Neil Street Web Communications

Strategic online media communications since 2003

Today's media environment, driven by the constantly-evolving internet, would have been unrecognizable even five years ago. The key to successfully communicating your message in our web 2.0 world lies in understanding one basic ground rule of the internet – you must give something of value if you expect mainstream media, bloggers, and citizen journalists to pay attention to you.

On the internet, writers, bloggers, forum moderators, newsgroup leaders, webmasters, Facebook groups, and anyone with a Twitter account can positively – or negatively – repackage, refine, and effectively republish your message.

How do you manage your message in such an environment? By recognizing that today the term "media" encompasses far more than it did just a few years ago. Today, there are journalists, and citizen journalists. They all have a story to tell. They are all part of today's web-wired world.

If you want to connect with the influencers on the internet, if you want to enlist them to help tell your story, it is imperative that you meet with them on their terms, not yours. This means you must recognize that the internet is a two-way street. Don't ask members of the internet media what they can do for you. Ask what you can do for them.