Public Relations on the Net: Winning Strategies to Inform, & Influence the Media, the Investment Community, the Government, the Public, & More

458 Pages·2002·4.727 MB·English

by  Shel Holtz

Public Relations
Net
on the
Winning Strategies to Inform
and Influence the Media,
the Investment Community,
the Government, the Public, and More!
Second Edition
Shel Holtz
American Management Association
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Holtz,Shel.
PublicrelationsontheNet:winningstrategiestoinformandinfluencethe
media,theinvestmentcommunity,thegovernment,thepublic,andmore!/
ShelHoltz.—2nded.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8144-7152-8(pbk.)
1. Internetinpublicrelations. I. Title.
HD59.H596 2002
659.2(cid:1)0285(cid:1)4678—dc21
2002001993
(cid:2)2002ShelHoltz
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Tomychildren,Benjamin andRachel,
whostilldon’tunderstandwhatIdofor alivingbeyond
spendinganinordinateamount oftimeonline.
Theiramusementalwayshelpskeepthingsintheproperperspective.
C O N T E N T S
PrefacetotheSecondEdition vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
PartOne:CommunicationsontheInternet 1
1. AReportCardonPRUseoftheInternet 3
2. HowCommunicationHasBeenForeverChanged 21
3. PublicRelationsToolsoftheInternet 50
4. ThePrinciplesofInfluencingAudiencesOnline 92
5. HowtoBetheEyesandEarsofYourOrganizationorClient 127
PartTwo:Audiences 155
6. MediaRelations 157
7. InvestorRelations 205
8. GovernmentRelations 217
9. CommunityRelations 229
10. CauseandIssueCommunication 250
11. EmployeeCommunications 269
12. ActivismontheNet 281
13. CrisisManagementintheWiredWorld 312
14. GoingDirectlytothePublic 341
15. MeasuringtheEffectivenessofYourOnlineEfforts 348
Appendixes
AppendixA. WorkingwithITStaff 357
AppendixB. PromotingYourOnlineEfforts 362
AppendixC. WritingfortheWeb 371
AppendixD. OnlineResources 388
AppendixE. RecommendedReading 400
AppendixF. InternetFundamentals 403
Glossary 411
Index 437
v
P R E FA C E T O T H E S E C O N D E D I T I O N
‘‘T
HE COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSION lags woefully be-
hindmuchoftheInternetcommunity.’’
Iwrotethosewordsinthefirstchapterofthefirsteditionofthis
book back in 1998. Only four years have passed since Public Rela-
tionsontheNetfirstappeared;in‘‘Webyears,’’however,fouryearsis
an eternity. (The rule of thumb suggests that one calendar year
equals ten Web years; consequently, forty virtual years have passed.)
Four years or forty, that is plenty of time for the communications
profession to get its act togetherand to beginusing the Internetas a
strategiccommunicationstool.
Sadly, the profession hasn’t progressed much since then. The
only significant change is that research now corroborates my belief.
The Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF) commissioned a
studyin thesummer of2000that wasreleasedin thefirst quarterof
2001. The study, titled The New Economy Initiative: The Future Im-
pact of the Internet on the Public Relations Industry (which I cite
frequently in the early parts of this book), notes that professionals
who communicate for a living have a long way to go before they are
meeting client needs and fully tapping into the new channels the
Internetprovidesfor deliveringmessages.
Therecontinues,therefore,tobeaneedforthisbook.However,
since four years is a long time on the Internet, there was also a need
to update the book. Reading back through the pages I wrote in the
late1990s,Irealizedseveralelementscouldstandchange.
First of all, the first edition of Public Relations on the Net used
a fair number of pages to explain the fundamentals. What is e-mail?
Whatisadiscussiongroup?WhatistheWeb?WhenIwrotethefirst
edition,Iwasstillrunningintoafrighteningnumberofprofessionals
who did not have a firm grasp on the basics of these new media. It
was important, therefore, to explain to practitioners new to the Net
exactly whatthey were dealing with. Itried to draft thesesections so
that they were meaningful to communicators, and not merely a car-
bon copy of what you could find in any Internet-for-beginners book.
Buttoday,fouryearslater,Inolongerfindthattobeanissue.Those
vii
viii PrefacetotheSecondEdition
elementaryexplanationshavenearlybeenexcised,andhavebeenrel-
egatedtoanappendix.
Second, research has revealed more about the dynamics of on-
linecommunication.Hundredsofresearchprojectsandstudieshave
been completed and volumes have been written. The discussion of
the many-to-many nature of communications—one of the center-
pieces of the first edition—has been greatly expanded to cover new
conclusionsabouthowtocommunicateonbehalfofinstitutionsina
networkedenvironment.
Finally, the case studies in the first edition were, frankly, an-
cient. Not that they were bad case studies. For the late 1990s, when
theexamplesusedwereimplemented,theywereshiningexamplesof
public relations professionals who had figured out how to use the
Internettoachievestrategicobjectives.Theyarestillgoodexamples,
but as an increasing number of practitioners integrate the Internet
into their efforts, the number of sophisticated examples has in-
creased.Virtuallyallofthecasestudiesinthis editionarenew.
There are other changes throughout the book—new models,
new ideas, and enhanced explorations of certain concepts (such as
the integration of online and offline communication). In the appen-
dixes,newbooksareinthebibliographyandthelistingofusefulWeb
sites has been updated. In other words, almost the entire book has
beenrevised—fromcovertocover.
Asalways,yourcommentsandotherinputareappreciated.You
can e-mail me at [email protected], or send your remarks through my
Websiteathttp://www.holtz.com.
Enjoytheread!
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
M
Y APPRECIATION FOR the Internet’s capabilities as a tool
forachievingtwo-waysymmetricalpublicrelationsoutcomesis
the result of years of contact with others who share my passion for
the Net’s capabilities and potential. My continued admiration goes
outtoallofthem,including:
My fellow members of NetGain, the first virtual consortium of
electronic communications professionals: Peter Shinbach of
The Birmingham Group and Tudor Williams of Tudor Wil-
liams Inc. Then there is the rest of the group that certain
members of the International Association of Business Com-
municators (IABC) refer to as the Technology Mafia: Craig
Jolley,and CharlesPizzoof P.R.PublicRelations.
Others who have been influential and deserve recognition in-
clude:
Dan Janal, author of Dan Janal’s Guide to Internet Marketing,
goodfriend,andregularlyavailableconversationalist.
Jeffrey Hallett, now retired, whose insight into the synchroniz-
ing of the electronic media with the transformation of the
businesseconomy hasbeenarevelation.
Don Middleberg, whose recognition of the Internet as a neces-
sary component of communications planning has led the in-
dustry.
KatherinePaine,CEOofTheDelahayeGroup,andAngelaSin-
ickas,principalwithWilliam M.MercerInc.,haveraisedthe
measurementofInterneteffectivenesstoanart.
Carol Kinsey Goman, who never lets me forget to consider the
humansideofhightech.
For their continued willingness to share ideas online and off,
and in no particular order: Jerry Stevenson, John Gerstner, Sheri
ix
x Acknowledgments
Rosen, David Sussman, Mike Vincenty, Matisse Enzer, Tim Hicks,
Brian Kilgore, Steve Crescenzo, Sharon McIntosh, David Murray,
DanOswald,DavidSkwarczek,andPeterDean.
No listing of acknowledgments would be complete without rec-
ognizingtheimportanceofIABCinmylife.Thisprofessionalassoci-
ation is, without question, the single most significant contributor to
any success I may have achieved in my career. To the members and
thetirelessstaffgomy undyinggratitude.
And, of course, my wife Michele, who claims she isn’t an In-
ternet professional, but uses it in her daily activities. That makes
her a model of the Net’s potential. And I also have to recognize her
increasing tolerance for the amount of time I spend online, writing
aboutbeingonline,andtalkingaboutbeingonline.
I N T R O D U C T I O N
T
HE INTERNET REPRESENTS oneofthemostsignificanttools
ever employed in the practice of public relations (PR). Using it
toitsbestadvantage,however,requiresstrategicthinkingabouthow
to apply the Net to communication efforts. Communication profes-
sionals need to understand what the medium does best and what it
doesn’t do as well. They need to understand the nature of audiences
online, the impact of a network environment, the expectation of in-
teractivity,andthedesire tospeakinandhearahumanvoice.Then,
PR counselors need to integrate these factors into comprehensive,
strategic efforts that leverage the spectrum of possibilities the Net
presents.
Even as we approach the end of the first decade of the Internet
asasignificantfactoronthemedialandscape,mostofthecommuni-
cationeffortsweseecomingoutoforganizationsarelittlemorethan
alternatives to print. Cost savings have motivated much of the move
fromprinttoonline,despitethefactthatconductinganonlinecom-
munication effectively—to produce a measurable return on invest-
ment—isoftenan expensiveundertaking.
AnumberofconditionsaffecttheInternet’sviabilityasadomi-
nantcommunicationtool,including:
➫ Reach. About half the households in the United States are
wired, with an even larger number of people going online at their
workplaces.Criticalmassoftheonlinepopulationhasbeenreached.
➫ Ease of use. Although some Web designers are still more in-
terested in producing sites that impress their peers than they are in
helpingaudiencesusethesiteeasily,ithasneverthelessbecomeeas-
iertousetheInternet.Searchengineshaveimproved.Commonnavi-
gation techniques have found their way onto many sites. And, after
nearlytenyearsofusingtheNet,peoplearemoreaccustomedtothe
wayitworksthantheywereonlyafew yearsago.
➫ Speed. Telephone companies are competing with cable tele-
visioncompaniesforashareofthehigh-speed(or‘‘broadband’’)mar-
ket.GiventherapidlyexpandingavailabilityofDSLandcableaccess,
xi