Public Relations on the Net: Winning Strategies to Inform and Influence the Media, the Investment Community, the Government, the Public and More! [Paperback]

Some books understand the Internet. Others understand public relations. This book is a marriage of the two. Mr. Holtz has written a text accessible to the layperson and to both IT and PR professionals (as difficult as that may be).

It's organized well enough that experts in either arena can easily skip the rudimentary parts they already know and go straight to the good stuff.

Holtz also takes readers down the path of understanding critical issues that internet hype often overlooks. He points out the paths toward finding online communities and grapevine-level conversations about your organization--crucial information for PR understanding of the environment.

He also details the ways Internet-savvy David-sized organizations can wield online communications as a weapon against Goliath-sized companies. A good thing to know, regardless of which side of that fight you may be on.

This book is well worth the read for those who desire to gain a stronger understanding of how PR techniques can be adapted to the online arena, as well as what new techniques need to be adopted.

I can sum up everything that I learned in this book in two words.

Not much.

It covers common sense things that anyone who has spent any time on the Internet would know.

This was written for people who have already worked in public relations but have had practically no experience in using the Internet. It starts with a history of the Internet, then looks at communications and how the Internet has changed them.

Part Two is more useful for established public relations practitioners as it covers measurement and audiences. It talks about using the Internet in establishing and maintaining media relations. There was actually one very good section here. In order to use the Internet effectively, you must consider it to be a channel of communications between the PR specialist and the media. The only way to do that is to give the media what they want.

Do not send email blindly to journalists and other members of the media unless they have indicated, perhaps at the end of their column, that they welcome email submissions. Always contact them first by telephone to determine if they might be interested in the story that you are promoting. If they are, then you may send them the information via email. Keep it short; no more than two pages. Use excruciatingly good grammar. Be polite and give them information that helps them to do their jobs more easily.

As in any part of public relations, establishing contact and credibility with the media is key to your success in getting your story covered.

Keep a database of your press releases online so that the media people can find them when they need information. You want your PR people to work with your webmaster while your website is being developed. Other suggestions include that you make sure to have an email contact address at your website that is regularly checked by someone responsible. He recommends the use of newsletters, bulletin boards and chat rooms to pull people onto your site. He also notes that it is difficult to get demographic information on your users and suggests registration to get their contact information and demographics.

I personally don't recommend that you use registration for your site when you are just starting out because it will drive users from your site rather than pull them into it.

If you are not familiar with the Internet, this book may be useful. If you are a regular user, you may want to find other sources of information on PR on the Internet.

I had the good fortune to learn the art and science of public relations in a large organization (a trade association for a financial services provider). We had a ten-person PR team, each with a specialty.

This was the 1980s and we used "one-to-many communications." Now I'm having to un-learn that. As part of my re-education as a PR practitioner I read "Public Relations on the Net." Shel Holtz wrote it to help communicators like myself and our organizations figure out how to achieve measurable business results by using the Internet to communicate.

In addition to its value as a guide to strategically incorporating new media into a PR program, I recommend this book as a reminder of what the public relations field is all about - or is supposed to be.

One point Holtz keeps emphasizing is that the best public relations efforts are two-way and symmetrical - they afford both the company and the strategic audience equal opportunities to participate in the discussion and, even more important, equal opportunities to achieve their objectives.

As a whole, PR practitioners like myself have work to do in terms of using new communications media. The public often does a better job of online public relations than the professionals themselves, Holtz says, citing examples of activist groups and other passionate people who do a better job of understanding the Internet's networked nature and using it to their advantage.

To effectively employ a medium as part of a communication strategy communicators must be intimately familiar with the medium. Holtz says to become better at online public relations, communicators must spend time online. PR practitioners should be the "eyes and ears" of the organization online, monitoring constituent content, extracting value from that content, and providing intelligence based on that content, which our organization can use to make strategic business decisions.

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