Last week, I extolled the virtues of blended communication.  Today, I want to show how new and traditional media can complement each other to deliver more effective communication with a wider reach.

Press Releases and Corporate Blogs – Blended communication leverages both.  Press releases should be used to announce major (material) news.   They represent a point in time when a deal is reached, a product is launched or an appointment is made. Unfortunately companies can abuse them to disclose information with little or no news value beyond the companies involved.  Corporate blogs function differently.  Used correctly, blogs are not repackaged press releases, but a platform to discuss ongoing developments in a way that invites comment and feedback.  For major announcements, blogs can put a human face on company efforts, while press releases can deliver a more formal voice.

Placement and Search – While gaining importance, search results lag behind placement as a key PR success metric. Blended communication combines story placement and SEO. Beyond awareness, placement in key publications generates legitimacy and validation for a company position.  It also serves to enhance search results. But search merits equal importance. A concerted SEO strategy helps users find company information who don’t care about particular publications or reporters.  It includes optimizing press releases and other “content” including podcasts, pictures, videos, graphics and pictures that are often found in a newsroom on a corporate website.  It takes into account how more and more people process information – on their own terms (search or otherwise) – pun intended.

Context – Blended communication strives to create content that reflects the dynamics of the medium. For example, I did a posting last year about CBS’ online strategy for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Their traditional website CBSsports.com led with content for their 18-49 year old male demographic while their Facebook led with community targeting a teenage to 34 year old demographic. One led with news and scores and the other on team pages, smack talk and tournament pokes. It’s related information processed differently for different audiences.  (Below, the first is the Facebook page and the second is the website page from the to other day.)

Swarming – Blended communication anticipates a negative or positive review in an influential publication and enables PR to respond in real time.  Used to be you had to wait for the story to appear.  You would send a letter to the editor if you disagreed or took out a page to advertise your position.  That’s impractical in the hyperspeed of the Internet.  Instead you can now use the power of the web to your advantage.  You can create blog postings, build microsites and use SEM to support or rebut the story when users search for the article. In some respects, it is swarming or engulfng a news item with related and relevant content.  It helps to create balance when the news is negative and  amplification when the news is good.

Personalization – Blended communication uses new media to humanize traditional coverage. Imagine last fall if the CEOs of the Big Three automakers had used new media to supplement traditional channels in making their case for a government bailout. Going before Congress was national news covered by all the major news organizations. It merited press releases, the distribution of testimony and media interviews.   But also imagine if the CEOs had traveled in hybrid cars, met with dealers and customers along the way and used Twitter and YouTube to personalize their stories. It would have changed the entire dynamic and demonstrated a mastery of multiple forms of media.

In short, blended communication is strategic communications. It looks beyond tools and technologies and integrates different ways of delivering information.  It reflects the way we process news, and the way corporate executives measure it.

Let me get back to you.

Today, you can find many agencies that only practice new media, but very few if any that only do traditional.  And while Twitter may generate the buzz, corporate executives generally turn to the Wall Street Journal for validation.  Despite the inroads that new media has made, traditional media rests solidly in their comfort zone. Social media continues to confound many of them, even as they admit that they should get it.

Corporate executives notwithstanding, is the distinction moot? After all, a growing number of readers go online for their news. (The Seattle Post- Intelligencer just did away with its print edition.)  News outlets engage in blogging, rely on crowdsourcing (CNN iReport) or offer APIs (New York Times) that allow readers to mash content.

Have we reached that point that it’s all just media as PR professionals like Hilary Mckean, partner and director of Ketchum South here in Atlanta contends?  Or is it more the case that clients still want to keep new and traditional media separate as Paull Young, a senior account executive at Converseon has observed?

For me, traditional includes print and broadcast journalism as well as company generated materials like press releases, websites and annual reports.  New includes blogs, social networks,  user generated content and relies more on search than placement.  Traditional means  impersonal, formal and structured; new is intimate, casual, and interactive.  New media thrives on breaking rules; traditional media strives to follow them.

Enter Blended Communication

Which is more influential?  The verdict is still out, but for the foreseeable future blogs, press releases, newspapers, social networks and broadcast networks will all be around — feeding off each other for content and credibility.

Given the influence of new and traditional media, I prefer to focus on how to blend them.  A blended PR strategy takes advantage of each allowing one to complement the other to build more relevant results.  Placed in this context, we can begin helping reluctant executives to see social media more holistically. Otherwise they will continue seeing new media as gimmicks or something to be used on an ad hoc basis.

Blended communication is more than the sum of the parts.  It brings complexity, increases options and eliminates binary thinking.  

To be sure, sometimes, as in in the case of financial news, personal, authentic communication is inappropriate, and sometimes an objective approach doesn’t hit the right emotional chord.  You need both.  And you need them to work together.

Next posting, I will offer some examples of how blended communication can work for you.

Let me get back to you.