NEW ONLINE PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOLS



On today's ramble through cyberspace, I discovered a couple of new online tools. I thought that I would share them with you as I think that they are both worth bearing in mind when working on either you own or a client's online profile.

Knol:

Knol is a brand new offering from Google. It has been designed to go up against Wikipedia, which has dominated the online free-content encyclopaedia space since it was created back in 2001.

Unlike Wikipedia, you can write about anything on Knol- including individual businesses. I'm keen to see whether this will result in a huge, spaghetti like mess of useless information but, at the moment, the Knol site looks great, is easy to use and contains some very interesting entries.

As well as providing information on clients, Knol could also be used to educate more people on the benefits of public relations. There is already a PR related 'knol' listed on the site but if you don't agree with it or think that this writer has missed some key points, simply sign up and create your very own PR knol!

Ning:

Ning is a social networking site that was set up with the aim of competing with the big boys: Facebook and MySpace. Apparently, this site was launched in October, 2005. This means that either I am not as up-to-speed with the online landscape as I think I am or the founders have not put an awful lot of effort into marketing it!

There are a fair few NZ based social networks on here, ranging from a Northland Fishing Forum to a group for expats.

I think that a site like this could be great for mobilising people on specific issues. Unlike the better known networks, Ning users can set up a forum for their group, which could be useful for encouraging discussion and interaction with key audiences.


Anyway, those are my two new tools for the day. If anybody is already using these, I would love to hear what your experiences have been.

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