On Saturday I attended the Online PR Workshop organised and provided gratis by Mulley Communications and presented Mr. Mulley himself 
The course outline:
- Basics of Online Comms
- Developing a Communications Bible
- Developing a Comms Philosophy
- Working with: Blogs, Forums, Twitter etc.
- Finding Tools – Who is talking about you online?
- Crisis Communications
My background
As someone who makes websites for a living and spends quite a lot of her spare time online, I would consider myself fairly ‘online savvy’ already. PR, marketing and advertising are all subjects I have an interest in both from a creative and an online point of view but what knowledge or skill I think I have is purely based on readings picked up along the way. In other words, I have zero training and it has been up until recently a casual interest.
So why was I there?
Firstly, I wanted to learn. I’m becoming increasingly interested in the growth, power and influence of online PR and I wanted to see if what I have picked up along the way was right or wrong and (naturally) to learn new things. Even if I never apply such knowledge in a formal client situation through my work I think it’s knowledge you can apply to yourself as an individual with your own online presence.
Secondly (and quite bluntly), I wanted to see Damien at work so I know who I can recommend him to if and when the situation presents itself.
And last but not least, it was free. Let’s be honest, we all love a freebie especially when it’s a good one like this.
What did I think of the workshop?
As an outline online PR workshop I thought it was very good. If you have a client or if you yourself are not convinced that you need to worry about online PR then this will flip that opinion on its head and rightly so. A wide range of platforms and useful tools were covered in the presentation and some key points were communicated well through case studies. The unfortunate yet timely blip in Boards.ie last week made for a great example of crisis management, an area that online PR has huge importance whether the crisis itself is an online or an offline matter.
A lot of what was covered is up on the Mulley Comms blog and a post on building a Business Communications Bible worth casting your eye over is here.
Would I attend another Mulley Communications course/workshop?
Yes.
Would I be happy to pay for it?
Yes.
Would I hire Mulley Comms to take care of my online PR?
Yes.
Cheers Damien for an interesting day and props for getting us out of bed and somewhat alert on a Saturday morning.