Online PR

Being mentioned

The purpose of doing PR online is to get published - links to your website, your stories about what you do (white papers, press releases etc.) and favourable commentary.

Links are good

Not only will links to your site this increase the number of places where people will come across your website but these links to your site have the effect of increasing your ranking in search engine results pages.

Your best PR tool

Apart from the fact that your website itself is your most important PR tool there are a number of other PR specific activities to engage in.

Press releases

Despite all the noise on the Internet, press releases are still very valuable if well written and sent to relevant people.  Because of the sheer volume of press releases, journalists rely on search engines to find the ones they're interested in, so bear this in mind as you write the copy.

The best mechanism for free distribution of your press release is, of course, your website.  Then there are also PR distribution services like PR Newsire, PR Web and many others.

White papers

If your company has things to say about your industry or market then write a white paper.  As long as this isn't a pure sales pitch it can be posted on many industry-specific web sites.  It may only be your website link that mentions you but if the piece is good people will follow the link.

Blogs and Forums

Other places to get mentioned are in blogs and discussion forums focused around your industry. It's all good PR!