It is espacially relevant now, since so many of us use and trust the internet every day, both for referece and for decision making.

You may have heard reports about how up to 60% of Americans have been influenced by the internet when major life decisions (Pew Internet)... or how the blogosphere is fast becoming a huge PR tool ref: business week article on online PR.

When people are influenced by a media, there is room for media relations i.e. online PR

The levers for doing this?

Search engine optimisation.

This can include ths usual stuff like getting a particular web site to rank for a particular term. You may think being 1st on the rankings is nice, but not that important. Accroding to Neilson Net ratings, 37% of internet users think the 1st place listing means the best and most credable company.
My guess is that if you see the same company come up again and again for a given phrase and related phrases, you might begin thinking they really are the best.

Or more interestingly, a company could have a glowing and credable reference to a product or service, but its buried deep in the search listings. This is where some clever 'engineering' can ensure that report is easily found on important reference sites and through the search engines.

Feeding Journalists information.

Journalists use the internet just about more than anyone. They use it for checking out story leads and getting background information. So if there are either negative or positive content out there on a particular person or subject, then you have a good opportunity to influence the offline media.

(There is a caviat to this: if something gets too big and negative, then its impossible to control it. All you can do is strategically place information and ideas to quell the negative story.)

Social networking online (list of big social networking sites)

Wikipedia define them as 'building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others'. I see them as clusters of like minded people sharing . This BBC article on social network sites shows how you get different social classes coalescing around certain sites.

Ideas spread.

There is a term used in marketing called  a 'meme' - this is an idea. The stronger and more virulant the idea, the farther it will spread. It is very like a virus. Hence the term 'viral marketing'.

The only catch is that with all the 'noise' out there, it is very difficult to be heard. You either have to have a very strong message, or maybe you know how to influence certain chnnels, to give yourself a lift up.

Google trends is a great way to see how ideas are travelling. For instance...the 'Blog' meme is climbing and 'pr' meme is falling, despite the increasing new reference volume for both terms.

 

I would love to carry on and try and explain exactly how ideas spread, but I have to finish up. To close this:

If you have a cool idea, it will spread, but only if you find the right channels to get it to run through easily. Search Engines are critical to this process, as are social networking sites, blogs and even places like YouTube.

Where traditional PR used to influence broadcast media ( papers radio TV and so on) Online PR can influence your reputation here on the internet.