PR budgets have been affected just as much as marketing and Public Relations departments in every industry are trying to figure out the  mechanics of how to improve PR effectiveness through social media. At the same time, optimizing news content for search engines is fast becoming an established part of the mix for many PR programs.

On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end consumers through push and pull PR. Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online PR results.

Why is this so? Changes in the way the media and end consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for search and the social web. Today’s increasingly social savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

This post is a preview to the presentation that TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden will be giving at the upcoming Media Relations Summit, New York, NY May 17-19 on Search Engine Optimization Tips for Media Relations.

Many public relations practitioners have warmed in recent years to the power of search engine optimization for growing the impact of pull based PR efforts.

Journalists, bloggers and industry influentials use search engines to find subject matter experts, research companies, locate past media coverage and track topical trends. In fact, a recent survey on journalists’ use of search by TopRank reports that 91% of those journalists, reporters and editors surveyed use search engines to do their jobs.

Traditionally, search engine optimization efforts have been managed by corporate marketing departments – either in-house or through an outside agency. However, will all the opportunities to create value in the form of increased online brand visibility, reputation management and internet based media coverage, public relations deserves a seat at the corporate SEO table.

Say what you will, blogs are increasingly in competition for time and attention against mainstream media news sources. As the importance of blogs grows, many PR organizations struggle to identify best practices for engaging them.

Blogger relations is not a matter of media relations with a new type of media list. Bloggers are typically not reporters and don’t follow the same rules and practices within traditional journalism. Yet a single blogger can attract an audience on par with that of a small news organization.

As a blogger with over 15,000 subscribers, I’ve been on the sending and receiving end of blog pitches. Here are a few hard won insights for media relations professionals trying to make sense of the blogger audience.

• Be relevant. It seems so simple and obvious, yet it is the biggest mistake made when pitching bloggers. Look at the categories of the blog, tags and previous blog posts. Is your pitch REALLY relevant?

• Personalize. Getting an email pitch with no personal reference at all, or just a press release and no message is a sure trip to the trash folder. Take the time to research the blog, make comments and get involved. Be honest about who you are in the comments and provide thoughtful insight that is of value and relevant to the blog post.

Virtual Reality and 3D platforms not just a child’s game. “Second Life: The Dream Platform for PR Professionals,” was the last session I took while attending PRSA International 2008, but it was one of the most effective. Why you may ask? Because Second Life isn’t just about creating an avitar and playing in a virtual world it is about jumping on board to the future of interaction.

Second Life not just another social media site, and these statistics prove that:

• 14 Million Users
• 100 Countries represented
• 35 Million hours spent on Second Life a year
• $1.5 Million UDS earned per day on virtual goods
• 35 Median age of users on Second Life

What do these statistics say to us? They say that there is an untapped market that is not declining, but growing rapidly. 35 is the median age of the user, there are 14 million users in over100 countries, and $1.5 million dollars are made each day. This tells us that Second Life is not going anywhere but up. Vitrual worlds are now not only for children they are for adults.

Tuesday’s with Morrie, the bestselling memoir by Mitch Albom speaks of the influence that we all possess as individuals. How we all have a certain power to cultivate the people we encounter. Morrie Schwartz was a professor of Mitch Albom’s when he was an undergrad. Morrie helped shape the way Mitch thought and the way that Mitch viewed his future. One man influenced another and from that a great journalist, sportscaster and motivational speaker emerged.

As PR and Media Relations Professionals we have influence on people. Every day we are shaping the way people view our clients and their products/services. We have the honor of cultivating the way people view what we have to say. We can impact society. Mitch Albom’s question as keynote speaker for the PRSA International 2008’s last day conference was, “Are you impacting people in a positive way? Are you learning from people as you are influencing them?”

What are the most commonly used marketing objectives? What variables are used when planning a marketing strategy? What is the most influential contact point? These questions were the opening of, “Marketing, Media and Word of Mouth.”  We know the answer to all these questions right?

• Awareness
• Target
• Word of Mouth

Presenter Jeffrey Graham, executive director, customer insight, The New York Times, stated that, ” there is a huge disconnect when it comes to word of mouth and context.”

What does this mean? For a person just starting out in PR and Media Relations it means we may be overlooking a significant part of our target market. By not paying attention to where information and opinions about our clients or their services are coming from we are missing what could be a either fatal or significant loss or win for out clients. How does this really effect us and our clients? Gabriel Tarde stated, “Conversation is the strongest agent of imitation, of the propagation of sentiment.”

“Evergreen Magic: How To Make News When There’s No News”

This session is being introduced as PR for the “little guy”. That’s apropos. After a series of case studies highlighting all the great work Disney was able to do great things (on a shoestring budget, or so we were told), it’s hard not to wonder what a company with lesser brand awareness can do to create ripples.

Sandra Fathi begins by citing a familiar dilemma. Company a buys company b and launches product x gives reporter z’s, unless your company happens to be Microsoft (or, say, Disney). Her advice is to marry the message to the reporters needs. This should seem obvious, but it is vitally important to sell the importance of this to the client.

To the specific advice, Sandra proposes that smaller companies “ride the wave of trends”. Well, yeah. Isn’t that what public relations people do? Easier said than done, though, eh? Sorry, I’ll keep the cynicism in check. So what does she propose?