The Internet undoubtedly has great potential for the PR industry, but sometimes that very potential is overwhelming.
Large corporations have found that the Internet is the perfect way to communicate messages, objectives and projects to the media, the public and its employees. Other PR executives are using the Internet as just one of their many communications tools - as an enhancement instead of a necessity.
In this article we offer a snapshot of what some major corporations and PR/communications firms are and aren't doing on the Internet.
MCI Communications
When asked what the most valuable part of the Internet was for MCI Communications, in Atlanta, PR spokesperson Karen Zellner said that "the Intranet is our main means of communications around here - we're pretty much paper-less." You can take your work with you on a laptop computer and be able to get in touch with people anytime, because employees constantly check their e-mail, she said.
Zellner and the rest of the PR staff pitch stories to the media mostly by fax broadcast and business wire services. She said that although some reporters like e-mail, most want information by fax, and it's easy for MCI to send out reams of information, by broadcast, to their targeted audiences.
Noonan/Russo Communications
At the healthcare PR firm Noonan/Russo Communications, New York, the Intranet system communicates account assignments, updates client information, lists employee e-mail addresses, provides technical support, a medical glossary, a list of sites relevant to healthcare subjects and an online version of the employee manual. Coming soon is an online test for employees so they can see how trained in the field of healthcare PR they really are.
One of the ways Noonan Russo uses external Internet communications is by posting press releases for their clients on Ureka Alert, an online publication geared towards reporters. NR also works with e-works, producer of the e-watch newsgroup on the Web, which also posts press releases.
Saatchi & Saatchi Business Communications
Saatchi and Saatchi Business Communications, which represents global clients like Kodak Professional and Samaritan Health Systems, tells their clients in media training sessions that personal relationships with reporters can best be started and developed not by e-mail or fax, but by phone.
Michael Traphagan, vice president and account director, feels that relationships are the key to communications, and after one is developed, then e-mail is good for back-and-forth communications. But, Traphagan said, "you have to develop the relationship before you pitch the story or you'll probably be doomed for failure."
On the corporate side of communications, S & S is in the process of creating an Intranet site for employees, which will have links to all of the over 100 offices worldwide.
S & S's year-old Internet Web site, located at http://www.saatchibuscomm.com, gets over 1200 hits a month. Peter Platt, manager of interactive communications at S &, said that "although this is not a huge number of hits, compared to the number of corporate brochures we send out a month, this is a pretty good way for us to communicate with potential clients."
The site now focuses on the people and the mindset of the agency, and Platt says that upcoming changes will highlight and display the work that the agency does for its clients.
For communications between global clients and S & S, a new non-public site is in beta testing, ready to launch in February. This will be a secured site created to share files, that clients like Kodak can tap into at any time, to check on and give input on new designs, advertisements or ideas from S & S.
Platt said that unlike many overnight delivery services, the Internet sends large files quickly, worldwide. Also, other S & S offices can tap into the site to give feedback, without backing up e-mail systems by transmitting the files.
Ketchum PR
Ketchum Public Relations in Washington, D.C., is currently exploring which news services on the Internet give the fastest news retrieval, down to the second, and, of those services, which has the most valuable news. Ken Gill, software systems administrator, is testing products like The Headliner by Lanacom, which resembles Microsoft's [MSFT] Pointcast Network.
The trick, according to Gill, is getting valuable information before your competitors or even before your clients. "It allows us to say to our clients, `we won't let you be blind-sighted.'"
PepsiCo
PepsiCo Inc., [PEP] in Purchase, N.Y., put up a corporate Web site, located at http://www.pepsico.com, about a year ago, for a few main audiences - students, investors and financial reporters.
Elaine Franklin, manager of corporate information, said that, "Pepsi is one of the most popular companies for term papers. Students were calling us up, on a regular basis, the day before their papers were due asking us to fax them 600 pages of information. So we decided just to put all the information where people could get to it easily."
Also, the site has Pepsi's annual reports and financial, shareholder and corporate information and links to sub-divisions like Frito Lay, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
Franklin is a big supporter of e-mail, especially for global communications. With faxing, you never know if it got there, phone calls are a hassle because of the time difference, said Franklin, and "with over half a million people employed by PepsiCo worldwide, we can now communicate back-and-forth through our PepsiCo hub, at our own convenience."
(MCI Communications, 404/653-1183; Noonan Russo Communications, 212/696-4455; Saatchi & Saatchi, 716/272-6100; Ketchum Communications, 202/835-8800; PepsiCo Inc., 914/253-2000)