There’s a lot of hesitation when it comes to joining in conversations online through blogs, forums etc. Questions I get asked include - are there enough readers to make it worthwhile? will we get a barrage of abuse from other commenters?

An organisation I occasionally work with is the Centre For Cities, a think tank spun out from the IPPR. Their media strategy is innovative and I often natter to Claire Hibbit and Rosi Taylor, who head up their PR team, about innovating in new media channels.

The last couple of days has seen cities policy shoot up the agenda thanks to the Policy Exchange’s, ahem… contraversial report suggesting some Northern cities be closed down and the population bussed down to the south east.

The reaction of Centre For Cities was interesting. They responded via traditional media, as you’d expect. But they were also savvy enough to realise that opinion is influenced via online discussion. You can reach your opinion leader audience by joining discussion online, just like meeting up for coffee or speaking at a conference or being interviewed on the Today programme.

You just have to understand the media you are dealing with. Rosi was monitoring discussion and offering the expertise of Head of Policy, Adam Marshall, to contribute insight to the discussions. Adam is genuinely an expert here and has done some high quality work but he remembered that this was a conversation. He was using accessible language and then linking off to an epolitix article for anyone that wanted a more in-depth analysis.

By posting, quickly, here, here, here, here and here, many MPs, councillors, journalists and policy wonks (ie their target market) have quickly got Centre For Cities on their radar, what their expertise and knowledge is and that they are responsive.

Just thought it was worth sharing as its an example that can be applied in any area…..