PR pros on Web 2.0

In a recent PRSSA lecture that I attended presented by Aurora Alert and Netra Ghosh from VisiTech PR, I learned how the integration from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 developed a tool for PR pros.

Reading vs. blogs, companies vs. communities and 2-step flow of communication vs 1 step flow, all define the change from 1.0 to 2.0, that puts into perspective just how important 2.0 is.

According to research they found and presented in their lecture, today, the New York Times has about 45 active blogs thanks to Web 2.0. These blogs include writings about technology, fashion, books and baseball, and are being read by millions of bloggers everyday.

And the New York Times' writers are not the only ones creating blogs. According to VisiTech, everysecond 1.4 blogs are created but still, only 10% of CEOs from fortune 500 companies are blogging.

PRSA’s news publication Tactics, states in their November 2007 issue that Boston is the U.S. City with the most amount of bloggers followed by Philadelphia and Portland, essentially spanning the bloging world across the entire nation.

So what does all of this really mean for PR firms?

Not only does Web 2.0 bring things like blogs, RSS feeds and Pod/Vodcasts into the mix of PR and marketing communication, it also allows PR pros to utilize blogs to build trust, be personal, participate in a flow of conversation, appeal to the mass media and become knowledgeable in multimedia.

Even better, companies like Sun Microsystems, are creating a new kind of press release, to include the same traditional writing as original press releases, but now offer links and videos providing more information for reporters just by the click of a mouse.

So with all of this notion of Web 2.0 and the reaping benefits for PR pros, what will become of Web 3.0, 10.0 or maybe even 15.0.

Well according to VisiTech, websites like Twitter, Facebook and Blogger, will continue to grow in their efforts to communicate in a non-linear way.

Overall, the point taken from this lecture that every PR student should regret not attending: multimedia is key and utilizing up-to-date forms of press releases and communication tools through the web will help you strive in the PR industry.