The virtual world has indeed changed the way a company’s reputation should be managed. Like what you mentioned Lee, PR consultants can’t contact their networks within the media to keep a negative story from going out when it comes to the web.

Good idea for PR consultants to arm themselves with SEO tactics to manage their clients’ reputation.

There’s more than one company out there that has felt the sting of an influential blogger and then decided to start a blog and become involved with the community after the fact. Better to be proactive and participate now even without specific ROI goals.

We are in the process of developing a new “hands-on” rep management program for a few large brands in the hotel industry. Because I deal w/ Reputation Management every day, I’m amazed at the lack of “investment” in the long-term viability of a brand.

By investing in CGM and Reputation – a brand can build on something they own and can (hopefully) trademark vs. building a whole foundation on some keywords that may or may-not continue to gain market share. I think BOTH tactics are viable but putting all your eggs in one “basket” is ill-advised. Hopefully your article can open some eyes on this subject.

~Carrie

At the same time, with journalists increasingly expected to do more with less, technology such as RSS (used in the right way) compliments what’s already working in the pitching game.

RSS isn’t replacing the email/phone call pitch, but making content available in that format provides additional distribution options (blog and standard search engines) as well as a channel for those publications where receiving info via RSS is a good fit.

I would love to hear from other p.r. pros about their experiences with automating pitching through RSS. Perhaps there is something I’m missing here.

Keep it up =)