Author Archives: Sarah Skerik

Why Your Brand Should Be On Pinterest (& How to Get Started)

Posted on February 16, 2013 | 2 Comments

pinleague

I got a real surprise on Monday during the workshop I was leading on using content to attract qualified leads at the Online Marketing Summit.  When I asked the audience, “Have you experienced unexpected results for your brand from a particular social network?”  I wasn’t prepared for the digital strategy head of a top 5 accounting firm who told me that Pinterest is a significant referrer of traffic for their financial services and hedge fund strategy content.

Apparently, among the juggernaut of dream wedding pictures and fantastically decadent fashion and food, a good infographic about the hedge fund business can gain real traction.

With that in mind, I hot-footed it to Danny Maloney’s session about making Pinterest work for your brand.

Danny is the CEO and co-founder of PinLeague, and he has access to a ton of data about Pinterest usage.  This is one interesting social network – even for B2B brands.

Pinterest drives aspiration … and revenue

What makes Pinterest so interesting is user intent.  Pinterest is where people collect and gather ideas.  They discover, they aspire, they plan.   And as they do so, they are telling marketers what they like.

Obviously, Pinterest is about visuals.  Users ‘pin’ pictures, infographics, artworks and all imaginable matter of digital imagery to virtual pinboards, which can be broadly shared.   The primary activity is pinning, and that’s even how users interact – there’s relatively little conversation on Pinterest.  Instead, fellow pinners show their enthusiasm by re-pinning each other’s content.   From that activity, brands can divine loads of intel about their audiences.

If you spend about ten seconds thinking about it, the fact that Pinterst generates more revenue per transaction for brands when compared to Facebook and Twitter shouldn’t be a surprise.  After all, Pinterest is an aspiration engine. Nonetheless, the fact that Pinterest generates significantly more referrals and more than twice the revenue of Facebook is pretty eye-opening.

Tips for getting your brand started on Pinterest

80% of the benefit your brand will probably derive from Pinterest is from users pinning about your brand.  You don’t even know it’s going on.  But that’s okay.   You don’t want all the activity happening on your own profile. You want people to share your content.  That’s how you spread the word.  Err. Image.

Don’t dive into a strategy until you know what’s going on around your brand on Pinterest. What is being shared? What is being said?  What is being pinned and re-pinned?  And who are these people that are pinning your stuff? Get a sense of who the user is before jumping in.

Then, once you’ve done this due diligence, build 12 boards for your brand.  Pick five things your users love, five things they have a hard time finding and two things about your brands.  Build boards according to those twelve themes, and you’ll have a good, solid start on Pinterest.

Want more ideas?  Take a look at our collection of stories about Visual PR trends and tactics.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tesla vs. the New York Times: New-School Crisis Communications on Display

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 2 Comments

A lot of discussion and PR thought leadership have been focused on managing crises in this age immediate communications and networked audiences.

However, a fascinating situation that’s unfolding right now between the New York Times and Tesla Motors highlights the important opportunity brands have to tell their side of the story immediately and convincingly when they have a dispute with the news coverage, and it sure beats the daylights out of having a correction or clarification printed three days after the fact.    Simply put, brands don’t have to take what they consider to be unfair or biased coverage lying down.

Here’s what’s happening, in the smallest of nutshells.

John Broder of the NYT test drove a Tesla Model S.  In his unfavorable review of the car published last weekend, he detailed a problem-riddled trip and ultimately had to have the car towed when he said it ran out of power.

Tesla Motors responded quickly, charging that the vehicle’s logs proved that Broder had ignored warnings, driving by charging stations, detouring from the prescribed route and driving at excessive speeds.   According to the company, despite Broder’s best efforts, the car never stopped running.

“ When the facts didn’t suit his opinion, he simply changed the facts,” concluded Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a blog post offering a rich rebuttal to the Times story, including electronic log data that specifically contradicts many of Broder’s claims.

Tesla published electronic logs documenting Broder’s speed during the test drive, and called out inconsistencies in his story. (The emphasis on the chart is Tesla’s.)

On Tuesday, Broder published a response in the Wheels section of the Times, refuting Tesla’s claims in detail.

“My account was not a fake,” he wrote. “It happened just the way I described it.”

This story is still developing and doesn’t yet have a conclusion, at least as far as the relationship between the Times and Tesla is concerned. However, in terms of online sentiment, Tesla appears to be winning.

“… Now that every smart company has a regularly updated blog, Elon Musk has 136,000 Twitter followers, etc., brands can speak for themselves very powerfully,”  noted Dan Frommer, in a post on LinkedIn titled “Tesla vs. The New York Times: Everyone’s A Media Company Now.“  “And if the tone is right, they don’t even look lame: Tesla actually looks pretty great right now. The balance of power has shifted.”

Whatever the outcome, this situation leaves in its wake a couple important lessons for PR pros and anyone charged with safeguarding brand reputation.

  • Your brand’s social connections can morph instantly into advocates during crises, especially if the brand is the victim of foul play.  This is one more reason why developing a strong social presence is a good idea.
  • Your publics are perfectly happy to listen to your side of the story, and facts are powerful fuel for your rebuttal.  Get to know your company’s logging and analytics systems, because that data can provide crucial proof for your side of the story.
  • Hone your company’s response clock speed.  Real-time communications require empowerment, fast multimedia support and the swiftest of approvals.

Whether you need to defend your brand against an angry Facebook fan or some wonky coverage in the New York Times, these two simple lessons can turn the tide of a story before it swamps your reputation.

Catch up with the story yourself:

Original NYT Story: Stalled Out on Tesla’s Electric Highway

Tesla blog post:  A Most Peculiar Test Drive

NYT “Wheels” response:  The Charges are Flying Over a Test of Tesla’s Charging Network

Updated since original publication:

NYT:  The Tesla Data: What it Says and What it Doesn’t

The NYT Public Editor’s take:  Problems With Precision and Judgment, but Not Integrity, in Tesla Test

The Atlantic Wire: Elon Musk’s Data Doesn’t Back His Claims

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

If your brand’s crisis communications operations aren’t up to snuff, PR Newswire’s Media Room suite can help you plan ahead for those days you hope you never have, enabling comprehensive preparation and rapid response.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Agile Engagement, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , , , ,

SEO Tips for Developing Effective Messages

Posted on February 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

It should go without saying that if you’re publishing content online, you should be capitalizing on the opportunity to positively influence search engine rankings for your organization.   Each piece of content a brand publishes can (and probably should!) improve the search engine rank of the company’s web properties.

At the Online Marketing Summit this week, a number of speakers offered advice on SEO and content strategy, many of which are useful for PR.

A slide from the Andrew Delamarter's presentation

A slide from the Andrew Delamarter’s presentation

Create a keyword-driven editorial calendar.  

Andrew Delamarter, director of search at Huge, emphasized the importance of using keywords to direct content creation, suggesting that brands build keyword-driven editorial calendars.  In addition to aligning content production around target terms, this tactic also ensures that the content a brand publishes is broadly aligned with key themes.  It’s a good idea, and as he noted, it’s not technical. It’s storytelling.

Appreciate and attract authoritative signals.

Great content generates potent authority signals that search engines notice.  When people like and share content on social networks, the are driving high-quality traffic to the content.   Visitors that elect to click on your content upon the recommendation of a peer are generally spend more time on page and act upon the calls to action you’ve provided them.  These interactions with content indicate to search engines that the content is valuable.

“Offer incentives for readers to share content, ” advised Daryl Colwell of MediaWhiz. “Focus on the why not the what.  How will your content help your customers?”

Develop understanding of what content works in mobile, and mobile user behavior.

We act differently when we use mobile devices for search.  Our intentions are often different, the keywords we use are different, and the content we’re seeking is different.  Search gurus are predicting that mobile search will overtake desktop search within a year or two.  One of the most important things communicators can do is to build knowledge around your organization’s audience behaviors on mobile devices.   Communicators need to manage their communications at a platform and keyword level.

“Dark Traffic” – an important new metric

Driving social interaction is great, but it presents one difficulty – it’s tough to track.  URL shorteners, which are so frequently used to share social content – strip out referring data, and show up in your web analytics reports as “unknown” sources of traffic.  Delamarter suggested that communicators should pay attention to increases in the quantity of unknown traffic – it indicates more social traffic around your content, and that’s a good thing.

Search engines are continuing to tighten their algorithms in order to deliver truly relevant results to their users.   New signals they’re valuing include things like Klout scores (in the case of Bing) and citations (rather than simple links.)  From a strategy standpoint, the best search engine visibility benefits will be driven by the content your audience finds most useful – and that should be one communicators’ primary content goals.

Related reading:

SEO trends for 2013 & what they mean for PR

Search, Social & Content Marketing

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Content PR & Marketing

Tagged , ,

Content Engagement Tips from an E-Mail Marketer

Posted on February 12, 2013 | 1 Comment

I sat in on a session about email marketing at the Online Marketing Summit yesterday, and wow – those folks have one difficult job.  Much of the conversation was about formatting, in order to increase the likelihood that the images in the email body will render.  Fact is, many email programs and company firewalls disable images, meaning that email marketers also have to pay close attention to their text messages, and there in was some good advice that that PR pros can use, too.

The speaker, Karen Talavera of @synchmarketing,  addressed the change in what sort of information works in today’s campaigns, and suggested that it’s time to leave the old AIDA model of messaging for a new approach.

So you can see the differences clearly, here’s a brief outline of the AIDA model:

  • A – Awareness:  the message attracts the reader’s attention.
  • I – Interest: the reader’s interest is piqued.
  • D – Desire: the message convinces the reader they want what’s being promoted.
  • A – Action: the call to action that turns the reader into a customer.

Instead, she offered a new model that I thought was pretty interesting – “IEEO”   which focuses instead on educating and engaging the reader, or, as Karen put it, “Serving, not selling.”  Here’s an outline:

  • I – Invite – Messaging doesn’t hit the reader over the head with the offer
  • E – Engage  - Instead, the messaging engages the reader, serving up multimedia and related information
  • E – Educate/entertain – The overall tone is educational and/or entertaining – it’s not the hard sell
  • O – Offer – Instead of “buy now” the call to action is presented in an offer that is relevant to and fits with the overall tone of the message.

The IEEO approach is radically different than the traditional AIDA method.  The newer approach incorporates and is informed by customer needs, and relies upon education rather than desire to inspire the reader to take action.

However, we’re talking about an approach to email marketing.   Those communications are designed to immediately capture reader attention, and convert the reader from prospect to purchaser in the space of one message.

While most press releases aren’t intended to generate sales directly, there’s no question that they have to compete for attention, and within most press releases are various calls to action – just like marketing emails.    Awareness-building has been a core function of press releases since time immemorial.   However, as I considered the IEEO approach to email messaging, I started to wonder if we could generate more value from press releases – for both the issuer  and readers – by borrowing some tactics from email marketing.  Is generating awareness enough for us, or should we be crafting press releases and other PR content with the goal of engaging and educating our readers – and guiding them to a specific call to action – within the press releases we issue, and the other content we publish?

Follow the tweet stream at #OMSummit for ongoing commentary from the Online Marketing Summit this week.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Content PR & Marketing

Tagged , , , , ,

Aligning Non-Marketing Content With the Buying Journey

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

point

There’s no doubt that communicators are in content overdrive these days. Content is the fuel for social conversation, search engine visibility and e-mail campaigns. Potential customers seek education, not the hard sell. Quality content attracts, qualifies, convinces and converts.

However, in order to achieve the objective, the content your brand publishes has to have a point, and by point, I really mean “business objective.” And the content needs to be mapped to that objective, offering a relevant call to action that truly interested readers will be happy to take.

For many marketers, this is obvious stuff. However, the aforementioned enthusiasm for publishing creates both risk and opportunity for brands.

On the downside, a brand can lose control of the content it publishes, dissolving signals into indistinct noise, and creating an uneven experience for the audience. The results? A very leaky funnel that garners some attention but ultimately encourages the audience to look elsewhere.

On the upside, a brand can achieve alignment across the content published, and even more importantly, can turn content that’s not traditionally considered a conversion opportunity – such as press releases, transcripts of the CEO’s speeches, FAQs and exec bios — into just that.

Re-thinking non-marketing content

Your buyers are definitely reading content your organization has published that sits outside your conversion funnel. To get started, it’s important to ask why they’re doing that. What questions are your customers asking that’s answered by this other content? Let’s take a look.

  • FAQs: Frequently asked questions are often frequent for a reason – because the brand hasn’t adequately informed the audience at other (and possibly more appropriate) junctures in the relationship, such as during training or the ‘getting started’ phase. However, interest in FAQs also comes from non-customers, when the solution or product they’re using falls short.
  • Press releases: The workhorse message of the PR department is remarkably popular and credible with your brand’s non-media audiences. Why? First and foremost, people do take press releases seriously – they are, after all, an official, approved and on-record statement from the company.

A while back, PR Newswire engaged Forrester to do audience research on PRNewswire.com. That research identified an important segment that we called “product researchers.” Product researchers are people who visit our web site – and read press releases – expressly seeking information on a product or service. They comprise 15% of the traffic to our web site, and more 60% arrive there via a search engine. Furthermore, they frequent visitors – almost half visit PR Newswire’s web site weekly, and 20 % visit daily. And what are they reading? Press releases. What are they looking for when they visit our site? The latest news, company updates, facts and links to more information.

  • Exec bios: Who reads those other than the media? You might be surprised. References to company execs abound in discussion groups – and the experience and perspective they bring to an organization absolutely resonates with audiences. Their points of view, career paths and alma maters are all potential connection points with your audience.

Now that we’re thinking about all these “other” forms of content, it’s time to consider how they might be tweaked in order to support your customers’ buying journeys.

The content needs to have a point.

All content needs to have a point, meaning that ideally, it inspires the reader to take another action – one that the company directs. Whether that’s clicking on a link to a video or going to another web page offering more detail, these actions represent more engagement and interest on the part of your reader.

So as you’re reviewing your content, determine whether or not it falls into the realm of attracting audience, garnering attention or attaining customers. Let’s break this down a bit.

Attraction

Attraction is the first step in building a relationship with your audience. And today, brands need to express more value in the attraction phase than merely saying “Hey! Look at me!” Even at that early stage of engagement, attraction is often driven by earned media, such as social shares of content. So as you’re thinking about content that attracts, ensuring that it’s widely sharable is important.

Content that attracts audiences includes: Press releases, infographics, and blog posts

Attention

The next phases in the buying journey are marked by getting – and keeping – your audience’s attention. Doing this requires a brand to provide a thoughtful progression of content, designed to anticipate and answer questions as the readers consume the content.

Content that keeps attention includes: webinars, side decks, e-books

Attainment

The last step phase is that in which the brand attains a customer (or an advocate.) During this phase, the opinion is swayed, the prospect is converted and the deal is closed. Good content can help move the prospect toward the buying decision, by removing doubts, answering questions and affirming the decision the prospect is about to make.

Content that attains includes: buyers’ guides, demos, case studies, testimonials.

Synching content to the objective

We’ve experienced the disconnect that arises when content and the call to action aren’t in synch, such as when a web site you’re browsing casually requires registration for full access to an article. If you’re not far enough along in the buying process, chances are good you’ll skip registering, and see information elsewhere. And therein is the risk for communicators. Disconnects between the objective of the content and the call to action can drive interested readers away.

Synching content’s objective to an appropriate call to action requires the publisher to consider which stage in their customers’ buying journey the content supports – even for some of the non-traditional content we noted above – and build stage-appropriate CTAs into the content. The only thing worse than driving readers away by “going for the kill” too quickly is failing to provide a next step for them, forcing them to go elsewhere for desired information.

This excellent deck from Eloqua is loaded with ideas for developing content appropriate for different stages of the buying process:

Putting “other” content to work

In order to plug leaks in the funnel, we need to be sure that we’re putting all of the content our brands publish – not just the traditional marketing messages – to work for the brand. And no, I’m not taking about turning every communication into a sales pitch. Far from it. However, if you know that press releases, FAQs and other owned media are used by your audience, it’s a good idea to revisit – and tweak – that content to make it even more attractive to your audience, and ensure that it supports the buying journey. Here are some ideas:

  • Press releases:  Most press releases include calls to action for media and industry analysts, in the form of press contacts and high-resolution media. However, brands can easily build CTAs for potential prospects into press releases easily and unobtrusively by embedding a link to a next step from a key phrase in the press release that is likely to appeal to potential customers. (See: Embedding calls to action for multiple audiences in press releases.)
  • Executive bios: This oft-overlooked page is a great place to showcase your brands’ leaders. Demonstrate their chops by aggregating interesting content – such blog posts or articles they’ve written or some videos – that highlights their expertise – and underscores the fact that the organization is run by very bright people who build great product and know their stuff. These links can lead straight into the content stream for the related business area.
  • FAQs: Probably the best opportunity to acquire interest and qualify prospects can be found within the FAQs on an organization’s web site. Within each question and answer are opportunities to deliver tightly focused information that informs and influences the reader. Review related content, and build it into the FAQ. Fill any content gaps, to ensure prospects have access to a robust and relevant set of useful information.

Aligning content to the buying cycle and incorporating relevant CTAs isn’t the sole domain of the marketing department.  Aligning content – and objectives – across the universe of brand messaging will deliver a more coherent face to your audience, and ultimately, build qualified interest for your brand.

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media, and will be leading a session titled Driving Qualified Audiences Into the Funnel Using Rich Media and Distribution Networks for All Access pass holders at next week’s Online Marketing Summit.   There’s still time to register for the event, and here’s a code good for 30% off your registration: SMPRN1

 

http://www.prnewswire.com/knowledge-center/upcoming-events-webinars/Online-Marketing-Summit-2013-San-Diego.html

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Content PR & Marketing

Tagged , ,

Facebook Graph Search: Local Opportunities & Tips to Increase Fan Engagement for Brands

Posted on January 31, 2013 | 2 Comments

fb-graph-search-infographicGraph Search is rolling out amongst Facebook users, and brands are scrambling to figure out what to do.  While this new functionality for Facebook users doesn’t extend to brands — meaning that operators of brand pages on Facebook won’t be able to use Graph Search to find out more about their fans — nonetheless, it still spells opportunity for brands, especially for local businesses (or local locations of national businesses) and for brands catering to special interests.    In those cases, word of mouth and personal recommendations are particularly useful, and being able to see the brands and organizations your friends like could be helpful.    I agree with Max Gladwell’s assessment of the import of Facebook presences for local businesses, in his HuffPo article titled “Graph Search Optimization: What Facebook’s Social Search Means for Brands,”

“Facebook is giving local pages an equal voice on the social graph. This means that local pages are every bit as important and likely to surface as a brand page. In particular, it means that mobile is elevating local pages to the same stature as brand pages because this is how consumers engage at the local level.”

It’s also important to think about how people use a social network.   In my view, Facebook isn’t a decision engine.  People use it to share personal experiences, and to check in on each others’ lives.   So the trick for brands on Facebook will be to double down on local presences, and encourage sharing amongst their friends and customers, but to do so in a way that is fun, compelling and inherently social.   Here are some ideas.

A local tack shop rewards their 'top fans' with a $10 gift certificate each month.

A local tack shop rewards their ‘top fans’ with a $10 gift certificate each month, which they publicize on (where else!) their Facebook page.

Offer your Facebook friends some real utility or entertainment when they become your brand’s fans on Facebook.  Special offers and early-bird alerts about new products or special sales are popular.   Curate and share interesting content to stay top-of-mind with your audience.

Strengthen local ties by partnering with local charities or civic groups, and (of course) using Facebook to solicit ideas, feedback, involvement and support.    Done well, this will increase visibility within your geographic footprint.

I have yet to walk Ambrosia, a patisserie near my home, and not snap a picture of the extravagant pastries they have on display just inside the front door -- and I promptly upload the pics to Facebook, prompting oohs and aahs amongst my friends (and now the readers of this blog.)

I have yet to walk Ambrosia, a patisserie near my home, and not snap a picture of the extravagant pastries they have on display just inside the front door — and I promptly upload the pics to Facebook, prompting oohs and aahs amongst my friends (and now the readers of this blog.)

Create compelling content opportunities for your brand’s fans, by setting up real-life opportunities.  Everyone’s armed with a cell phone.  Get creative with displays – people take and share photos of thing that have a ‘wow’ factor.  Create other opportunities for people to take pictures and share them on Facebook.  And while you’re at it, don’t forget to take and share pictures the brand’s page as well.

If your brand has physical locations, cultivate your Foursquare presence by offering check-in specials and a nice deal for your “mayor.”    Foursquare users often share their activity on Facebook.  Just be sure that on-site staff are trained and are aware of fulfilling check-in deals.

As is always the case when developing strategies for social networks, it’s important to put your audience first.  Spend some time looking at your fans’ behavior, noticing what sort of content they really seem to like and share.  You can also go into your Facebook Insights dashboard for your brand page, and look at “post level” data.  This data actually reveals which posts on your wall generated the most interaction.   Use that information to inform the type of content you post in the future, and keep building on what content is most successful (and appreciated by your Fans,) because those interactions are the ultimate drivers of a brand’s success on Facebook.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Content PR & Marketing, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , ,

Google’s Revamped Image Search Streamlines Searchers’ Pathway to Your Website

Posted on January 28, 2013 | 3 Comments
A look at Google's new image search, courtesy of the Google Webmaster Blog, with my own emphasis added in orange.

A look at Google’s new image search, courtesy of the Google Webmaster Blog, with my own emphasis added in orange.

Over the weekend, Google unveiled a faster and more streamlined image search function.    While communicators probably don’t need another reason to use images – the advantages of doing so are pretty clear – Google just hand us another.

In their post about the update, Google noted that in addition to streamlining the user experience in order to make it easier for people to flip through relevant images and find the one they’re seeking,  Google also noted that they are making the domain name for the images clickable.  This is a big deal.

“The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on. This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two. In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website. “

The new format, as displayed on the Google webmaster blog, is much easier for users to scan, and does a better job of highlighting the images.  Instead of pointing and clicking, opening and closing images, users will be able to flip rapidly through them, and will be able to quickly access the related web page for each. As an inveterate Google user myself, this is a welcome change.

We know that content with images generates more views.  Now Google is making it even easier for viewers of those images to get directly to your web site.   Including images with the content you publish has always been a good idea, and it just keeps getting better.

Related resources:

Blog posts about using visuals in PR communications:  Visual PR

Options for embedding and distributing images and multimedia within press releases and other content:  Multimedia and PR

Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Digital Content

Tagged ,

The Difference between Social Media News Releases & Traditional Press Releases

Posted on January 24, 2013 | 7 Comments

first mnrWhat’s the difference between a social media press release and the more traditional version?  This is one of the most common questions we receive here at PR Newswire, and the answer is simpler than you may think.

At the outset, the social media news release (SMNR) — originally conceived by Todd Defren of Shift Communications — looked pretty complex, incorporating a host of multimedia assets as well as links to related information, such as other press releases from the company and quotes from experts.    The emphasis on the format intimidated many, and frankly, continues to do so today.

The difference between the two release types, in our mind, is pretty clear.  A social media release at its most basic is easy for readers to scan, includes elements (text, multimedia, etc.) that are easy to share, and offers readers ready access to a collection of associated, relevant information.   A more traditional message lacks these features.

Easy, social-friendly formatting:

When asked about social media press releases, we like to emphasize key features that are easy for almost any PR pro to incorporate, rather than focusing on a specific format.  It’s important to do the best you can with what you have, and let’s face it, you may not have a cool video or sleek graphic for each message. Social- and traditional media friendly features all releases should all include:

  • Sharing: Make it easy for readers to share your content. Embed buttons for social sharing, blogging and other interactions within your news release pages, and be sure the vendors you use have social sharing buttons embedded in the versions of the press releases they host on their web sites for you.
  • “Scannability”: As you write your release, you’ll want to be sure the text is easy for readers to scan.  Using bold subheads and bulleted lists enables readers to quickly scan the document and readily ascertain the key points. This tactic improves reader engagement. As a bonus, key pieces of text like headlines, subheads and key bullet points are often relayed on social networks.  Use bold text on your subheads, and don’t forget anchor text links, which draw the eye to key terms.
  • Links:  Embedded anchor text links, as well as links to more information, are welcomed by readers if they deliver on the promise of providing more information or an answer to a question.   The content to which you link has to be specific.  It’s of little use to your reader, for example, to link from a product name in a press release to your company’s home page.  Don’t make your reader navigate their way to the information. Serve it up on a platter.
  • Contact information: This piece of advice comes from the team that builds and maintains our MediaRoom products (we host media and IR sites for clients.) Contact information needs to be at the top of the page, in a prominent position, and it needs to include a means to reach company contacts directly. Journalists and bloggers work in tight timeframes. They appreciate having ready access to your organization’s media contacts. This is not the place for a generic “email us” form.

Visuals

Now, on to the fun stuff.  Visuals are important, for a number of reasons.  In addition to attracting attention and ultimately delivering better results than plain text copy, visuals encourage social sharing, thus amplifying your message and increasing your audience.

  • Distribute & Share:  If you have a image or  video, don’t just host the video on your web site. Upload it to your company’s Facebook page, YouTube channel and other sharing sites like Vimeo, SlideShare and Flickr (yes, the last two accept video as well as images.) And don’t forget Twitter.  They just debuted Vine, a new video sharing app, today.
  • Describe:  On all the sites and pages on which your multimedia content is hosted, do be sure to surround the video with descriptive information.   When uploading it to a sharing site, be sure to give it a descriptive title, use a variety of tags, categorize it correctly and include a full description –with a link back to a related page on your web site.  Doing so will ensure the video comes up in relevant searches and is indexed correctly on the web site.

Professional help:

At a certain point, there’s only so much a brand can do to distribute and promote content, and when you reach that point, if your message needs more oomph, it’s time to seek professional  help.  Here at PR Newswire, our MultiVu team routinely produces and distributes a range of multimedia press releases as well as more the sophisticated digital content format we call the ARC.    Marrying sophisticated video distribution to dozens of web sites with a host of interactive multimedia options, these message platforms can illustrate, animate and amplify your messages is ways you’ve probably never considered.  Learn more about how we’re helping organizations everywhere engage audiences with multimedia.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

 

 

→ 7 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

SEO Trends for 2013 & What They Mean for PR

Posted on January 23, 2013 | 8 Comments
seo_2013

This image, originally published on the Ink Blog, nicely summarizes the diverse tactics and approaches that are shaping SEO today.

The practice of search engine optimization has changed dramatically over the last couple years, and now offers PR pros and other communicators some real lessons in achieving relevance to audiences.    A look at current SEO trends offers some great ideas for anyone charged with creating content or doing outreach for a brand.   Here are some common themes I’ve been seeing on leading SEO sites and blogs this winter.

A mix of quality content:

You can’t read an SEO or marketing blog today without bumping into the phrase “quality content,” and there’s a good reason for that.   As brand publishing becomes more entrenched, the content we publish is at the very heart of our communications.  It’s the hub on our web site, it’s the landing page where we convert leads, it’s the fuel for social conversation, it’s the next step in the buying process.   So, content is crucial.  We get that.  But what does “quality” really mean?

In reality, and in this context, “quality” means a mix of content.  You need some attention-garnering, awareness-building, “upper funnel” stuff.   Many infographics, pithy blog posts about 6 ways to do something better and clever videos fall into this category.

However, this is the content equivalent of convenience food.  It’s bite-size and portable, but it’s not a feast.

“Clients are shifting not only to higher-end writers, but to subject matter experts,” noted Christina Zila in a recent Search Engine Watch post titled 5 Trends Shaping SEO & Content Marketing in 2013.  “In 2013, demand will increase not just for good writers, but for good writers who know their stuff.”

More substantial, meatier content that’s designed to inform and educate your audience – and move them deeper into the buying process – is crucial as well.   This content is tougher to produce, but  is high-value, more likely to generate links and readership, and is great fodder for derived content.

Integration of user experience and planned outcomes

Brian Loebig said it well on the InkBlog:  “There will be a tighter integration of websites, social media, press releases, SEO and mobile applications. In fact, I think the idea of optimizing for search engines will become congruent with optimizing for actual humans. If the content you are creating and distributing is highly useful and relevant for humans it will likely be favored by the search engines.”

This is an important point to remember, because while our audiences access content via all manner of devices (computers, smartphones, tablets) and platforms (web, mobile, apps, social) they expect a coherent brand experience.   This requires integration and coordination between departments, and also underscores the fact that we’re not optimizing discrete pieces of content or web pages anymore – we’re optimizing experiences.

It’s also worth noting that time-on-page and bounce rates are factors search engines notice.  Developing content and experiences that not just capture but keep attention is an important factor in both achieving successful outcomes and great online visibility.

Derived content – diverse and fresh

Content marketers have long advocated the derivation of many pieces of content from one.  A white paper, for example, can provide fodder for multiple blog posts, a deck for SlideShare, a webinar and be the basis for a variety of images.  Done well, this derived content can spark social sharing, and deliver readers back to the original work, which is often one of the meatier, more substantial pieces of content your organization has published (see above.)

Depending upon where the derived content is hosted, there can be some value in the links going back to the original work itself, especially if those links are coming from a relevant and respected industry blog or web site.  However, the fact that the work is being read and shared creates signals that engines notice.  Additionally, current content is still important, and derived works are a good way to fuel your brand’s content creation engine.  Just be sure that the derived works are themselves useful and substantial.

At this point, some readers may be thinking “This doesn’t sound like SEO to me,” and if your definition of SEO is limited to keyword density and link-building, then yes, you’re right.  This is new ground.  The lesson here for all communicators that we can learn from search optimization gurus can be summarized pretty simply:  Search engines are smarter than ever and they pay attention to signals generated by real, live humans.  To generate visibility in search engines, you have to start with compelling content, use multiple channels and formats to deliver the messages, and make serving your audience well the priority.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

See more blog posts on the topic of search engine visibility and content optimization:  http://blog.prnewswire.com/tag/seo/

→ 8 Comments

Posted in Content PR & Marketing, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , ,

Do Press Releases Help SEO?

Posted on January 22, 2013 | 18 Comments

seo factors 5 10

The debate over whether or not press releases distributed over a commercial newswire like PR Newswire have a positive effect on SEO has raged for years, resulting in confusion over whether or not using press releases to build visibility for a web site in search engines is an effective tactic.

Years ago, sending out press releases with embedded anchor text links rewarded the issuer of the press release with dozens – if not hundreds – of backlinks.  In many cases, the associated web site was catapulted to the top of the search engine results pages and voila, a popular tactic was born.

Since then, search engines have become more intelligent, and even more focused on their users.  Google’s updates (especially Panda and Penguin) have focused on winnowing out poor quality content.   Many of the press releases that are created link-building tactics don’t pass muster in the engines’ ongoing evaluation of content.

Google’s Matt Cutts is on record advising that links from press releases are no longer contributing to page rank.  However, a recent test by the SEO Consult blog offers evidence to the contrary.

So what’s the answer?  Do press releases matter when it comes to site SEO?  Yes, they do, but not in the way they used to.

The old days of using press releases as a link-building tool have not gone, the evidence shows it can still be beneficial, but the bar has been significantly raised.

On the other hand, content that is written for the audience and is subsequently valued by the audience fares well, whether or not it’s a press release, article or blog post.

“Our advice is that we should write for our audience first, and then work to make the press release findable,” notes Rod Nicolson, PR Newswire’s vice president of global reporting. “By sharing information that your audience needs, or providing them with something else they want you’ll be using best practice that is as old as press releases themselves.”

“Matt isn’t saying that press releases won’t help,” commented SEO Round Table reader Joshua Butler, in a comment on the post titled “Links in Press Releases Don’t Help Your SEO? This Experiment Proved They Do, where a lively discussion on this subject has ensued.   “What Matt is saying is that press releases that are posted to press release sites without getting picked up by real news sites won’t help. He’s saying:  links from press release sites won’t help your rankings.  So what do you do? Still do press releases, but make them newsworthy enough to get picked up by news sites. Getting links from industry news sites that have a long history (3 or more years old) are great links to get.”

Whether or not a press release (or, for that matter, any other content your organization syndicates or publishes) is effective in terms of building traction in search engines and ultimately becoming  a source of valuable and authoritative inbound link to your web site will depend on a few things, including:

  • The subject matter & content: Is your content germane to your audiences’ interests?  Is it written using language they use and will search for?
  • The competitiveness of the subject matter and associated keywords:  Competing for attention when using extremely popular search terms such as “Michelle Obama” or “Super Bowl 2013” is difficult, because of the sheer volume of information available about popular topics.   A more targeted key phrase will generally deliver better results.
  • Where the content appears:  Newsworthy, well-written content appearing on relevant, high-authority web sites will be noticed by search engines, and the net effect will be positive.   PR Newswire’s web site has been continuously online serving our customers and their audiences since 1995, and our content syndication network  includes some of the web’s largest news outlets, as well as thousands of well-respected, tightly-focused and subject-specific news sites.
  • Whether or not people actually read it (and share it):  Content that is published but not read achieves nothing – both in terms of human impressions and search engine traction, and it’s a waste of resource to boot.  When people read and share content, they generate signals indicating to search engines the value of a particular piece of content.  So generating strong readership has a dual benefit – in addition to spreading your message virally, your search engine visibility is boosted, too.

The take away here is that there is no cookie-cutter formula for using press releases to build web site rank.  However, emphasizing value to readers in all the content published by the organization will ultimately generate lasting visibility in search engines and increased credibility with your brand’s audiences.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

Improve the visibility of your content:

Need tips on improving the visibility of your press releases and other content you publish?  Here are some simple, straightforward and easy to use best practices that you can start using today.

→ 18 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized