I recently participated in the 2006 Global Marketing Executive Summit and met with some leading companies seeking advice on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies. During our presentations, most of the marketing directors seemed pretty knowledgable about SEO, Online Advertising and Affiliate Marketing. But when the topic of Interactive PR came up, many an expert inquired, “What is Interactive PR?” Instead of going into a long drawn out explanation, I simply went to Google.com and placed the search term “Dali Singh” (aka me) and voila, there they were, my bylined articles and news pieces showing up on the first few pages of the search results. I looked up and said, “That’s interactive PR.”
Now don’t get me wrong, Interactive PR goes beyond getting your bylined articles and press releases indexed in the search engines (although this is a great start). Interactive PR involves activities geared towards influencing media, communities and audiences that exist on the Internet. They can be targeted through various online channels including search engines, blogs, forums, discussion threads, social networks and content sites. Ultimately, Interactive PR involves you or someone from your company interacting with the public and media, using the Internet as an inclubator.