There is a single PR outlet that puts 1,463,632,361 in touch with your organisation. That's the latest estimate of Internet usage according to World Internet Stats which suggests that one is six people globally can now access the Web.
Yet, Peter Bush Communications Ltd still sees many businesses fail to keep their websites updated; make grossly inadequate use of the Internet as a primary external communications vehicle; and miss out on the potential for interactive and regular communications directly with customers via the web.
We also see specialist websites, magazine websites, portals and e-zines undervalued by companies. In many PR consultancies, online press coverage is considered inferior compared with print media cuttings. Some consultancies (and their clients) overlook online results altogether.
Targeting the e-media is specialised, but it is worth the investment in instigating properly concerted campaigns. Many resources are best accessed via the Internet (such as information that is increasingly only available electronically) and there is no better way to direct people to the data than directly from the Internet.
Apart from addressing websites, which is, in principle, much the same as attacking print media, there are numerous other outlets and strategies that can be deployed.
Direct communication with the target audience is the most obvious option, provided e-mail address databases are available. We are not suggesting spam mailing here, rather that an "opted in" channel be established for such mails.
E-zines, whereby information is sent regularly to a subscribed database, have grown in numbers, popularity, quality and efficacy.
Portals often accept PR material as a means of populating their information-rich content. These can be very effective, but a highly specialised approach is often required.
Forums, newsgroups and blogs can be incredibly potent as a means of starting hugely successful viral campaigns. There are strict rules governing most of these openings however, and again it requires very specialised techniques to address then effectively.
As a measure of the potential effectiveness of E-PR, a recent case study for Peter Bush Communications Ltd saw an industrial client attract 50,000 new unique visits to a new website; 30,000 pages downloaded; 20,000 PDF files downloaded; 3,500 interactive quiz entries; and 348 copies of a book sold through a reciprocal facility set up with Amazon. This was achieved from a standing start in just two weeks!
Please contact us to discuss E-PR