PR Effectiveness in a Virtual World

June is Effective Communication Month—as if we could ignore effectively communicating the other eleven months of the year! However, it is an excellent opportunity to get back to the communications basics and discuss how some of the time-tested tools and strategies for PR effectiveness  might be applied to successfully communicate in the virtual world of the Internet.

According to Clifford N. Lazarus, PhD, there are a number of tools used in establishing and maintaining effective communication.

• Make Sure You Have the Other Person’s Attention. On the Internet, getting a visitor to read, or at least browse, your web page or email message is the objective. Unfortunately as early as 2007, the average person visited over 130 web pages per day, and in 2011 (according to the Nielsen Norman Group), “the average stay on those pages was just 10-20 seconds,” which means visitors are usually reading less than one-quarter of the text on any particular page.
  
• Maintain Eye Contact. In the world of the Internet, this means keeping the visitor on your page long enough to make them a potential customer. Once you have crossed that 10-20 second threshold they are more likely to stay longer and explore your site.
  
• Be Direct and Honest. Remember you have a small amount of time to capture and hold a visitor’s attention.
  
• Good Communication Involves Clear And Concise Messaging. Content and design should complement each other. People are as easily turned off by dissimilar messages. And the sheer volume of options available on the Internet, will make sure visitors move on if they do not feel comfortable on your website.
  
• Ask For Feedback and Listen To Ensure The Intended Message Was Received. There needs to be an electronic equivalent to the phrase “are you following me?” Comment opportunities on web pages and visitor/customer feedback options, will provide ways for your company to receive crucial responses and amend or clarify your content and tone.

Is your company having a hard time crafting an effective content strategy? We can help. Contact 2GC today.

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Mistakes Happen

 

I sent out a press release for a new client and accidentally placed my media contacts in the copy line instead of the blind copy line and hit send. By the time I noticed my error, it was too late to recall. Luckily, it was not a 380-person national media list like Gloria Allred as reported by the Hollywood Reporter; nonetheless it’s not a good look. There is a legitimate reason the mistake was made, however I rather not place blame on circumstance. I acknowledged the blunder by immediately sending an apology to the contacts on the email in the proper blind item format.

The lesson learned is to recognize a mistake happened, accept it and take responsibility for it.