The digital PR space is hot right now. You see articles about online PR, blogs and social media in practically every mainstream newspaper and trade magazine. One of the reasons is that it is a fast paced environment and there are always new ideas to report on - two years ago there was no YouTube or Del.icio.us And two years ago PR people were not as interested in finding out about the shifts in media consumption. Bulldog Reporter's PR University has been plotting a course through this morass for PR practitioners and their Advanced PR tech workshops this week really got to the heart of online PR. The New York seminar on Friday was filled to capacity, with both young PR people and old school stalwarts. The sessions covered blogging, social media (tagging, sharing content, RSS. content syndication and bookmarking), online news and search, and how to measure these new online PR practices. The recent high profile online PR and blogging debacles have shown that it is vital to get as much data about how to do digital SEO-PR as you can. Find someone who can demonstrate that they really know what they are doing and get your staff up to speed on these new ideas. Many of the rules remain the same, but some are radically different. And if you violate those rules the backlash is instant and lasts far longer than in any other medium. One analyst interviewed on TV about the John Kerry comments in San Diego remarked that with the advent of social media, and the ablity to post online immediately from a cell phone, a politcal blunder will be on YouTube before the speech is even finished. ValleyWag showed this comparison of the traffic on YouTube and MySpace 
Mainstream media cannot work that fast. And instead of being seen by thousands it is now seen by millions. While the online PR world may look like a very scary place, there are just as many opportunities for positive PR - if you know how to do it. econsultancy wrote a great article about why so few businesses in the UK use online PR. Their conclusion? "The fact is that most PR agencies are not even vaguely qualified to advise you on blogging, or even about online PR." If you are in the San Francisco area, don't miss next Friday's workshop. | 
