Deirdre Breakenridge

You’ve probably heard me say this before, “One of the best parts about participating in a webinar is what comes after the presentation. It’s the Q&A portion!” Of course, there’s never enough time to answer everyone’s questions. So, I always try to answer what didn’t get a response, here on my blog. I’m answering these questions, from the Vocus Webinar: PR Planning Considerations in 2010, in a two-part blog post, with the part one below:

On November 12, 2009, I participated in the Vocus PR Planning Considerations for 2010 Webinar. I discussed the challenges of PR planning for 2010 and how to plan for the “unknown, unknowns.” When I think about the “unknown, Unknowns,” I feel that just being in public relations means always planning for the unexpected, based on our roles and responsibilities. We’re seen as the “conscience” of the company, reputation managers and damage control officers. Social media communication adds a whole new level of complexity to our planning process.

I think that the Vocus Virtual Conference is an example of social media learning at its best. The conference was about leveraging social media, it was promoted through social media and the attendees were provided with an interactive environment where they could network and collaborate together around a number of interesting topics.

I’ve been diligently testing new products and services to get my communications department up to speed for PR 2.0 and social media campaigns. I know that in several of my posts I’ve discussed how important it is to make sure that the PR team is equipped with great resources to build relationships with influencers, manage campaign efforts, and track program progress and measure results.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how many companies are taking their first steps into community building through social networking and PR 2.0.  I even recently mentioned during my Awareness, Inc. Webinar that some brands are taking some good steps, others are taking some missteps and there are several taking no steps at all.  If [...]