A call for online community relations

Public relations practitioners must pay more attention to members of online communities and consider them important stakeholders, similar in value to members of traditional communities. In my research, none of the online opinion leaders interviewed mentioned having a relationship with organizations online for obtaining information. This is not a surprising finding given the lack of attention online communities get from the public relations industry. For example, a 2006 study by Edelman and Technorati reports 48 percent of bloggers have never been contacted by a public relations representative.

Very few organizations have an "online community relations specialist" who concentrates on opinion leaders of virtual communities. The findings of my study suggest it is important for organizations to designate the role of overseeing online community relations to a member of the public relations department. This role should be valued as strategically contributing to the organization's goals, much in the same way as traditional community relations.

Given the primary and secondary research findings in my study, it is clear that in particular, technology and news communities (such as Digg and Engadget) as well as larger virtual communities, such as Facebook and YouTube, are ripe for developing online community relations. Niche online social networks also are suitable for developing online community relations.