Tag Archives: online pr

Promoting a Blog

Posted on June 24, 2011 by | 18 Comments
online press release seo pr

The press release promoting yesterday's blog post appeared on hundreds of web sites.

Most bloggers are obsessed (at least to a degree) with tracking their blog’s performance in terms of readers, subscriptions, whether or not search engines are indexing the blog content and how many times it was shared on social networks.   I am no exception.

Since we launched Beyond PR in October 2010, I’ve carefully cared for and fed our little blog, worrying over the variety of subject matter, fiddling with tags, and, frankly, writing my brains out.

Generally speaking, things have been going pretty well.   Blog traffic climbed steadily in each successive month.  Subscriptions increased, the mix of referring sites grew, and search engines indexed our content.

Recently, however, a colleague of mine embarrassed me by asking an obvious question that I’d never considered.

“Do you use the wire to promote the blog?”

*facepalm*   (Or was it <headdesk> ?  I can’t remember, but you get the idea.)

Err. No. I hadn’t even thought of doing so.

This was more than a little embarrassing for me because I’ve worked for PR Newswire for 16 years.   Sixteen.   And during that time, I’ve sold the wire, marketed the wire, and at one point I even managed the core wire product.  Needless to say, I think the wire is pretty fantastic and I’m proud of the service we provide, the network we reach, the audience we’ve cultivated, and the reporting provide.  But I hadn’t thought of using it to promote the blog.

Sheepishly, I worked with our PR team to build a little template to use to promote blog posts on the wire.  I decided to borrow the approach many companies have used for years to promote white papers and professional research on the wire, employing a simple abstract with a link to the post and some boilerplate and contact info.

The next day, I sent my first release to our editorial team, selecting the WebMax Plus online circuit.  In short order, I witnessed first hand their acuity in finding and fixing errors – I had the wrong date in the dateline, had misspelled a word and, to top it off, had neglected to attach the photo I said was attached.

Thank goodness for our editors – they are really good at catching mistakes in press releases.

In short order, my thoroughly-proofread and correct-in-every-way little blog post abstract went out over the wire. Soon after, I received my ReleaseWatch report, which showed me links to my release on more than 200 web sites.  I can’t tell you how many ReleaseWatch reports I’ve looked at in my lifetime – the number has to be well into the thousands – but I don’t mind admitting that I spent some time admiring this particular edition.  Happily, I followed the links and admired my blog post abstract on Yahoo, SFGate, the Neiman Journalism Lab site, WebSite Magazine, and scores of other sites. Click.  Grin.  Click.  Grin. Click.  Again, you get the idea.

When I could wait no longer, I stole a look at my blog’s analytics.  It wasn’t even mid-day, and that day’s post had garnered more reads than most of our posts did over the course of a whole day.   The numbers didn’t stop climbing until that post had more than three times the average number of reads.

Well, to say I was sold was an understatement.

A snapshot of the analytics for this blog. On which days do you think I issued a press release to promote the blog?

I’ve used the wire several dozen times over the last few months to promote blog posts, and it’s had a significant effect.

  • Average blog traffic has almost doubled.
  • The average number of comments has more than doubled.
  • In the two weeks following my first use of the wire to promote the blog, our blog subscriptions (measured since the blog’s inception) had doubled, as had the frequency of social sharing.
  • The rate at which readers clicked through on links in posts didn’t diminish, suggesting that the new readers were 1) well qualified and 2) engaged with our content.
  • The mix of sites referring traffic to the blog grew significantly, and other blogs are now one of the top referrers of traffic to Beyond PR.  (How cool is that!?!?)
  • Between the fact that we syndicate the abstracts (and everything else that goes out over the wire) and the increased awareness, we’re seeing a lot of third-party pick up and display of our blog content.

Along the way, I’ve figured out what works well – here’s one example of a blog post press release.   Practices I keep in mind when drafting the abstract include:

  • Write a very succinct headline, and employ important keywords at the beginning.
  • Use a subhead to offer more detail.
  • In the lead, give the context for the blog post, and then in the next sentence, discuss the point of view readers will find on the blog.
  • Don’t simply cut and paste your first paragraph from your blog.  Write your headline, subhead and lead paragraph deliberately to attract audience.
  •  Include an anchor text link from a keyword in the first paragraph
  • Be selective about the posts you promote.  I use the wire to promote posts that include some sort of news value, such as stats or data, or tips and tactical advice.  I don’t promote posts that are really editorial in nature.  Needless to say, I won’t be promoting this post via the wire. (A press release about a blog post about using press releases to promote blog posts? No, I don’t think so.)

It feels kind of silly to say this – because I know the wire works well at generating readership for messages – but our blog posts are pretty niche, and we’re a B2B service provider.  Getting visibility for our kind of messaging is supposed to be hard.  But using the wire to acquire more readers, increase visibility and create more engagement with our content on the Beyond PR blog has proven to be a sound and very effective practice.

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

→ 18 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics, Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

How the Company You Keep Determines the Search Results You See

Posted on June 23, 2011 by | 9 Comments

A blog post titled “Social Annotations in Search: Now your Social Network = Rankings” on SEOMoz yesterday stopped me in my tracks.  The post, authored by SEOMoz chief Rand Fishkin, described in detail how Google uses the activities of the people in our personal social networks to influence the search results we see.

“The socialization of search is more than just Tweeted URLs or Facebook Likes or LinkedIn Shares having a positive first/second-order impact on generic rankings,” Fishkin notes in his post. “It’s about influencing your social graph to see the content you share in their search results.”

Here’s an example.  The first image is my Google SERP, produced when I’m logged into my Google account (click on each to see a larger, clearer version):

Personalized search results from Google for the term "content marketing strategies"

The second image is my SERP for the same search term, produced when I’m logged out:

Results from Google for the same search term, but with personalized results turned off.

As you can see, the results are different.  Content from some colleagues of mine is featured prominently in the first result.   In this case, my friends Vicky and Sean are exerting direct influence over what content I see.

Simply put, search engines are making the assumption that internet searchers would like to see relevant content from people they know – namely, the people they, follow on Twitter and Quora, are friends with on Facebook, share connections on LinkedIn and who populate their address books – and are putting relevant content shared by those people at the top of the search results we each see.

A look at my Google account settings. Google "found" my Quora account and prompts me to add it to my connected accounts.

Google isn’t alone in using the social graph to influence search results.  Facebook and Bing have teamed up and are starting to roll out a variety of features in Bing search results, including the display of relevant items liked by the searcher’s Facebook friends.  The two companies describe their approach as one that adds personal recommendations from people you know to your search results, in order to aid decision making.

Well, this is a bit of a game-changer for brands, in a few different ways.   For anyone concerned with marketing communications and public relations, this is big news.   And for brands, I think the message from the search engines is clear.

1)      Developing credible presences on networks like Twitter and Facebook is now an imperative.

2)      Encouraging employees to build their own professional presences on social networks is officially a very, very good idea.

Back to what the burgeoning influence of the social graph on search results means for communicators.

  • For a savvy media pro, a credible and authentic Twitter presence is the new Rolodex.  A vibrant social presence – in which connections with media, bloggers and analysts are cultivated – can keep one top-of-mind with people who really matter, and can mean your messages – the press releases you tweet, the thoughtful answers you leave on Quora, the content you share across networks – will be seen in your connections’ search results.
  • For brands seeking search engine visibility, the benefits of a robust social presence are clear – developing social connections with stakeholders (journalists, bloggers, customers, employees, etc.)

Something else brands need to consider is the importance of the conversations occurring in social channels.  How people describe, discuss and refer to a brand or industry segment is going to affect search results.  Brands need to monitor social media and stay on top of the ongoing conversation – changes in audience sentiment or vernacular can have a real-time impact on search results, and can also offer a tuned-in brand opportunity to connect and capitalize upon conversation trends.

The underlying trend is a relentless drive toward authenticity by the search engines.  Powered by the sharing and interaction of the social layer, content sharing and the language we each use when we share content are rapidly becoming the equivalents of backlinks and metadata to SEO seven years ago:  these factors play a key role in how search engines evaluate, index and display content in search results.

Within this authenticity trend is another important opportunity for organizations to shape the conversations in the social network, and that is brand journalism. Brands that can identify interesting people and stories within their businesses and tell those stories authentically will be a step ahead of everyone else in the online visibility game.   Content that is interesting and unique captures audience attention, and they are likely to share it with their connections.   Audiences aren’t fooled by puffery, however.  A successful brand publishing strategy absolutely has to make content quality its cornerstone.

Author Sarah Skerik (@sarahskerik) is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

→ 9 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , , ,

How Journalists & Bloggers Use Social Media, and Opportunities for PR

Posted on June 22, 2011 by | 4 Comments

The next installment in the series: Integrating Social Media & Public Relations

Paper.li aggregates Tweets into a user-friendly electronic newspaper. This is the Social PR Daily.

There’s no question that the social layer has changed how people find, share and consume news and information – and as you’d expect, the practice of journalism is also changing as a result.  Understanding how journalists and bloggers are using various social media tools and platforms is critical when planning a digital PR strategy.

The social layer has become society’s central nervous system, capable of telegraphing information from one point to another – and across a whole network – almost instantly.  Just as nerves and synapses relay information from our fingertips to our brains, the social layer enables us to find – and broadcast information.  We’re also able to quickly find trusted sources of information, current reviews, and like-minded people who share our enthusiasms and concerns.    The highly networked nature of our society and information marketplaces means more visibility opportunities for public relations pros than ever.

How journalists & bloggers are using social media

Breaking News & Trends:   Facebook and Twitter in particular have evolved into major sources of news for millions of people worldwide, and the search engines aren’t far behind – they’re now surfacing relevant social results within seconds and are displaying that information front and center within search results.   Like the rest of us, savvy journalists and bloggers are keeping an eye on the social networks for breaking news and information.    For PR pros, the simple fact is that your company’s news needs to be found on these social networks – and it needs to be relevant and interesting to your audience, so they share it.  Visibility is a key benefit of a solid social media presence for brands.

What was trending on Twitter yesterday, amongst Twitterers based in London.

  •  Trendsmap:   Trendsmap enables you to get a look at what is trending on Twitter from a particular city.  For a reporter or blogger with a local beat, this kind of information is crucial.
  •  Booshaka:   The search function on Booshaka reveals what’s being said publicly on Facebook about specific topics.  You can also see what’s trending on Facebook.

Research:  Social networks offer a plethora of data and information to writer hot on the tail of a story.  From a PR perspective, cultivating credible presences on key networks is a great way to position experts and attract audiences.

Twitter lists:  Active Twitter users create lists of fellow Twitters, often organized around subject matter or expertise, and users can follow each other’s lists.  Following Twitter lists is a great way to stay informed about a particular topic, identify influentials (and get to know their POV), and for newbies, a good way to observe the ebb and flow of conversations.   Obviously, developing a solid following on Twitter and providing value to your audience is a great way to get listed, and to start accruing visibility exponentially.

  • Paper.Li, the Tweeted Times & Flipboard:  A fleet of social content aggregation services are turning Twitter lists, Facebook posts and RSS feeds into up-to-the-minute glossy digital news magazines.   Here’s an example – this is the Social PR Daily, powered by Paper.li, which aggregates information from leading public relations and social media thinkers.  It’s updated twice daily.

Quora, Linkedin, ProfNet Connect:  Follow a topic on Quora, and chances are good that you’ll soon stumble upon some seriously insightful and revealing commentary.  Quora’s community values and encourages sophisticated insight, and provides a treasure trove of information and potential story angles.  For PR pros, sites like Quora, LinkedIn and ProfNet Connect (a free community of tens of thousands of journalists and experts) that attract experts and facilitate interaction are great places to showcase experts.  And building a credible presence on these networks can provide valuable visibility to people seeking information in your brand’s sector – journalists, influentials and prospective customers alike.

Relationships:   Any seasoned media relations pro will tell you that cultivating working relationships with journalists and bloggers is an important aspect to the job.  Establishing mutual trust and credibility is the foundation for a great working relationship between a journalist and a publicist.

Social networks offer a great way to learn about other people before introducing oneself.  The blog posts a person publishes, their Facebook posts and their Twitter account tell a lot about their interests and expertise.

Building relationships in social networks requires the same grace and tact it does in real life.   A reporter may be active on Twitter, but that’s not an open invitation for you to @mention that person with an unsolicited pitch.   To lay the groundwork for a relationship, first identify yourself as someone who’s interested.  Comment on the author’s blog posts.  Tweet their articles. And when the time is right, offer perspective or expertise that is in line with what the journalist writes.

Content publishing & personal visibility:  For several years, PR Newswire and PR Week together produced a survey of journalists, and we learned that the majority of journalists are either blogging for their own purposes (professional or otherwise) and many are required to produce content for online properties and social channels.   Content fuels social presences – it’s the currency of Twitter, and news sharing on Facebook is undoubtedly driving traffic to sites.  Journalists and bloggers are using these channels to both build audience for their content and publications, and to drive readership for the content they produce and publish.

So what’s the opportunity for a PR pro?   Something as simple as a tweet from an influential journalist or blogger can pay real dividends in terms of message visibility, both in social networks and search engines. Creating content that begs to be shared capitalizes on active social media users’ need for content.   Writing headlines and subheads that can be easily tweeted, providing infographics and other sharable multimedia and always providing URLs that can be tweeted/liked/shared are important tactics that should be embedded in your PR department’s habits.

Related reading:  Twitter, Traditional Media & SEO: the Power Triangle for PR

As we think about how journalists and bloggers are using social media, and the opportunity these interactions afford PR pros, it’s also important to note that while this to realize that other constituents use the same tools and platforms.  Communications in the social layer are very, very public – something which should work in a communicator’s favor.  As is always the case in social networks, spending some time listening and learning about your desired audience’s interests and social style is always recommended.

More related reading:

15 Free Ways Journalists Use Social Media Tools to Track Topics

Media Relations, Meet Twitter

Author Sarah Skerik (@sarahskerik) is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , , , ,

Do you know where your content is?

Posted on June 10, 2011 by | 2 Comments

A weird moment at a media relations workshop I attended yesterday left me feeling as though I had spun backward in time, to the late 90’s or thereabout, before Twitter was a gleam in anyone’s eye, to a time when newspapers still reigned supreme in the information universe.

Three prominent Chicago journalists admitted they didn’t use Twitter – not for research, nor for communication.

Several Chicago PR stalwarts noted their clients only cared about print and broadcast – none of “that internet stuff.”

I sat openmouthed in the back row upon hearing these comments, given in response to a question I asked about the extent to which journalists in the represented newsrooms used social networks to build audience for stories.  (I was told that most do, but these three big leaguers didn’t.)

The conversation devolved into the same one you hear at any meet-up of PR people and journalists.  The journos bemoaned long, irrelevant, attachment-riddled e-mail pitches with stupid subject lines squealing “Check this out!”   The PR pros said a little common courtesy, such as noting whether or not a pitch was received, would be nice.

I snapped my jaw shut and adopted a neutral demeanor when I saw that one of the panelists had noticed my bewildered expression.  But inside, I was really disappointed in the media pros and in the PR reps both, for ignoring  a medium that has become the preferred news source of many, and has fueled some of the biggest stories of the year, from the rise of the Arab Spring to the downfall of indiscreet politicians.

After the panel, one of the journalists sought me out, to double check a web site I had mentioned during the Q&A.  We chatted for a minute and I mentioned my surprise that he wasn’t using Twitter, which I went on to characterize as the most awesome personal newswire a person could imagine.   The journo said he had tried it but didn’t see the value.

I asked him if he had ever set up lists in Twitter, or seen Flipboard and Paper.li. When the answer was no, I told him the story of how I changed my husband’s life forever, by setting him up on Twitter,  creating a list of NFL draft prognosticators, and hooking that into Flipboard, producing a personalized, glossy, user-friendly and up to the minute news magazine focused on the recent draft.  When I handed my husband his iPad, his eyes grew wider and wider.  He sank onto the couch, flipping through the articles and blog posts.  He was thrilled by my 5-minute creation, and proceeded to gorge himself on the latest draft intelligence and speculation.

It’s important to understand how your audience is consuming information, especially if you aren’t familiar with or don’t prefer some of the content aggregation services out there.   Pulling out my iPad, I told the journalist “You need to see this,” and sat him down for a quick tour.

First, I showed him my Twitter feed, which really isn’t pretty, and described how I built lists of people who focused on particular subjects.

A screenshot from Hootsuite, showing a couple of my Twitter lists, including "SocialPRpeeps" - a list of social-media savvy PR pros.

Then, I showed him what that Twitter list looked like in Flipboard, showing him how links are rendered into article summaries, and presented in a glossy magazine format. I handed him my iPad.  Wide eyed, he flipped from page to page, looking at the articles my SocialPRpeeps list members had tweeted.

My SocialPRpeeps Twitter list, as viewed through Flipboard on an iPad. Flipboard renders the links people tweet, and presents the content in a reader-friendly format.

The ah-ha moment came when I showed him how elegantly Flipboard served up access to the articles on their native web sites.

The abstract of an article on Flipboard. Clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the page takes you directly to that piece.

Viewing the original version of the article in Flipboard.

We were both kind of stunned – him by the presentation of content he held in his hands, and me by the fact that a big time media guy didn’t know about Twitter lists, Flipboard, and the myriad other interesting ways people are accessing news content these days.

Moments like these make me fear for the future of journalism.  Readers crave content.  It’s easier and more convenient than ever to stay abreast of the news.  The question, of course, is how to sustain the business of news in this new and fast evolving environment.

Until that big question is answered, my own opinion is that communications pros have some key imperatives, including:

  • Driving ourselves to understand all the different ways people are collecting, reading and sharing news and information.
  • Educating our clients and the C-suite about the value of online visibility and the social layer
  • Help your peers become conversant and confident in social networks.  Gently lead colleagues who don’t use social media into this new communications fray, like I did with the aforementioned journalist.  Share your knowledge freely, because our colleagues need to know this stuff.  It will help them drive more readers to news articles and more results for clients – and this rising tide will help lift everyone’s boat.

I’m glad that journalist sought me out – I hope he takes what he saw back to the newsroom, where more media pros can ponder the new information landscape, and maybe dream up that new model journalism so desperately needs.  Anyone with a vested interest in communicating with audiences really does need to stay on top of how content is consumed.

Related reading:

Using Twitter for Media Relations

Social media press release distribution

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  Follow her on Twitter: @sarahskerik

Read the article pictured in the blog post (it’s a good one!) here: http://prbreakfastclub.com/2011/06/10/whispergate/

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Digital Content

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Using Quora for PR

Posted on June 3, 2011 by | 4 Comments

A Quora screenshot, displaying the options users have to vote on or flag answers.

Third in a series: Integrating Social Media and Public Relations

Quora is a social media site of a different stripe – it’s a Q&A site that is subtle and intellectual, rewarding thoughtful discourse, and dispensing with badges and scores as measures of influence.  The crowd votes good answers up, and can express their thanks for answers.  They can also vote answers down, or flag them for a variety of reasons.  Content is judged by a jury of your peers.

The vibe is different too.  Quora is more focused and crowd isn’t terribly tolerant of flippant answers, and unlike many sites, Quora isn’t terribly conversational – at least, not in the Q&A section.   A friend of mine found a blog post she penned was being discussed favorably on Quora. Delighted, she posted a note thanking the person who originally mentioned the blog.  To her horror, she was told in no uncertain terms that such things simply weren’t “done” on Quora.  The crowd truly wants the Q&A to remain pure and focused.

In a nutshell, Quora combines potent content and discussion with an element of social networking.  You can really get a handle on a person’s style, professional know-how and intellectual bent by perusing their answers.

Using Quora:

Quora is easy and straight-forward to use.  Take the time to fill out your complete profile, and post a picture. Then follow the topics that interest you, and add a few lines describing your expertise where indicated.

As with any social network, the look first/leap later approach is a good one to take in Quora.  Browse the discussions underway in your areas of interest.  Look at popular answers, and compare them to those that are voted down.  In many cases, popular answers offer sophisticated perspective and robust detail.  This is not the place for chat shorthand and LOLs.

Applications for PR:

Quora does offer PR pros some specific opportunities – but none are easy or automated.    Quora demands a high touch approach – and it offers a specific and focused audience.

  • Getting to know peers and influencers:  Time and again, I’m struck by the level of discourse on Quora, and that is due in part to the fact that the Quora community is populated by savvy – and often senior – people.  Quora is a great way to get to know them – and you’ll find that many are influential within their areas of specialty.  In my mind, Quora is a good way to learn more about the interests and expertise of key influencers.
  • Ideas:  One of the coolest things about following a topic on Quora is seeing the questions people pose.  Some generate discussion, others go unanswered, and both types offer opportunity for PR pros.  In addition to participating in the discussions, a thoughtful thread can also be the basis of a pitch, in which you offer your company’s take.  If you’re charged with content production, threads can also be the basis of a blog post or articles.  Here’s an example of one I wrote in March about getting PR for startups. The discussions – and the questions sparking them – are an ongoing source of ideas available on Quora.
  • Search engines: Quora has a very search engine friendly design, and content from the network is indexed by search engines.  It’s not uncommon to see a discussion thread listed in Google results, and little wonder – discussions are as real and authentic as content gets, and are loaded with the common vernacular (versus incomprehensible jargon) that are also used in searches.  While being relevant and adding value to a conversation is absolutely crucial, it’s perfectly OK to reference a blog post or other web page in your answer – as long as the context is there.  And doing so will help build visibility for key messages within search engines.  You can gild the lily by tweeting or sharing your answer, too.

Many of the same rules you learn from using Quora also apply to the forums and discussion groups that are so popular today.  Mastering the art of engagement on Quora will stand the communications pro in good stead in the future, and will generate important contacts and ideas in the present.   Have you found other ways to use Quora?

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  Follow her on Quora at: http://www.quora.com/Sarah-Skerik

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Online Influence, Tools & Tactics

Tagged , , , ,

How to Get Publicity with Social Media

Posted on May 23, 2011 by | 6 Comments

I had the pleasure of attending the annual American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) conference held in New York. The conference, for writers at every level of their career, featured more than 70 sessions covering a variety of topics, and I’ve been posting some of the recaps over the last week or so. See: Breaking into Finance Markets, Writing for Women’s Magazines, Beating Blog Burnout, Writing White Papers, Building a Platform: How to Promote Your Blog and Yourself and Negotiating a Book Deal.

In this post, I share the text of the presentation given by Dan Janal as part of the panel, “Tweet, Blog, Like and Link: Using Social Media to Build Your Platform.” Thanks to Dan for kindly sharing this with our readers.

TECHNOLOGY CHANGES EVERYTHING

Technology changes everything. It even changes the way we communicate with reporters to get publicity.

When the Internet first became a tool for general business use back in 1994, I wrote an article that was printed in many PR journals. It was called, “The Internet Ushers in a Golden Era for PR.”

I wrote about how we could now control the message our audience receives, we can go directly to our audience and bypass the media, and how our stakeholders would gobble up every word of every long report we wrote because they cared. Meanwhile, reporters could write their 500-word article based on our 400-word press release and intersperse the comments and opinions of our competitors and analysts.

Hindsight has proven me to be 100 percent correct — in fact, in some ways more than I could even imagine.

Yes, we can print our press releases on our websites and have them indexed by Google so anyone searching for a book or product or service like yours could actually find the original source material exactly as we positioned it, free from interpretation or misinterpretation from the media.

Yes, we could even send the press release to our followers via email and newsletters. Today, of course, we can use social media, as well, to tell the world what we are up to.

And yes, our followers could indeed follow us back in 1994 by joining our e-zine lists.

Technology had its upside and downside. We could easily send press releases and pitch letters to hundreds or thousands of reporters for free because email is free. And unfortunately, too many PR people actually did this. This was a bad move for reporters, PR people and clients.

TODAY’S PERSPECTIVE, TODAY’S OPPORTUNITIES

So that brings us to today. How can we use technology to improve our media relations and get the visibility we need to sell more products more easily?

First of all, social media is a key. Reporters blog and tweet. You need to be following the 5 or 10 reporters who really matter to you.

Read their stuff.

Comment.

Befriend them.

You will stand out from the thousands of lazy PR people who blanket the emailosphere – is that even a word? — with untargeted pitch letters. You’ll be rewarded in two ways:

  1. When you pitch reporters, they very well might remember you and listen to you.
  2. Some reporters are posting their own requests for information to their followers.

GOOGLE CHANGES EVERYTHING

People go to search engines to find people like you who offer services they want. In fact, they probably use search engines more than they use the media to find new products and services. After all, you can’t count on the New York Times running an article about how to be a better parent on just the day you think you need to be a better parent. That’s what search engines are for.

Reporters type, “How can I be a better parent?” and they find an article you wrote or an article you were quoted in that has a link pointing back to your website. Or they see a press release you published on your website or had reprinted on a media site.

More about that tactic later.

The point is that they find you or a competitor on Google. So now you have to think about how to stand out on Google.

Google is as famous for their secret formula on how to rank websites as Coca Cola is about their secret recipe for Coke, or McDonald’s is for their Big Mac sauce. However, nearly all SEO gurus agree that one key factor is the number of quality websites that link to your website. So if you get a link from me, that’s nice. If you get a link from the person sitting next to you, that’s nice. But, if you get a link from the Boston Business Journal or CNBC.com, that’s fantastic.

So how do you get those great hits? Two ways:

  1. Choose the right keywords.
  2. Send the press release to a place that prints press releases.

I’ll explain. 

KEYWORDS CHANGE EVERYTHING

Are you a marketing guru hoping that prospects find you on Google? I hope not! Did you realize that only 6,600 searches are conducted each month for the term “marketing guru”?

Don’t feel bad, though. The terms “online marketing guru,” “social media guru” and “PR guru” have even fewer searches!

I found this out when I researched keywords for Terri Langhans, who said she is frequently referred to as a “marketing guru” when she is introduced at her speeches and workshops by overzealous emcees. She said she hates the term and wouldn’t mind finding a more popular term for her press release that promotes her new conference, “Help Them Hire You: A 24-Hour Marketing Retreat.”

What are people looking for? If you’re a “marketing expert,” you’ll fare better with 14,800 monthly searches. However if you want to get real traffic, consider using “marketing consultant,” which tips the scales at 74,000 monthly searches. That’s a far cry from “marketing guru,” by nearly 4 times as many searches.

If marketing is a numbers game, then consider the numbers for popular keywords.

You can do this kind of research to find the most sought-after terms that describe who you are, what you do, the market you serve and how they will benefit. Or you can hire me to do that for you. Or you can attend a webinar where I’ll show you how to do this research yourself. Click here for info.

By the way, don’t even think of using “Marketing for Dummies.” It has only 14,000 searches. 

PRESS RELEASES CHANGE EVERYTHING

Remember I said there were media sites that print press releases? It’s true. There are nearly 100 media websites, ranging from the business journals to CNBC.com and TV stations with websites that print nearly every press release they receive from PR Newswire.

Why do they do this?

I’m guessing they do it for the same reasons you do:

  • They want to inform their audience so they become the must-go place for news.
  • They realize that Google ranks a site higher if it has more content. So for the same reason you want to rank higher than your competitor, CNBC.com wants to rank higher than CNN or Fox or any other network. They have competition too!

We’ve been very successful in getting our clients’ press releases printed on these websites. In turn, these sites rank high for the search terms we explored for our clients. There’s a wall of fame on my website that shows this on my blog: www.PressReleaseSender.com

More importantly, the press releases and SEO tactics get more traffic for my clients, which results in more sales. It must be working, because they keep on ordering more press releases.

It’s the combination of keywords and a willing media that lead to success. You can’t have one without the other. If you can do SEO, that’s great. If not, come to me. I can help you. I can also get discounts on PR Newswire, since I buy in bulk. Check out more info at www.PressReleaseSender.com

DEVICES CHANGE EVERYTHING

Many reporters now use tiny little phones, not computers, to interact with the world. Just like you. And those tiny, little phones have tiny, little displays.

That means that if you have a long subject line for your pitch letter, it might be truncated and they won’t be able to figure out what your subject line really says.

That means that if you have a press release with lots of pictures, it might not display properly.

Have you ever received a message on your iPhone asking you to download the rest of a message? I have. Chances are I won’t download or even read the message if it is from someone I don’t know.

YOUTUBE CHANGES EVERYTHING

On the other hand, technology opens more doors. Steven Spangler has appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” a zillion times. He’s the science guy and has cool toys or tools or experiments. How did he achieve such success?

Well, he didn’t send a press release or a pitch letter. Fortunately, he didn’t send an exploding box.

He did post videos on YouTube showing his toys in action. And some of them did explode. On purpose.

Ellen’s producers found the videos and they invited him onto the show. He was a good guest and they invited him back and back and back.

The lesson is simple: Post your content on the Web. If it’s good, producers and reporters will find you. So will your prospects.

One last piece of advice: Don’t send anything to reporters that explodes. That would not be a good use of technology.

To read my latest thoughts, please subscribe to my weekly e-zine, “Dan Janal’s Irreverent Monday Marketing Memo.” You’ll receive it every Monday. It’s a fun read.

→ 6 Comments

Posted in Tools & Tactics

Tagged , ,

What Makes One Press Release More Successful Than Another?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by | 5 Comments

A snap shot of some of the press release measurement details from a PR Newswire Visibility Report.

As manager of release monitoring and measurement at PR Newswire, this is perhaps the most common question I get asked by clients.  It’s the right question, and if answered properly, it can change the course of an organization’s entire communications strategy.

When looking at reporting details, either for one specific release, or for an entire string of releases, there are always two areas we need to focus on:  the good news, and the bad news.  Usually there’s a little of both in every report, and both can teach us volumes about the decisions we’ve made in terms of formulating our communications.

Give me the good news first

As in every other field of human endeavor, the universe rewards communicators richly for strategic approaches to their task.  In the arena of writing news releases, success is easy to see:  high numbers of online views, solid search results, soaring media numbers and amazing engagement; all of these are the rewards of a well-conceived message.  But this begs the question:  What exactly needs to be ‘well conceived” about a message?

Experts tend to emphasize one of two possible answers:  Some focus on the need for optimum and perfectly weighted keywords in the release, while others harken back to the first principles of good communications — writing the release well.  For success in today’s online world, you obviously need both.

In terms of SEO, we know that optimized content stands a better chance of connecting with target audiences than content that has not been optimized for search. The question for most communicators is, how does one achieve effective SEO?  Here we all have many resources at our disposal, from industry-leading SEO sites such as SEOmoz, to customized services such as PR Newswire’s step-by-step content optimization OptimizationMax tool, all the way to full scale SEO consulting services.   The source of one’s information matters less then making sure that you have the SEO info you need, and that you know how to use it.    Keyword research, gauging the competitiveness of synonymous terms, understanding keyword density, and knowing where the hot spots are in a release or website where keywords matter most, this is the nub of the SEO gist.

That said, SEO is far from the end of the story.

Communicators forget at their peril that they are not, in fact, writing for search engines, but rather, for real people.  As Maria Perez captured in her Day in the Life of a Freelancer post, audiences give your content only one shot, and it starts with your headline.  If you don’t get reader attention there, then all the SEO you’ve implemented in your release is for naught.  It truly is all about the “snappy, grabbing lead,” says freelancer journalist Roberts-Grey.  “If [a headline] doesn’t grab me right away, it’s outta here.”   Rod Nicolson recently reminded us of a universal truth, which is, that “Everything is a story,” ( Storytelling Rules & Writing Better Press Releases ).   Especially in this age of content marketing, communicators need to make absolutely sure that their news releases –  i.e., their ‘stories’ — are compelling.  It’s simply a fact that the visibility of your entire message is at stake.  I see customers get reminded of this every day.

“Break it to me gently”

Reporting never lies. It’s easy to tell when we’ve hit the mark with our releases; it’s equally easy to tell when we haven’t.  You may have generated good online views, but poor media resonance; your first two releases might have gotten very high index scores, but your third release did not;  the amazing numbers of spider hits you obtained with your last release looked great, but the release garnered surprisingly fewer search views than any release you’ve issued so far…. What happened?  What’s the pattern?

This question was posed to me recently by a very large and well-known company.   They couldn’t fathom why one of their releases got surprisingly lower-than-average scores.  This prompted us to look at the results from their past 10 releases.  Lo and behold, a clear pattern emerged.  For starters, we noticed that this company’s earnings releases seemed to always garner the same amount of visibility –high but not through the roof.  This makes sense, as the audiences interested in earnings releases differ from those who follow more consumer-type releases, etc.  Also, these audiences tend to be stable.   Next, the company had issued two personnel releases, but one that announced the hire of a more well known individual than the other.  No surprise that the former got much higher views.  The biggest incongruence did indeed relate, as the client noticed, to the two more ‘lightweight’ releases recently issued.  One got head-spinning results, and the other didn’t.  They both dealt with the same topic.  Upon closer look, we see that the headline of the popular release mentioned a high-profile tech-y gadget; the other didn’t.  Otherwise, the releases were very similar.  Quite simply, the tech gadget angle ended up being a writing decision that paid nice dividends in terms of visibility.

In writing news releases, success should be our guide, but we need to also note the patterns.  Results garnered from soft news shouldn’t necessarily be compared with those for conference call announcements.  These two types of communications have very different goals and will show very different viewer and engagement information.  We should first learn to compare apples to apples, and THEN analyze similar releases to see why one apple fared better in the marketplace than the other.

Effort still matters

Even when you think you’ve covered all your bases, however, think again.  As NBA finals draw near, those of us who follow basketball painfully remember the occasions when our favorite championship teams have lost critical basketball games during the regular season.  After any one of these shocking losses, it’s worth noting the coaches’ reaction.  NBA coaches never come out and criticize the skill level of their players.  Instead, what you hear over and over again is the lack of ‘effort’ in the game.    This actually does have a  parallel in the news release world!    Let’s say you’ve just issued your news release:  you’ve written it well and you’ve optimized your content.  What’s left?  There’s actually a lot of footwork still left to do.  Did you post the release to your organization’s Facebook page?  Did you Tweet about the release?  Did you follow up with journalists and bloggers who usually cover this area? Are you actively networking, and building your own social networks for the areas you cover in your releases? Are you actively tuned in to the context of your message?

High scores are ‘earned’

In the end, ‘earned media’ is what it says, ‘earned’.  It takes both skill and effort to pull off an effective communications campaign.  Looking at the patterns in your reporting results will tell you quickly what you did right, and what you might improve on to get better results next time.

Author Denise Perez is PR Newswire’s manager of release monitoring & measurement.

Related articles:

Optimizing Press Releases for Maximum Online Visibility

http://blog.prnewswire.com/2011/02/07/optimizing-press-releases-for-maximum-online-visibility/

Writing the perfect headline

http://blog.prnewswire.com/2010/11/02/how-to-write-better-headlines-and-gain-pick-up/

SEO Tips for Press Release Writers

http://blog.prnewswire.com/2010/10/22/seo-tips-for-press-release-writers/

→ 5 Comments

Posted in Measurement & Monitoring

Tagged , , ,

Video Tips: Translating Great Stories to Video

Posted on May 4, 2011 by | 3 Comments

Finding the story hook that will connect with your audience is crucial to any publicity campaign, and is especially important when creating video to bring a story to life.  Generally speaking, looking for the angles that will excite, entertain and/or inform your audiences will increase the likelihood that the content you produce is valued by your audience.

I had the opportunity to chat with Marc Newman, a divisional vice president with PR Newswire’s MultiVu division, and a 20+ year veteran of the video production industry, about things to keep in mind when you’re planning a video project.

Offer unique perspective (literally.)

Over the years, PR Newswire has created numerous video projects for Six Flags, many of which feature dramatic footage of the company’s bevy of roller coasters.  Footage shot from the vantage point of a rider in the front car is exciting and fun to watch, affording viewers at home a taste of the ride experience.  For a recent project, however, the perspective was changed to include shots backward, at the passengers, as they rode the ride for the first time – and for an extra twist, the live segments included reports in the front seats, providing commentary during the ride to the anchor teams back in the studio.

Facilitate ease-of-use and editing:

This change in perspective really worked, and the live reporting from the front of the roller coaster made great TV.  Reporters were handed USB memory sticks with MPEG4 video from their rides – including forward-facing footage as well – just minutes after the coaster glided to a stop. The resulting media coverage was tremendous, and the content was provided at no cost to the media covering the story, who could then edit the video as they desired.

Simplify (and illustrate) the complex:

Another example Mark gave was of a semiconductor company, whose communications are generally highly technical and complex.   Video featuring engineers offering simplified explanations of new technologies and an animations illustrating how new semiconductors work have been invaluable in making the company’s messages clearer and more accessible to other important audiences, such as mainstream media, investors and employees, who may not be engineers and aren’t terribly well versed in all aspects of semiconductor development.    In this case, the animations really make the difference.  However, if you don’t have access to animations,  infographics can be effective too.

Capitalize on common experience, and use it to showcase differences:

New York City taxi cabs.  If you have ever ridden in one, chances are that phrase conjured some pretty distinct imagery as you read it.  And that imagery probably doesn’t include spacious interiors made brighter by panoramic sunroofs, eco-friendly engines and non-intrusive horns.  The juxtaposition of what so many of us have experienced in a taxi in New York against the bright new reality unveiled this week by Mayor Bloomberg when he showed the world thefuture of the New York cab made for compelling video that made you stop and say, “Wow, that is cool.”  The unique vehicle, designed especially for New York City by Nissan, is a head-turner.

While it’s true that not every communicator is lucky enough to be publicizing fun new roller coasters or innovative new cars, keeping these tips in mind will help you make the most of the visuals you produce to support your publicity campaigns.

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

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Digital Content

Tagged , , , , ,

Making Messages Stick

Posted on May 3, 2011 by | 2 Comments

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about the messages produced to support PR campaigns, and what can be done to make them work harder for us.  Along the way, I’ve looked into the changes in how content is consumed, how people process and retain information and what the underlying economics of the news business mean for PR pros.  I’ve synthesized some thoughts around making messages “stick” with audiences in a little video today.

And I’ve organized these thoughts under the Visual PR tag here on this blog.   I’m curious to know what tactics you think work best in creating lasting traction with audiences – please share!

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

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Digital Content

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Multimedia content drives better press release results

Posted on May 2, 2011 by | 100 Comments

PR Newswire press release results

A recent update to our web analytics program enables us to compare the copious data which details the activity press releases generate on PR Newswire.com.  We eagerly looked deeper into the  data, which revealed something we had suspected but can now confirm:  press releases that include multimedia elements generate more views.  In addition, the data offers insight into how people consume information online, and underscores the preference for multimedia content.

So why do multimedia releases get more results?    Our data reveals several reasons.

  • Multimedia content is more broadly distributed – because each element of a multimedia release is distributed separately, and can attract its own audience – in social networks, and on search engines.  Videos, for example, are distributed to more than 70 video-specific portals.    The effect of distribution is illustrated clearly in the stark contrast between traffic sources for text press releases versus traffic sources for multimedia content. Search engines are the primary drivers of traffic to text (“non-MNR”) press releases.  However, “other web sites” are the primary drivers of traffic to multimedia content.
  • Multimedia news releases content is shared much more enthusiastically on social networks.    This number is driven somewhat by the fact that multimedia press releases generally include a variety of “sharable” elements – photos, video, slides, etc. – in addition to text.  The wide distribution of these elements as described previously also plays a part in driving sharing. Nonetheless, the differences in the degree to which multimedia releases are shared more frequently than plain text is striking: across the one-month sample of content on PR Newswire.com, multimedia releases were shared 3.53 times more often than text releases.
    • Text releases were shared, on average, .99 times per hour per release
    • MNRs were shared, on average, 3.5 times per hour

(Note: Sharing data derived from ShareIt and Crowdfactory data from PR Newswire.com.  It is important to note that at the moment we are not capturing social sharing that occurs when a visitor copies a URL and shares it manually within these numbers.)

  • Multimedia content also has a longer “shelf-life,” holding the audiences’ interest for more than twice as long as text press releases.  On average, text press releases generate visibility for 9.4 days.  Multimedia press releases, on the other hand, generate visibility an average of 20 days. The higher degree of sharing also contributes to extending the message life.

Our “Visual PR” series of blog posts offers ideas and tips for incorporating visuals into your public relations messages.  Learn how to create video, utilize photo, create infographics and more by reading the Visual PR series of posts.

Ragan.com: Multimedia news releases grab 77 percent more views, report says

Learn more about visual PR, and using multimedia to differentiate, illustrate and enliven your messages.

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

→ 100 Comments

Posted in Digital Content

Tagged , , , , , , ,