While many of us (myself included) have yet to find our Twitter List mojo, many independent consultants are finding them very useful. Some of the top tips include:

• Twitter lists allow you to watch tweets from a given demographic (a client’s industry, for example) without having to follow each person
• By researching the Twitter lists of others, you can easily find large groups of tweeters relevant to a particular project to follow. As Kristie Aylett notes, use “Search or Find People to find one or two that fit the project. Then review the lists they’re on.”
• See what lists you’re on to get a feel for how you’re perceived by others on Twitter
• Third-party clients, like TweetDeck, are adding support for Twitter lists so you can see the Tweets on screen, alongside your established groups

Be sure to check out the full transcript (here in PDF) to learn more about how leading PR professionals are using Twitter lists (Q1). In addition, the transcript also includes helpful discussions on the following:

Q2: Has anyone used a podcast for PR strategies? If so, how?

Q3: Besides blogging, what types of self-promotion or thought leadership do you (as a solo pr) do?

Q4:What are you doing for holiday gifts for clients?

(Note that this transcript, via Twitter search, is in reverse chronological order.)

What do you think about the Twitter list tips, and what insights would you add? Do you have any experience with podcasts you’d like to share? Let us know your two cents on these and the other topics in the comments, and mark your calendars for the #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern!

I’m afraid the time has come – some PR pros need a dose of tough love. I know you’re out there: PR and MarCom consultants with no presence online whatsoever. Many of you may have a Web presence, but perhaps it’s anemic and a cohesive strategy is lacking.

Now let me scare you straight. We’ve reached a point where your online footprint – or lack thereof – says a lot about you. Beyond the obvious promotional benefits, clients are increasingly interested in non-traditional media and want to feel comfortable that you know more about the online/social space than they do.

Now the good news: the days of having to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours on a standalone Web site are over. In fact, in the Web 2.0 world there are endless ways to have a presence online for free – many with minimal effort. The key is to start with a Home Base.

The Hub – Your Home Base
A future post will go into the many varied extensions of your hub that are available, but first let’s look at the most important part of your online presence. As a bonus, it also can be the easiest and least time consuming. You need a Home Base.

A Home Base is your central spot to which all other online presences link. It is the URL you include in your email signature and use when registering for new social networks. You can slowly build upon this base (via a technique called Outposts) and extend your reach, but the Home Base is the foundation.

For many people, a Web site or blog is their Home Base. But if you don’t have one, the following are the easiest ways to get an online presence in no time.

Google Profile – www.google.com/profiles/me

This new offering allows you to create your own Web presence in 5 minutes. Google profiles are well indexed by Google (obviously), and can include links to your additional Outposts as you build them for increased visibility and SEO. If this is your Home Base, be sure to include extensive details of your skills, experience and qualifications (hint: pull your established descriptions from your new business proposals or resume). Another benefit: a Google profile allows you to include “other names” – great for those with easily misspelled names (like me) or if you want to include a maiden name.

LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com

Entire books have been written about LinkedIn, and Solo PR Pro will continue to cover this online vehicle more down the road. But for the purpose of a get-online-quickly,10-minute Home Base development approach, your LinkedIn profile should include the following at a minimum:

• A “vanity” URL – - Easy to create with this link, a URL that actually includes your name – like http://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyecrane – will look much better in your email signature.

• A list of all of your past jobs, not just the most recent. You never know when someone will remember you from long ago and search for you based on a former position you held. The same holds true for your Education.

• A detailed Summary of your skills, experience and qualifications (as with Google profiles above). Include information about your Specialties with a mind toward including key words that people may use to find you.

• A detailed description of your Solo PR Pro practice in the Experience section. Think of the Summary as the section that captures you professionally as a whole, while the Experience area outlines what you offer via your business. This is important real estate, so don’t neglect it.

• A list of Connections. After following the steps above, people will see your professional profile and be eager to connect with you. LinkedIn makes this easy by allowing you to import your email address book and send invitations to those with whom you’d like to connect.When contacting people out of the blue, don’t use the canned LinkedIn invite: “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” You can, however, develop your own standard invite wording to make it easier when inviting a crowd to connect with you. For your key contacts, try to make it more personal whenever possible.

Other extremely useful features of LinkedIn include Status Updates, Recommendations, Groups, Answers, Applications, and more. First focus on the quick-start approach above, and you may find yourself expanding into the other areas sooner than you think. For additional information, there are good tips in 12 Ways to Use LinkedIn Today.

Adding to the Home Base
If you have another already-established Home Base, the above sites should still be part of your overall strategy – with their key links going to your main hub. Some Solo PR Pros have told me they have an online profile on a different site (for example, a local listing on the PRSA Web site) – just add a Google Profile and a professional LinkedIn page with links to your existing Home Base to make yourself easy to find.  You can always change your Home Base as well, if at a later date you choose to develop a different online presence, like a blog or a Web site, as your central hub.

For those of you who use this approach, what tips would you offer those getting started? What questions do you have about forming a Home Base strategy?

So, moving forward, I’ll ask everyone to direct their queries to questions@soloprpro.com (a link also now appears in the sidebar). Be on the lookout for these Q&A posts in the weeks ahead!

Another way we can share information within our PR consultant community is through a Twitter hashtag. If you’re on Twitter and have a tip, or come across a link that would be of interest, please tag it #soloprpro (and note that I’m not trying to be cheesy-promotional! shortened versions can have other meanings, unfortunately). You can also use the #soloprpro hashtag to ask quick questions (those that can be answered in 140 characters), and get responses from the large group of amazing PR consultants that make themselves available on Twitter. To further share this information, a stream of the #soloprpro tweets is now in the sidebar of this blog. Update: the hashtag is now #solopr – that’s what the community started using around this topic, so we’re going to go with it!

What do you think about these approaches to help us all learn from each other? Any ideas of other ways we should be sharing?

But I don’t advocate everyone take the leap willy nilly. The truth is there are times when a look before you leap strategy might serve you best. As noted in that earlier post, this doesn’t mean you can’t be successful or go out on your own during this phase in the economy. You can! It’s just that different times call for different measures.

We’ve talked about the exciting consulting opportunities available for those who’ve experienced a layoff, but what about someone who is currently employed?

I recently asked the Twitter community, “Independent PR pros: what would you say to someone considering leaving a job right now to become a PR freelancer?”, and some of my wise and witty friends weighed in:

rachelakay @KellyeCrane From my short term as a freelancer – have a $ cushion. You cannot predict anything.

techpr @KellyeCrane I’d say (from experience) plan a multi-stage ramp-up before jumping. Then go!

JMLaw @KellyeCrane Have a client lined up. Good advice anytime, but especially now when the market is even more uneven than usual.

LScribner @KellyeCrane Lots of opps out there for consultants. Recommend getting out, make connections and using PR skills to market yourself.

rachelakay @KellyeCrane Oh also have a logo created. You can’t have anything else – cards, Web site, anything w//out it. First thing I did.

GreggPerry @KellyeCrane there is work to be done, and those who can offer senior-level experience and value have a leg up. That said, scary to let go.

DannyBrown @KellyeCrane Stay friends with your co. (they may contract u in future); have money for 6 mths without pay; network network network!!

rockstarjen @KellyeCrane let people know you’re making the leap as early as you can. you’ll want those referrals BEFORE you’re looking for them.

PRjeff @KellyeCrane Depends on the job. Employment doesn’t mean job security. It’s great to be in control of your own destiny.

zakmo @KellyeCrane be aggressive.

DannyBrown @KellyeCrane And have a rack full of wine for the doubting times

What do you think? If you’re one of those thinking about becoming a consultant, what are your thoughts on the matter (feel free to comment anonymously). If you’re a freelancer, how would you advise a friend considering this career path right now?

Within this gray space, ethical best practices have yet to emerge. While traditional media had relatively defined lines between editorial, advertising and advertorials, online these approaches are sometimes blurred.

Why should we care about this as PR and Marketing Communications professionals? Well, the Federal Trade Commission is getting involved, and under their latest guidelines a brand technically can be held liable for a blog’s disclosure (or lack thereof). A more common ramification: if a blogger is perceived to have taken version of payola (sometimes called blogola) from one of your clients, there’s often a taint (real or implied) on the product or company that provided it.

Many bloggers are not journalists, and they don’t necessarily see the differences between advertising and editorial coverage the in the same way PR pros do. Consider this stream of tweets from a blogger on Twitter who received a pitch:

“Why, why, why does Big Company expect me to promote their stuff for free?  ‘Your readers want to know about this!’ Um, they probably don’t.
And in any case, would you go to magazine and say, ‘please publish this ad for free! Because, your readers want to know!’? …oh, right, advertising for you for FREE would be a PUBLIC SERVICE FOR MOMS. Do I *look* that stupid?”

Need another example of the blurry lines? Check out this plea that was sent to a number of PR pros.

It’s important that we recognize the issues, since you’re likely to encounter them at some point when working with new media.

Freebies

Before new media, there were fewer people reviewing products and services, so PR review programs were more straightforward. In the case of the technology industry, reviewers at top publications had boxes, shelves (and probably trash bins) FULL of free software – much of which they never asked for, and frequently never even opened. Far from a buy-off, delivering free software to reviewers upon
request was an economic necessity (no way they could have purchased all of the products they reviewed in a given year). For more expensive products, a loaner program was often the tactic of choice. There was no quid pro quo, and readers trusted that the reviews were legit.

This is true for other industries as well. Everything from free makeup for beauty editors to complementary trips for travel writers is part of the established culture of traditional journalism.

But now, there are often hundreds of reputable bloggers and online journalists writing about any given subject, and the freebies don’t always make it to all of them. At the same time, many bloggers are trying to figure out how to earn some well-deserved compensation for their efforts. The result? Recipients of freebies can be called out (often unfairly, by those who feel left out) or some bloggers may downplay (or omit completely) their disclosures.

The takeaway
When providing review products and services, politely make sure your contact knows you fully expect them to disclose. Examples of freebie disclosures could be including something like the following, in the introduction:

• “I was given a loaner unit for one week, and I found it to be…”
• ACME resort gave me a complementary stay so I could write this review.”
• “I was given a box of XYZ diapers to try out, and…”

Also, if the product you represent is expensive, try using a loaner unit program or other creative approach instead. Disclosure is still necessary, but this lessens the perception that the writer was given a big-ticket “gift” and was thus bought-off.

Obviously, arrangements where you give free product in exchange for a positive review are not merely freebies. If stipulations are placed upon the sentiment of the coverage, then the situation falls into the category below.

Pay-for-Play

“Sponsored posts” are another matter. To me, pay-for-play blog posts (which includes gift cards) are the equivalent of advertorials, and should be clearly designated as such (for example, collect sponsored posts on a separate page, use a different blogger/author, have a special “sponsored” graphic, etc.) . A smaller disclosure (like the ones for freebies above), or a brief note in italics that states “This is a sponsored post” just doesn’t pass the muster for most readers. The backlash can be swift.

Let me point out that there are some bloggers that vehemently oppose this opinion. “Don’t bloggers have a right to be compensated?” is a common refrain. They feel that disclosing sponsored posts too prominently will reduce the impact and therefore affect their ability to attract more sponsored posts. I believe this is shortsighted, since if readers feel mislead (which can happen suddenly) they will leave.

The sponsorship issue is further complicated by the fact that some very highly respected bloggers are working with sponsored post agencies and participating in their promotions.   These well-connected folks are on the front lines of this battle, trying to find a way to bring marketers and bloggers together in a mutually beneficial way. Note that some blog networks are parsing this challenging issue quite well, but at this point, widely accepted guidelines are still to come.

The takeaway
For PR pros, if you find yourself treading into this pay-for-post area, proceed with extreme caution. I’m in no way anti-sponsored post, but the mores of this space are continuing to develop and controversies spring up regularly. If you encounter bloggers or others who require payment in return for a basic write-up, it may serve you best to walk away.

Just another day at the office

In the era of Modern PR, these issues are just another new frontier, and this is an area destined to be gray for some time. What constitutes disclosure?  What about social media mentions outside of blogs?

Most of these issues will be hammered out within the online community itself, and PR and marketing pros have a seat at that table. But until the “rules” are established, it’s key that we keep in mind the potential landmines and always operate above board.

How do you feel about these disclosure issues? Have you encountered any uncomfortable situations or have any tips?

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Photo credits: Ian Muttoo, pfala