Brian first showed the conversation Prism, a very nice breakdown of what communities/networks/sites to engage with depending on your needs:

Traditional PR is all about getting publicity.  But now days, it’s not about publicity.  It’s about getting people to use(especially for startups.  Case in points:  even when your site gets techcrunched, you can get a spike in traffic.  But you may not get sustainable traffic or attract users to really use your site).

A couple of rules:

• become an expert on your product service and industry
• find conversations, observe, analysis
• find key influencers
• become a resource for influencers
• record and analysis

Do:

• answer questions not related to your client or company
• be proactive
• converse and comment
• Understand you are not the only story in town

How to reach non-early adopters(the world can function without Twitter or Facebook):

• understand where the community is
• Find out where they are in the conversation

Create a launch Plan

• build in a cushion, prepare for any kind of disaster
• bloggers get hammered with lots of PR pitch.  No two bloggers or journalists are created equal  Don’t just hammer them with copy-n-paste emails.  Connect with their interests in your message
• Make sure your site speaks clearly about messages, problems, solutions before launching Otherwise, people start complaining about it very early
• hold launch date

A company needs to have an incredible spokesperson. And your company blog is more powerful than you may think

Answer customer service emails and calls – FreshBook makes everyone do it to feel pain of users( I really love this approach)

My Take:  Traditional PR is dying.  Conversational marketing is on the rise.  Relate to people, understand them, be resourceful.