When push comes to shove, it is more important to have a website with mobile web access than it is to have an admittedly potentially sexier app. It doesn’t have to be an either/or argument, but due to the lower cost of a mobile website, it having less barriers to adoption than an app and the guaranteed existence of the internet for years to come (not to mention it being THE place most Western people go to for information) its existence is a priority for professional business communicators.

Some of the world’s leading PR thinkers will have their perspectives featured in an upcoming free report – Public relations 2011: issues, insights and ideas – available to email subscribers of Public relations and managing reputation. Notions discussed include the need for PR pros to adopt internal journalist and SEO expert roles, what to look for in an organisational crisis comms spokesperson, addressing the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) factor in social media plans, the importance of storytelling in teaching and how face-to-face communication trumps all comers.

Business communication is normally broken up into B2C and B2B, but there is one area of immense influence, interest and importance that is another sort of B2C which is not specifically discussed to a great deal. Even in academic explorations. It’s business-to-community and precisely because it reaches deep into the roots of where we live and our neighbourhood and suburban cultures, it is a dimension of public relations that is rich in opportunity. Martha Halliday, an experienced community relations PR professional, said a key differentiator for community relations (or communication) is that, “There is much more face-to-face communication so that you are always relationship building. The community wants a relationship with whatever is impacting on them. Through the community relations person, the community has a personal relationship with the organisation and vice versa.”

The often edgy and opinionated perspectives and insights of some of the world’s leading public relations experts and PR bloggers will soon be available on a 2011 Public relations and managing reputation free report. The impact on issues management of social media, the building blocks of PR strategy (it’s not rocket science), why the teaching of theory in PR uni courses is essential and our industry’s dangerous, and often misguided, emphasis on Facebook are amongst the featured topics. The report’s discussions baulk at mouthing status quo platitudes. The accepted is rejected. Plain sailing is spurned for the allure of stormy waters, where the risk is greater but the excitement heightened.

In response to a recent post of mine on PR agencies’ lack of blogs, it was half-implied that public relations professionals don’t need to blog. Nothing could be further from the truth. Blogs are communication influence and thought leadership central when it comes to effective communication, social media or otherwise, and if PR professionals aren’t getting stuck into blog writing and management, they are yesterday’s news.

The strategy driving what content goes on corporate websites needs to fit into the overarching organisational communication strategy, yet so wide-ranging and large can corporate websites be, that they sometimes seem to occupy their own ‘micro-climate’ where a unique approach, arguably, needs to be applied.

In this post, with the insight and assistance of a range of communication professionals – digital, SEO (search engine optimisation), marketing, public relations – I am going to outline a number of strategic and tactical elements to consider when utilising websites as an organisational communication mechanism.

There is no guide, or overarching process, for how one should go about producing the content that goes on corporate websites…from strategic business planning, public relations or marketing perspectives. This is an almost unbelievable ‘informational gap’ due to the power that has been placed at corporate websites’ discretion due to the mind-bending capabilities of search engine optimisation.

As people have a proven preference for visual learning, we are increasingly suffering from information overload and humans process visuals 66,000* times faster than text, you would think getting professional communicators and senior management to adopt visuals as a communication tool would be easy and straightforward…but, there are several reasons why companies or organisations may decide against using visual communication or visual thinking.

With its ability to share ideas and communicate more effectively, visual thinking can play a major role in storytelling, aiding public relations and marketing professionals help organisations achieve their communication and business objectives.

“Can annual reports actually be used to create a positive communication outcome, rather than just report and be ignored?” was a question that generated a lot of interesting comment from PR professionals around the world, some of which I feature in this post.