If you've never initiated an online public relations campaign for your company, figuring out where to begin can be a daunting task. You'll have to select a wire service to distribute your online press releases, search for appropriate industry publications where your company's experts can publish articles, and schedule enough time to publish these two items regularly. While the last item may be the most daunting, first things first: what topics do you plan to address in your online public relations campaign?

Focus on the Readers' Interests

Your primary audience for online press releases is journalists. Thus, your online press releases should focus on topics that are of interest to them, such as product/service innovations, awards your company has won, charitable contributions/initiatives, unique features of your product/service, case studies, and novel or notable promotions. Unless there is a crisis at your company, online press releases should not be used as a platform to distribute the company's opinions to the masses, as this is not news. Engaging in this practice could jeopardize the company's reputation as a valuable source of information and reduce journalist interest in future press releases.

In contrast, the expert articles portion of the online public relations campaign should focus on potential customers as its primary audience. This audience is primarily interested in solutions for its problems. Thus, the article portion of your online public relations campaign should focus on helping potential customers by educating them about a new or complex topic or explaining how to do something. The trick to writing these articles is to avoid blatantly promoting your own product. Keep your commentary objective and informative and let your credibility as an expert, not your marketing message, pull the customers to you.

Avoid the Ordinary

Press releases (and to a lesser extent, expert articles) have become very formulaic in recent years. Nearly everyone announces new hires and clients, but unless you just hired Jack Welch or signed a deal with Microsoft, you're probably not going to generate much buzz from journalists or the business community at large. Keep your topics for online press releases fresh and try to avoid repetitive subjects that don't resonate with your target audience.

Leave Out the Competition

You never need to mention the competition by name in your online public relations campaign. Ever. What you do mention are the weaknesses of the competition. Online press releases could announce valuable features the competition's products don't have or your articles could discuss industry best practices, some of which the competition doesn't follow. These practices will help frame the search criteria of your potential customers and make them value the features and benefits of your products/services. Let marketing worry about if/when the competition should be brought up by name in advertising while you focus on promoting your company and its advantages with your online public relations campaign.

Avoid or Embrace Controversial Issues

In most cases, you'll want to avoid controversial issues in your company's online press releases. As stated earlier, your company's opinions should not be in a press release. However, controversial topics can be addressed in an expert article, assuming they are handled delicately. Such issues can help your expert (and company) establish credibility by giving the expert an opportunity to objectively address a well-known industry problem and to provide insight into a possible solution.

Know When Not to Distribute

Don't detract from your online public relations campaign by distributing expert articles or online press releases just because “we always put out four releases and two articles each month.” This mandate could mean announcing the results of a company softball game, which doesn't make a compelling news story or convince customers that they should buy your product or service. If you don't have a solid topic, wait and write the article or press release when you do. To avoid a shortage of topics, keep a running list of potential subjects for future articles and online press releases and write down any new ideas as they come to you.

Make It Memorable

If you follow the advice above but don't take the time to develop a compelling title for your online public relations content, then many of your potential readers may skip past it in favor of content that does. As you develop your articles or online press releases, take the time to create several headlines and keep them short, yet descriptive. That way, you'll hook more of your potential readers and get more value from your online public relations campaign.

Brian Cooper is the director of online public relations at Medium Blue, where he promotes the company's clients on the Internet. He has a bachelor's degree in marketing from Georgia State University where he graduated summa cum laude. Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing was recently named the number one search engine optimization firm in the world by PromotionWorld. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom guarantee based on your goals and your data.

Discuss this article in the Small Business Ideas forum.