Organisations, businesses and political party's thrive when they manage as much as they can of their external environment. Managing issues, opportunities and crisis moments are useful, if not critical.

Public relations planning and activity has become almost ubiquitous in the modern world. Traditionally much of this activity is focussed on managing issues through mainstream media outlets, such as press, radio, television, etc.

Now social media is an important part of the public relations toolkit provided it's used to actively achieve goals and there is a main focus for activity.

Smart PR professionals use social media constantly to get the word out about themselves or clients, to communicate and respond to problems or opportunities. In other words, public relations can be involved in social media conversations that help people and provide support for organisations.

A key activity element can be a blog – a way to maintain the organisation's own media platform and presence, whatever else is happening in the media.

We've discovered through our Issues.co.nz platform how effective a blog can be in engaging with people and using that following when situations arise. In combination with 'black pages' (pre-prepared pages written in anticipation of events and switched on at a moment's notice) and the use of the social media networks, this provides a platform for instant tactical responses.

Crucially – this is the big 'crucial' – when a crisis or opportunity arises, public relations tactics can dominate Google searches with paid Ad Words and Facebook, with online ads, to ensure that messages are targeted and being seen.

If you have any interesting and useful public relations or social media experiences, why not share it below.