Posts filed under 'PR Syndication'
It appears to me from having worked with a number of Manchester based PR agencies that there is still a certain level of uncertainty regarding the opportunities that can be leveraged from utilising online as a mechanism for PR distribution. Sometimes this seems to be down to ignorance, other times just a reluctance to embrace new opportunities, however there are a couple of PR agencies starting to take note. However this dearth of the use of Online PR, only serves to highlight the gab between SEO companies trying to embrace PR and PR companies trying to embrace SEO. I would suggest neither is serving the client as well as they could do.
On one hand we have the PR agencies using clever wordplay trying to create an impression compelling with the end user, with little or no consideration for algorithmic news and search engines, on the other optimisers generating content solely for ranking purposes, with little or no consideration for newsworthiness, or the end user. Press Release spam is unfortunately on the rise, and such activity (which often includes little or no editorial review) reduces the credibility of the wire services utilised and decreases the potential of your news being taken seriously (either now or in future).
This creates somewhat of a conundrum, to write particularly with the end user in mind, or focus more on either maximising syndication, and/or potential in terms of online marketing. I would suggest assessing the function of your press release is as good a place to start as any. Does you press release need to:
- Target and engage with end users
- Benefit the search marketing activity of you/your clients site.
- Tackle any existing issues - ie crisis management
- Do you need to maximise exposure in terms of pickup
Such questions will give you a reasonable basis to start writing your release. Setting a tone for your release is an important step in writing the release and understanding the functional requirements of the release will provide a solid foundation for use of keyword and linkage within your release. For example, should your release be part of an ongoing SEO campaign, the use of key terms and contextual linkage would be a necessity within the release; similarly, if you are writing the release with a defined end user in mind, then the wording and tone of your e-mail will be as important for your online release as they would be offline.
Just as importantly is the distribution mechanism. We highlighted a number of reasons which may determine how your press release may be written. This though will also affect, how your release should be distributed, however I would add budget will be a factor in many peoples agendas. However saying that there are a number of releases that can be effectively utilised, such as:
Services such as Marketwire, Businesswire and PRNewswire, although more expensive can be particularly useful particularly if more aggresive targeting is required. For example, Marketwire allows targeting by country (both online and offline sources), as well as segmentation by industry/sector. Getting this right can often be the difference between success and failure.
A knock on effect of such activity can result in increased visibility on services such as the following
News search engines:
Blog search engines:
Social Bookmarking/Tag based engines:
If media coverage is an issue, then do your homework to identify target publications with their editorial calendars in mind. Follow this up by sending appropriate journalists personal emails/pitches on your story. Don’t waffle, keep it succinct and include a url to the full release. It is also advisable to not include the entire release within the e-mail can be negatively perceived by some journalists. It can also be useful to make use of an optimised press centre in order to allow journalists, and customers to ’subscribe’ to your press center and be advised when new releases are added. It is also advisable to include relevant links to past releases, past media coverage, contact info, high resolution photographs, executive bios and links to applicable employee blogs (should this be available - Search Latitude are a good example of doing this well). The availability of all releases via a RSS feed can also contribute to increased exposure when a release is distributed.
There is no doubting that online has the potential to significantly impact on the performance/effect of a press release, particularly if the release is correctly focussed and targets the applicable channels effectively. This though requires a lot of hard work, good research, and often some imagination and luck.
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June 4th, 2007
I recently came across a “whitepaper” from Daryl Wilcox of Daryl Wilcox Publishing (associated with Sourcewire etc), which provided a very interesting overview of the future of traditional PR, which began with an interesting conjecture in 2017
However it soon returns to normality, and highlights what many PR organisations are starting to consider, namely whether to adapt to changing trends and behaviours as to how people read and gather news. To quote the whitepaper:
“The worst case scenario for PR, and this is real world and not fantasy, is that PR loses significant ground to an apparently more dynamic and imaginative profession - search marketing. The danger is this new discipline will take a bigger slice of the marketing budget at the expense of search marketing will start to take on communications roles which were previously part of the PR function”.
As the report goes onto state, there is already significant evidence of this. Many traditional offline publishers are now pouring money into online. Just look at the BBC. The cricket world cup has coverage from every angle including the widespread use of blogging in order to provide a more personalised overview of the world cup.
Search engines are also the weapon of choice when researching products or services, once the sole domain of offline publishers. Companies are getting wise to this, and the associated spend online is reflective of this trend. Added to this, is the ability of search marketing in order to drive traffic to the site.
Search marketing budgets are often similar to PR budgets nowadays - ranging from retainers for small clients of circa £500 per month to budgets of over circa £50000+ per month. However search marketing has one significant advantage over traditional PR in as far as it can demonstrate return on investment more effectively, easily and objectively. This is particularly important in many companies where every penny is accountable. As a result many search engine marketing companies are offering a range of online PR services such as PR syndication. This impacts PR as many organisations that would never have previously considered PR are now introduced to PR by search marketing agencies.
However the PR industry have been fairly slow in response. The report highlighted the CIPR conference in November 2006, where not one of the 14 sessions had any Online PR bias. As the report puts it - “The transformation of the media by the Internet was not a revolution, it was a slow burn. Now it as a raging fire”
However I am in danger of singing the whitepapers praises too highly. Whilst I fully agree with much of the report (particularly with my SEM hat firmly on), the reference to PR professionals being potentially better at SEO than search marketeers seems slightly of the mark. SEO is not all about numbers, numbers is merely a part of the fully equation, and it is this attention to the numbers along with the terminology and phrasology, that allows us search marketeers to leverage this ROI from online.
However Daryl’s document is written with the PR sector particularly in mind, and as such does an excellent job as such in advising PR of the potential of the Internet, whether or not they choose to utilise that information is another question. To be honest, there is no reason why Search Marketing and PR cannot cohabit side by side. I am currently working with a well respected PR agency, who are wholly embracing Online PR and the opportunities it can offer, and I am sure they want be the last.
To PR agencies. If you haven’t embraced the Internet, call us for a quick chat, to find out more on 01282 411170
To download the whitepaper go to http://www.dwpub.com/whitepapers.php?int=Public_Relations_Versus_Search_Marketing
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April 11th, 2007
According to a recent report by Technorati, the increase in the popularity in blogging shows no sign of slowing down. The report stated that Technorati are now tracking over 70 million blogs worldwide, approximately 13 million more than the number detected by the last Technorati report in November 2006.
Blogging by its very nature is more informal than other forms of “content websites” and many build up a considerable fan base, which revisit the site on a frequent basis. These sites are often more respected and trusted by the general public and perceived as being a more reliable source of information than many editorial or official websites.
As blogs are become more mainstream and accepted by commerce as a way of interacting with customers, however there is a danger that this perception will change, and there have been some well documented cases as such, with the Walmart blog probably one of the more well known examples.
However, due to the growing popularity, there has also been the associated problems such as spam blogs, or “Splogs”. These are automated blogs that contain little or no unique content and instead use content lifted from an RSS feed, which is then republished with a link. These are of no real value to human readers and exist largely for black hat search engine optimisation, however these can often rank highly in SERPS or search engine results positions.
Blogs can be an effective tool to interact with potential clients, however it should always be considered
- Who is the potential audience - Ensure that a blog is suitable
- How are your potential audience likely to interact with the blog - If you have a very negative public perception, perhaps such an interactive forum may be inadvisable - however saying that it may be a master stroke if implemented strategically
- What is the tone of your blog - personal/corporate - is this right for your target audience
- How often are you likely to update your blog - the best blogs are updated very regularly and often for this reason alone perform well in the search engines, as well as build up large followings.
- Do you wish to “syndicate” your content - this is important when deciding what platform/software to use - this for example uses wordpress.
- Is search engine optimisation important - you may need some technical tweaks in order to make your blog more friendly
There are a number of blogging experts out there, who can help with a long term Online PR or blogging strategy. If you are in any doubt, contact an expert such as E-Gain to find out more.
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April 10th, 2007
According to a recent report by the British Market Research Bureau (BMRB), only 19% of adult internet users have downloaded a podcast in the last six months (this is a rise of only 2% on the 2006 figure), this despite a surge in use of podcasts over the last year.
The study also stated that for those users who had ever downloaded a podcast, 72% weren’t interested in them, 38% didnt fully understand them and 18% wanted to know how to download them first.
Such figures, I feel do reflect the public perception of Podcasts/Vodcasts with many directly associating them directly with i-pods, which may in itself be reflected in the above figures. Whilst such technology is useful in tech-savvy environments, whether podcasting is suitable for mainstream marketing at this point is certainly up for debate.
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March 23rd, 2007
Over the last couple of months you have probably heard of link baiting or social media optimisation. If you haven’t time to get reading. Since then a number have posts have appeared regarding the subject, however none as good as “Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing“.
In the guide Andy covers all aspects of Linkbaiting including why, how and what to linkbait. Of particular interest was his bit on linkbait hooks as covered below
“News Hook. The news hook is when you are the first to scoop a story; everyone who carries the story will then (theoretically) link to you as the original source. To get a scoop you don’t need to have insider information (though that doesn’t hurt); you can just be the first site to publicly predict something or to reach a controversial conclusion. Bonus points if your scoop is “true”—too many later-proven-to-be-false scoops will make other bloggers and writers hesitant to reference you again.
Resource Hook. The resource hook occurs when you make an extremely helpful piece of content that everyone will naturally want to bookmark (like this one!). This may be my favorite hook, because as opposed to the news hook, it encourages people to link to and bookmark it for a long period of time. Content that sits there and naturally obtains trusted, relevant backlinks passively? Isn’t that the original white hat SEO wet dream?
Contrary Hook. The contrary hook is when you refute a common myth in your niche. Most little areas of the blogosphere hold certain beliefs to be self-evident; all SEOs know that META tags are dead; all Web2.0 designers know that writing validated code is the right thing to do. Calling these people wrong will usually incite them into talking about you, and linking to you.
Humor Hook. People love to laugh, especially at people in their industry or niche. And most niches have so little levity that almost anything will get you a chuckle and a link. You can even directly cite influential people, and if done in a gentle way, they’ll generally be flattered into linking to it.
Tool Hook. A good link bait tool has one of two characteristics: 1) It is actually useful; or 2) It feeds bloggers’ egos. (Very few examples can do both.) Firefox plugins, free design templates and financial calculators are all examples of tools that have received thousands of valuable backlinks. None of them are too hard for a decent programmer to create.
Award Hook. No official awards in your tiny niche? Why not host them yourself? You can either have a more legitimate award with significant organization and actual prize money like the Bloggies, or you can basically nominate everyone in your niche and hope that half link back to you out of enthusiasm for the community, as with the Search Awards. Both tactics work well. The reason is simply that people like positive recognition and they LOVE rankings. Awards get linked to because they help to legitimatize other people—it helps the winners when they promote you. Ah, human nature…
Giveaway Hook. Anyone who has been to an SEO conference recently (or any other conference for that matter) is stocked for life on pens, highlighters, key rings, and loads of over freebie junk. Companies fight to give trinkets away at certain events because, when directed towards the right audience, giveaways are a great way to drive sales and get a return far better than any ordinary advertising. The Internet is no different. Text Link Ads gets a lot of love around the blogosphere because they offer a free coupon for new clients. Aaron Wall seems to give away an AdWords coupon every other week—how else can you get such branding, traffic and links with a $50 piece of paper?
Research/Statistic Hook. Sometimes just compiled numbers, or any kind of scientific survey, will get a lot of link love, especially in an under-studied area. And while a scientifically-conducted study with valid methodology will often get better links, the (sad?) truth is that almost anything can pass as “research” on the Internet.”
Source:Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing
Well worth a read…
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February 20th, 2007
I had some time for the Did-it/SEO isn’t rocket science/is dead argument being argued in the online marketing arena over the last couple of weeks, in no small part due to Dave Pasternack’s recent article, however Mark Simon’s (Did-it’s Vice President of industry relations - Crisis Manager perhaps) recent foray into the domain, only serves to enflame the situation and highlight every aspect they are trying to argue against. I will however state that the response of the SEO community as a whole hasn’t been that well handled, and if the industry is to be as well respected as more traditional sectors such as Offline then really such character assassinations should be very few and far between.
Mark Simon’s recent post on Mediapost merely served to highlight why Did-its recent campaign is nothing more than a PR stunt, and in my personal opinion merely highlighting the changing trends of online marketing from merely search engine focussed to offerings including Online PR & Social Media.
To read the Mark Simons article click here
And the fuss it’s caused - http://www.threadwatch.org/node/11507
However his post did raise a couple of interesting and valid points most notably
“That doesn’t mean that it’s curtains for SEO firms. They’ll still be in high demand as experts on information architecture and site usability. They’ll help clients build sites that their searchers are really looking for, and that their searchers can use. They’ll cease to have value in reverse-engineering the engine algorithms, but they’ll still have value in helping clients create truly relevant Web sites. “
I can’t help but agree to certain parts of that comment, however whilst the algorithm is still manipulatable, the services for “optimisers” will still be required, and until search engines can factor in something that is not in any way open to “abuse” or the general public change the way they use the web, the market will always be “buoyant”
The overriding factor that will determine whether or not the benefit outweighs the investment. Whilst traffic from search engines such as Google remain the primary source of traffic and the ROI from organic search high, the value an SEO’er will remain at a premium.
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February 13th, 2007
Recent articles by both Gord Hotchkiss and Andrew Goodman both investigated the reasons why Search Engine Marketing firms werent being acquired for large sums. Gord argued that much of this could be attributed to the fact that SEM firms were deemed too tactical and lacked the skills to segment and profile applicable demographics. Andrew Goodman went on to say he agreed with Gord assessment however his analysis of the “current reality” was incorrect.
To a certain degree I have to agree with much of what Andrew Goodman had to say. For example:
True, a big law firm that serves big corporate clients almost never acquires a small firm that has some specialty they’d like to add. And that’s the closest analogy with the notion of, say, the world’s largest ad agency acquiring my very small SEM agency. The law firm just hires new associates or recruits partners with different skill sets. Is that because the small firm is “too tactical”? Or just too narrow/small to have the marketplace leverage to *force* a buyout? If the little guy starts actually taking the big guy’s customers, that’s when the big guy takes notice.
So that leaves us a little closer to the answer: if ad agencies are the likely acquirers in the scenario where the target client is mostly larger enterprises, the only leverage a boutique agency has is either in their client list and growing cachet in their own right, or some expertise that the agency will take too long to develop in-house.”
From my own perspective, Andrews comparison there was spot on. From my own personal experience, traditional advertising organisations have been painfully slow on the uptake in terms of Search Engine Marketing, focussing on the potential challenges it presents rather than any long term benefits it can bring, as part of an integrated campaign. Much of this leads to an “ignorance” of search engine marketing, what it entails, and exactly how it fits in with both offline and direct activity.
Such organisations only start taking notice, once the figures become too difficult to argue against. Over the last year or so the number of organisations entering the online marketing arena has increased substantially, as a result of new startups, web development agencies moving into the search arena and offline agencies starting to take notice. One of the bigger acquisitions in the UK Search marketing arena this year saw Global Media buy BigMouthMedia for around £50 Million. However these acquisitions are few and far between at the current time.
However many of these acquisitons are still taking place between organisations within the Online marketing arena itself, and whilst there are a number of integrated agencies such as i-level and Connectpoint offering a full integrated marketing solution, these still tend to be the exception rather than the norm. Much of this IMO opinion is still down to some pessimism of an integrated approach and much has been said of who is better placed to deal with online marketing, ie is it the integrated agency or the boutique agency.
Much is made of search marketing and its fit in the marketing arena. It should however be considered that in comparison to traditional offline advertising, online (search) marketing is still very much in its infancy (Google only started in the nineties for example), and thus has still a considerable amount of evolving to do. It should also be considered that search IS evolving at break neck speed, with personalised search, online PR, convergance technologies (mobile/voip) and social media all having entered (to a certain degree) the mainstream over the last couple of years.
One thing is for sure, it is only a matter of time….
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January 29th, 2007
I read today a post on the SearchEngineLand regarding “Buzz” following a recent article in the New York Times named “ Brands for the Chattering Masses” which covered the rapid popularity increase in blogging in the business environment, citing examples such as Dell and Toyota, and introducing readers to Neilson Buzzmetrics.
I have recently been involved in a number of Online (SEO) PR projects for a number of clients here at E-Gain, and the evolution of “Noise” measurement tools has become a fundamental aspect to many of our campaigns here, allowing us to identify potential issues in their infancy, instead of having to deal reactively to a much larger issue.
In his blog at SearchEngineLand, Danny Sullivan said
“My advice to those paying for such services is not to be cheap when it comes to solutions. Don’t spend $20,000 to $500,000 tracking your buzz then balk at paying anything near that amount for a search or internet marketer to help you. Oh — and try not to be a sucky company that gets bad buzz in the first place!”
which I wholeheartedly had to agree with. Unfortunately though many clients do get themselves in these situation, and it is one that does take a skilled specialist (particularly a UK SEO and PR specialist if you are UK based) in order to strategically plan the most effective way of reducing the effect of that negative publicity.
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December 18th, 2006
