Snapp Conner PR has unveiled a revamped website targeted for interactivity and conversation with clients, news professionals, and others.

The website, which is built on the open-source Wordpress blogging platform, features a blog where Snapp Conner PR’s staff will write commentary about the industry, a section for both internal and client news releases, more information about their services and staff, and innovative ways for clients and news agencies to stay up to date with their new content using RSS feeds and email subscription tools.

Additionally, the changes to the website incorporate smart Search Engine Optimization techniques to help Snapp Conner PR promote its clients more-effectively using the Internet.

Finally, the website encourages feedback through Wordpress’s built-in comment system… What do you think?

This morning was the annual Utah Technology Council (UTC) public relations event. This event has become increasingly popular—the third year UTC has offered it. The topic was New Media (surprise!) the fundamentals and forecast for 2008.

Three experts presented: Malcolm Atherton, regional lead and SEO expert for BusinessWire; Brad Baldwin, podcaster, pundit and co-founder of Utah's Rocky Mountain Voices; and R. Dean Taylor, VP Marketing and Sales for COMPLETExRM (a strategy and development partner of FranklinCovey) and the founding executive of Caldera who was instrumental in launching the Open Source user community that helped to create and define the Linux market.

All three speakers had interesting things to say about social networking and search optimization. Malcolm noted the growing prevalence of RSS, blogs and microblogs (like Twitter), social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us, multimedia and universal search tools. Malcolm notes that while bloggers are now generally considered full credentialed members of the press, they often operate under different rules. They need to be approached differently than traditional journalists. And for PR professionals: You have officially now lost control. Our job is to recognize it, deal with it, and find the ways to embrace this fact as we move on.

Brad Baldwin talked about the growing popularity of video media, and the roles this medium played at last week's CES. At least one company Brad mentioned, Celio Corp., used a podcast as the first-ever appearance of its REDFLY Mobile Companion. A quick Google News search on REDFLY will tell the rest of that tale: the story spread like wildfire and more than 22 news stories were out before CES even began. Brad also recommends PR folks interested in social networking get acquainted with Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research Social Computing. Jeremiah publishes a weekly update, www.web-strategist.com.

Dean Taylor talked about finding the holes in the information vector and identifying the ways your company and message can fill those gaps. He advocates forgetting the myopic focus on “message" and instead stresses the importance of the “concept." Feed your news – in a highly web optimized fashion – in a way that fills those holes and you'll effectively stimulate what Dean calls the “Piranha effect." As a case study, Dean illustrated the recent announcement of COMPLETExRM – a strategy and development partner of FranklinCovey in the development of PlanPlus™ Online. Prior to this release, no one had ever heard of COMPLETExRM. So using all of these concepts, Dean and his PR team (yes, that was us—Snapp Conner PR) to identify the holes. In this case, it was tying the concept of Enterprise 2.0 to CRM (contact relationship management). No one had done that before, but we could see there was a significant interest and need.

COMPLETExRM also has some notable investors – most importantly, Donald L. Lucas, who has been instrumental on the boards of Oracle and Macromedia. He's never invested in a Utah company before, and there's a significant cadre of investors and industry watchers keenly tuned into what he might be doing next. Now they know.

The rest is history. Within three day of issuing its launch press release, COMPLETExRM had been picked up by 911 other sites. Within five days there were more than 10,000 pickups. Within nine days there were—wait for it—more than 7 million URLs linked to this single release. To say that social media is important for this company's launch would be a vast understatement.

All of these speakers are available for follow up discussion. They'll all be easy to trace—you can just search them on Google

Cheryl Snapp Conner

Managing Partner

Once you've begun a public relations initiative, it is important to maintain a steady flow of news. Communicatively speaking, nothing could be more detrimental to your business than to go quiet.

Regardless of extreme optimisms, human nature tends to gravitate toward the negative; and when your company stops making noise, the media began to wonder what is going on behind the closed doors. Or worse… they forget about you.

This is why it is imperative to continue sending out regular press releases, and conducting outreach. If you feel that there is little or no news to share, take a look back at where you've been and what has been completed. Is there something you could share about the growth your company has experienced? Is there an anniversary coming up? How do you compare with where you were last year this time?

Be creative about the news you share. You may not get the intended coverage as with the launch of a new product; however, simply continuing the conversation helps the media know they are working with a company that is more than just a “flash in the pan."

Don Osmond

Senior Associate

Broadcast media (TV, radio, streaming online) can be a very effective outlet for creating awareness for your business, generating public support, building investor relations and simply getting customers. But while just sending a press release to an assignment editor or producer will sometimes land you a spot, there are several ways of increasing your success when pitching to a broadcast outlet.

Know the show

Knowing a little out a particular show or segment will go a long way when making a pitch. If you already know who the show is targeting, what their goals are and what the general viewer/listener is looking for, you can include that in your pitch.

Why they care

One of the most common phrases you'll hear in story idea meetings is, “Why do I care?" Simply announcing something in a press release usually won't be enough to get them interested. Take a minute to tailor a message to their particular programming. If it's a news show, tell them how it will benefit their viewers/listeners.

Cut the fluff

Assignment editors and producers are extremely busy. They don't have time to sift through all of the information in every press release they receive (usually hundreds per day). Get to the point as soon as you can and leave out information that isn't particularly important. Make sure to include contact information, times, dates and addresses.

While there are many ways to generate interest from broadcast outlets simply taking a few extra minutes to find out who you are dealing with will go along way.

Matt Stubbs

PR Associate