Blogs give PR a new job

International Herald-Tribune (October 15, 2006)

To Steve Rubel, senior vice president at the public relations firm Edelman, there is a "conversation gap" on the Internet between America and the rest of the world. Like Americans, Europeans and Asians have become fervent bloggers. But many of them contribute to U.S.- based sites, or to local-language blogs that are fragmented and obscure.

Why should marketers care about this?

Corporate brand builders are growing increasingly conscious of the power, and potential pitfalls, of blogging. A favorable review from an influential blogger can generate the kind of buzz about a new product that traditional advertising struggles to achieve. A negative write-up can doom a product before it even hits the market.

Perhaps no marketing discipline has been more affected by blogging than public relations. PR professionals used to be brought in when a product was ready for the market, to invite journalists to "rollouts" or "launches" that were followed up by mainstream advertising.

Now many American brands, and some brands of other countries, are starting to include blogs in their marketing plans, using PR at a much earlier stage. By the time of the official "launch," a product may already have been slipped into the hands of bloggers several months before. Feedback from their online discussions with other devotees can help inform a marketer's subsequent advertising and media strategy.

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