a client's news will reach the mainstream media (MSM), and it will also reach web portals and other sources designed to pull down releases containing certain keywords. A must today, even if you limit your distribution to a state or region to save costs.

Optimize press releases with keyword phrases

Today's press releases are written for more than the MSM news editor/gatekeeper. Press releases written with optimization in mind - and distributed via a paid wire service - will wind up posted on an online news portal, and can be ranked highly in searches on Google News, Yahoo News or MSN News (or the many other minor news portals) for the chosen keyword phrases. Readers of optimized press releases constitute far more than journalists, especially important since the Internet is now the primary news source for millions of people.

Recognize that blogging is here to stay, so read blogs and become a blogger

While blogging might have started out as a novelty, it is catching on and eventually will be unusual for a company to NOT have a blogging presence, Davis predicted. "It's still early when it comes to blogs, so unless you plan to sit on the sidelines, now is the time to get your firm's as well as your clients' blogging acts together," he said.

Become familiar with PR innovations such as the Social Media Press Release

"We've been writing press releases for years, mostly with the same format to make them appear as finished news stories," Davis said. "At the same time, technology continued to advance, yet we hardly altered the press release format to keep up with the times." That is, until a PR firm came up with a new one that's getting a lot of buzz. Davis showed version 1.0 of the Social Media Press Release, a format with lots of links, photos, financial data, tags to other stories, executive and analyst quotes, and other features, such as del.ici.ous tags and Digg links. Instead of trying to mimic a news story, this new press release format gives the media all the base elements of the announcement, leaving it up to the journalist to assemble the pieces into a news story. Davis asked those in attendance to find ways to utilize the Social Media Press Release and help advance the press release to a new level.

Make sure your web site press room is useful to journalists

Davis urged the attendees to focus on their clients' Web sites, from where they rank in searches to what they're offering the media. Editors aren't asking for a Web design overhaul, he explained, they just want a clean look and logical navigation that makes it easy for journalists to find what they're looking for.

"Time-constrained reporters are not interested in slick brochure-sounding promotional copy," Davis said. "What they want is contact information for the press, straight facts about the company and products, executive bios, updated press releases and downloadable images."

"It's not that complicated, but for whatever reason, some companies just aren't addressing these basic needs...and then wondering why no one writes about them," Davis said.

Be aware of online communities and video sites and how innovators are using them

Davis also suggested that public relations professionals become familiar with the social networking sites and consider whether to incorporate them into their programs. This includes MySpace (now featuring pages from Wendy's and Burger King), Facebook, YouTube (which recently began carrying anti-drug PSAs uploaded by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy - ONDCP) and one of the newest sites, Squidoo.

About Sawmill Marketing Public Relations

Sawmill Marketing Public Relations, headquartered in Baltimore, was established in 1995 and specializes in the development and execution of marketing public relations programs as business development strategies for business-to-business, business-to-consumer and professional services clients. For additional information, visit http://www.sawmillmarketing.com.

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