The Ultimate How-To Guide: Search Engine Marketing

Web 2.0 - that is, the collective name of the services that let people collaborate and share information online - has given birth to an ornery, brilliant, sometimes-deceitful offspring: PR 2.0. According to Todd Defren, principal of Shift Communications and presenter during the July 31 PR News Webinar "Search Engine Marketing Strategies for Communicators" - PR 2.0 is "about human relations. When people talk to people, they care about authenticity, trust and relationships. These principles of PR 2.0 can bring clients' voices closer to the edge via the social networks where people congregate and converse."

PR 2.0 presents communicators with challenges and opportunities.

"For the first time, our audiences are talking back to us," Defren says. "It's a virtuous or vicious cycle, depending on where you fall on any given day."

Because of this unique set of challenges and opportunities, PR execs must alter their communications strategies to protect brands and build relationships with constituents. Consider, then, two offspring of PR 2.0 - the grandbabies of Web 2.0 - to be search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO). Simply put, these concepts create some order out of the chaos of social media and digital communications platforms. Below is a how-to guide for creating this relative "order" in an era of Google-inspired anarchy.