Online Public Relations Thoughts

The Friday Los Angeles Times (Feb. 25, subscription required) had an interesting story on creative uses of blogging in a television series. The article cited the blog of a character called Nigel, a forensics expert in the program "Crossing Jordan."

What I found amusing is that after decades of one-way television programming, producers have learned it is a good thing to build a continuous and interactive relationship with viewers. Programmers now talk about a circle. Something is mentioned on the air, expanded online and then picked up again on the air. The internet lets viewers get involved. (Isn't that amazing?)

PR 101 calls for interaction with publics to build relationships with them. It's nice that TV programmers have discovered this. But to be fair to programmers, since they have stumbled on the obvious, they are moving quickly to exploit it. Here are some of things being tried in Hollywood.

• Placing program outtakes on the web.
• Placing full episodes of programs on the web.
• Creating "webisodes" of programs.
• Placing backstories of characters and locales on the web.
• Mentioning web sites and/or blogs on the air to direct viewers to the web and its interactivity. (This is what nigelblog.com is doing.)
• Placing interviews with actors and others on the web.

Of course, public relations practitioners can use some or all of these techniques to enhance the reputation of clients, products and services. But we knew that, didn't we?