Like most people, I like to take a book to read during quiet time while on vacation. I recently picked up The New Rules of Marketing PR by David Meerman Scott and couldn't put it down. Scott asserts that the traditional ways of doing PR are, well, old and becoming outdated. While he agrees that there is still a lot of value in maintaining relationships with traditional media, his contention that businesses can use the Internet to maintain a direct public relations tie with their customer is right on target.
Hey, it's great seeing your company's name in the press in a positive light. But it's even better seeing your sales increase and that's the point he drives home with specific suggestions on how to get started. One of his biggest suggestions: regularly send out news releases that are peppered with search engine optimized phrases. The result can be fantastic rankings in Google leading to traffic from your customers.
