Technorati Offers New Strategies for Public Relations Practitioners

Blogs are the newest rage in the field of Public Relations. Companies and organizations are beginning to use this new form of communication to reach their publics in a quite different way than ever before, and there are thousands of new blogs created each day. The problem, however, is how does someone go about organizing all of these blogs?

This is the question that David Sifry asked himself in 2000. His solution? Technorati, the ultimate blog search engine. It currently tracks 112.8 million blogs and more than 250 million pieces of tagged social media. Technorati is a place where bloggers can organize their favorite blogs, find new blogs, and share their own with people around the world. Technorati also tracks links and rates the relative relevance of blogs, videos and photos.

To fully understand what Technorati is all about, I decided to check it out myself. I found this site quite helpful. The headline tabs are useful to find popular topics quickly, and the search tool is also effective. Each blog has “tags” that are used for searching purposes and for finding related articles. Blogs are rated according to their relevance and popularity. However, when searching for simple topics such as, public relations, I found several top posts that did not seem relevant to what I was searching for.

I believe this search engine for the blogosphere can be an effective and helpful tool for PR practitioners. Technorati allows you to learn who is linking to your company’s blogs and what they’re saying by tracking conversations about your brand. By using the Technorati tags, you can create more exposure for your blog and generate more readers. By using Technorati, practitioners can perpetuate their strategies of furthering their company or brand.

A new approach that many companies are now taking is the use of blog advertisements, and Technorati is in the forefront of this new trend. Each page of the website has several advertisements for different companies. Advertising through social media outlets has recently become a popular trend in PR. This can be an effective tool for practitioners when trying to gain exposure for their company or organization.

PR practitioners should take advantage of what Technorati has to offer. Through creating blogs, or by making use of advertisement opportunities, companies and organizations can expand their resources and reach their publics in a new and innovated way.

Photo caption: Dave Sifry founded Technorati in 2000.

By: Samantha Riddle