Despite company marketing and public relations budgets being in a state of ambiguity, many public relations organizations are focusing on social media, trying to figure out “do’s and don’ts” to improve online reach. At the same time, search engine optimization (SEO) of news content is fast becoming an established part of the mix for many public relations 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 public relations. Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online public relations 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 both the search and social Web. Today’s increasingly social media 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.

OpenCa.mp DFW is a conference focused on WordPress, Drupal, Joomla! and .NET development. There are a few sessions touching on blogs and social media and surprisingly, one on public relations. Paula Berg was with Southwest Airlines for 10 years building their social media effort to 8 people and becoming a very legitimate and significant source of revenue for the airline.

Her presentation at OpenCa.mp started with an admission of being somewhat hungover, we are at a tech conference after all, and a rate of speech that was more like East Coast than South West. She was engaging and entertaining.

A lot of companies are doing “Third world social media”. They’re doing things tactically and not integrating into their overall business.

1. About jaw dropping reports:  Sure, servies like Radian6 can create nice looking reports, but what does it mean?

It’s not all about the numbers. What is the data trying to tell us? What are we tring to prove or accomplish. What should we be doing differently. Who cares about this insight?

2. Launch an all out PR assault – tell everyone about your social media program

3. Make executives love it. Dazzle them. Scare them. Do what you have to do.

By Kevin Sawyer – Media Relations Specialist

By all accounts, Barack Obama had the Democratic presidential nomination in the bag two weeks ago. All he had to do was come close in states like Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and coast to Denver this summer. But his campaign made a serious miscue. While floundering in Ohio, Obama’s campaign challenged Hillary Clinton to quit if SHE lost in Ohio. Big mistake…

It used to be that success in American politics consisted of a series of turning points. The Lincoln-Douglas debates, Fireside chats, and the “Checkers” speech all consisted of a politician seizing a moment to elevate his cause. Nobody saw them coming, and nothing was the same after.

Today, if a prominent politician schedules a major event, news venues will analyze the speech from every angle before it has been drafted. Social networking sites will come to a consensus about what he or she should say, and the politician will speak against the backdrop of a plethora of expectations, against which even the most successful speech has the potential to fail. Many will watch the speech on YouTube days later, reading and contributing comments as they watch.