There’s lots of talk about PR effectiveness in today’s economy out there right now. This one from USA Today, this one from a guy named Mark from last year, another commentary here, and my personal favorite that claims “smooth sailing ahead” if you just follow these easy steps … All from PR folks. What’s missing from all of these is content. No doubt that creative tactics are an art form – getting out of a rut is not easy. Content though, this you can’t fake (and this is what you need in a down economy).

Focus on what you’re saying first. Take any of the popular blogs (see cloud security expert Rational Survivability), forums (consumer IT help forum Tom’s Hardware), any LinkedIn discussion and Twitters (check out Twittorati). Common bonds? Engaging discussion, something of value to discuss and a reason for people to pay attention. They tackle issues, champion a position and participate in the debate. In order to keep up visibility, companies need to tie themselves to a subject matter and be willing to discuss it beyond their products.

Thought leadership is a favorite term of mine (yup, sarcasm) that becomes a great tool to maintain visibility and really important in today’s economy. The budget might have to drop but real thought leadership will persevere. It takes time, effort, creative tactics and content. There’s no magic bullet and in today’s economy, content generation is the cornerstone to good PR activity.

Issue a controversial white paper that you can stand behind. Use it rile up bloggers and LinkedIn communities. Encourage their feedback as crazy as it might be. Issue a release announcing THE FEEDBACK. Press like controversy and so do their readers.