sharp end of digital PR

In a packed room at the CIPR with PR pros keen to be at the sharp end of digital PR techniques a show of hands revealed one or two in the room who had not yet explored Twitter or been within a mile of LinkedIn.

Maybe they will by now though, as speaker Rob Brown of Staniforth did a good job of extolling the virtues of social media for PR, explaining the uses of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter for those yet to be convinced.

We're in a 24-hour rolling news society (he says) with news organisations now competing with bloggers for stories. News is instant and many media organisations are taking their business online, as you've probably noticed. The Guardian's podcasts are downloaded around 500,000 times a week whilst newspaper circulation figures are around 350,000.

Looking at the increasing value of digital PR to businesses wanting to inprove their online visibility and traffic to their website was interesting. It's an ever blurring line between PR and search, and they can work hand-in-hand it seems to deliver improved search results and higher Google rankings. PR copy is all-important too, providing essential 'content,' helping keep websites fresh and appealing to search engines. Search terms can also be widened by being used within PR copy online.

More on this topic to follow as there's so much good stuff yet to unpack...