The fast moving world of technology and innovation is transforming how we communicate with each other, and the rest of the world.

For businesses and organisations, a new and important way of communicating has emerged, in the form of online PR.

Online PR is a way of allowing a company or organisation to connect directly with an online audience – and in this day and age, it’s really something that can’t be ignored.

That’s because people are increasingly using the online world to form opinions about companies and products, and make purchasing decisions based on information found on the Internet. Therefore, it has become vitally important to tap into online activity, from engaging in conversations with online opinion formers to optimising press releases and targeting online journalists.

Here at Headline Communications we are taking online PR seriously – we are one of the first PR companies in Birmingham to offer ‘rich media’ content in our press releases, which can take the form of video interviews, audio and other content. See an example here. We’re using rich media press releases to gain coverage on regional and trade press web sites.

These press releases are just one element of our online PR service. Online PR extends to submitting press releases to sites who syndicate them to various outlets. Additionally, online PR also involves influencing opportunities that exist solely on the Internet, including search engines, blogs, news search, forums, discussion threads and social networking.

Not only can a client’s brand be promoted to journalists and others (eg bloggers) via online PR, we can also monitor how this brand is perceived, and in a much more scientific way than can be done where traditional PR is concerned

Another key element of online PR is online reputation management (ORM) – this is the process of monitoring a brand online, and being able to deal swifty and effectively with any negativity. Monitoring is done via keywords or phrases, using online monitoring tools.