Online communication eases PR networking

Online communication eases PR networking

Jeff Zbar
Advertising, marketing and technology

September 25, 2006

Linda Hamburger remembers her days as a young publicist just starting out in the public relations industry. Contacts were hard to come by, and networking required filling her week with events in hopes of making business leads.

Twenty years later, electronic mail, the Internet and online groups, message boards and "ListServes" have made networking for business much easier.

This month, Hamburger launched the South Florida Public Relations ListServe. Using the free ListServe tool offered by Yahoo, Hamburger set up an account, and invited friends and colleagues to subscribe. Within two weeks, the ListServe had more than 50 members and dozens of upcoming events. The site can be found at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/PRListserve/. Membership is free and open to anyone.

The service is part event and news posting, part chat board and part job bank. Some members work for area P.R. firms, others work in the communications departments at businesses or organizations. Students have joined hoping to find jobs or networking opportunities. All seem to be hoping to boost their contacts, leads or results.

"I'll never forget those days of coming out of grad school and trying to break into the business," said Hamburger, an independent publicist and owner of On Call PR in Deerfield Beach. She also is an adjunct instructor of marketing and advertising at American Intercontinental University in Weston.

"I've been doing this for 25 years, so I get a lot of news from local groups that I can post to the service. I'm sure it has some value to other people out there," she said. "Apparently, there was just a need or niche for that. It is catching on."

Once they join, members can visit the Web site or receive a Daily Digest to learn the latest news or events posted to the site, Hamburger said. Joining can keep "client-side" publicists in the loop. For example, Steve Rice, director of communications with Temple Beth El in Boca Raton, saw his membership in the ListServe as a way to stay in touch with a community he can "very easily feel disconnected from," he said.

"It's nice to have a group and resource out there that I can go to ask questions or who do similar things," he said.

As director of public relations with the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation, a West Palm Beach nonprofit group that supports the Everglades, Susanna Laurenti seldom has opportunity to network with her peers. By reading the ListServe's Daily Digest, which is an e-mail of the past day's new entries, Laurenti learns about new events and members, she said.

"This helps me be in the know about the local community and have more contacts," she said. "A lot of people sign up and don't read. Just read it. You never know what will be included that could be useful to you."

The ListServe allows members to keep their "finger on the pulse of what's happening in P.R.," said Fran Schwartz, associate director of P.R. with Starmark International, a Dania Beach marketing firm. As a member of such organizations as the Association for Women in Communications, the Public Relations Society of America and the Gold Coast Public Relations Council, Schwartz already is plugged into the local marketing communications community. This brings even more connections to her desktop.

The ListServe feels a bit like the marketing arena in her native New York, with local events and a central hub for P.R. news akin to industry insider Jack O'Dwyer's long-standing newsletter and Web site, she said.

Though the ListServe is young, as its membership grows, more people and organizations will post news, events, even job openings, Schwartz said. Schwartz scans the list looking for events she can attend to network, learn, get an idea for a campaign or take interested clients, she said.

"You learn from other people," she said. "You may get one little tidbit that could spark something or change something for a client. You could help other people. You always have to keep your ears and options open."

Jeff Zbar is a freelance writer. Reach him at jeff@jeffzbar.com.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/columnists/sfl-ybzbar25sep25,0,2138947.column