July, 20, 2005 at Ces & Judy's - Kiersch & O'Brien - (See Power Point Presentation below)

Online marketing campaigns are increasingly incorporating public relations, and public relations professionals now have access to online tools to more efficiently reach reporters and stakeholders and more accurately measure results. These were some of the key points made by Chris Kiersch, director, e-mail marketing, and David O'Brien, PR account supervisor, of Brighton, during July's PRSA meeting.

Turning press releases into measurable online tools
One of the ways to demonstrate an organization's return on investment in public relations is to show measurable results, such as hits on an organization's Web site or online purchases from the site. One way to achieve these results is to optimize press releases, including keywords determined by search engine optimization software that many organizations now use. Integrating those keywords into the release and distributing the release on a news wire increase the chances that the release will be among the top results displayed by search engines. Distributing the release on a news wire allows the opportunity to incorporate links to your organization's Web site in the release. Then, you can employ Web tracking software that your organization may already be using to see how many people your release is driving to your Web site.

Improving communications with journalists
E-mail programs provide a method to track correspondence with the media. Programs such as ExactTarget or others can provide a read receipt to tell you whether the e-mail was opened, show "click-throughs" on attachments or links and tell you whether the e-mail was forwarded. These features provide a correspondence history for each media contact and allow you to make adjustments to your media outreach based on feedback the software provides. In addition, such programs allow one email to be drafted, personalized and sent to an entire media list.

Blogging
Many organizations are looking at ways to make use of Web logs, or blogs, as part of their communications strategy. Blogs are simple to set up and can be an effective way to communicate an organization's messages. In addition, blogs can be considered an online focus group or early warning system, since bloggers are frequently blunt and uncensored. The presenters shared the following best practices for participating in blogs:

• Only participate in blogs that will welcome your contribution.
• Never try to hide your identity.
• Provide value through expertise.

See Kiersh and O'Brien's Brighton Presentation - a 2.6M Power Point Presentation.

_{Reporter - Chris Horner, PRSA St. Louis Board}