Online Relations

Obviously, the internet is paramount to modern day public relations. In today's world, a public relations campaign that doesn't incorporate the internet into any of the phases whether implementation through e-mail or research through databases, would be a definite failure. My entire senior internship is based on the internet and social media and I am learning new tricks and trends every day. The internet is the most fast paced and the most popular media channel that has ever existed and it is changing every moment.

Maybe the Internets popularity is due to the wide variety of utilities it covers across the spectrum for almost every industry and interest. It can be used as a platform for communication between employees, consumers, the media, and investors. It can also be an invaluable research tool for students, professionals and almost any individual that can operate a keyboard.

One can find countless articles scattered across the world wide web on the value of the internet to a public relations professional. I read these articles on a daily basis to stay current with social media trends and to be always learning. One in particular that fell across my screen from one of my favorite websites Mashable, was titled, "12 Incredibly Useful Digital Tools for PR" by Mark Pack, posted on April 4th. When talking about the internet, timeliness is of the utmost importance, because of how quickly tools can be outdated and the next big thing comes along.

This article lists the tools as follows

1. Google Analytics -key for understanding content and consumers
2. Google Insights for Search - great marketing tool for understanding trends in searches
3. Google Keywords Tool - useful to find out what people are actually using to search for your brand
4. NameChek - a service that allows you to check usernames against 150 other web services
5. PeerIndex - tool for analyzing twitter accounts
6. Facebook Insights -the comings and goings on facebook based on content
7.  Youtube Analytics - check out viewership fluctuations
8. Google Alerts -e-mail alerts sent based on specific search terms
9. Radian6 - online marketing tool that isn't free.
10. Hootesuite - great for managing multiple social media accounts and having the ability to generate insight reports
11. Buffer - allows you to schedule updates based on when people will actually see them!?
12. Bit.ly - I use this everyday at my internship to shorten links and track clicks

So far, I've used Google Analytics, Facebook insights, youtube insights, google alerts, hootesuite and bit.ly. I am definitely going to do research into the rest of these tools, especially Buffer.