Tag Archives: SEO

Social Content Optimization & Dissemination Really Do Matter

Posted on July 26, 2011 by | 2 Comments

A map of Edelman's SCO process. Source: Edelman Digital

Optimizing and distributing content throughout social channels is the cornerstone of any social media, content marketing or brand publishing strategy.  Developing good content and then deploying it in multiple formats across a variety of networks is a proven way to reach known audiences (and find new ones) with a message.    And when done well, “social content optimization” (rapidly known by the abbreviation “SCO”) can trigger a viral sharing of the content, multiplying the audience for the message exponentially.

A blog post on David Armano’s Logic+Emotion blog caught my attention yesterday.  In it author Greg Lipman shared a presentation (and the image at the top of this page) describing Edelman’s SCO process, which marries SEO with the social layer, to ensure content the agency develops is relevant to audience needs and interests, is written in the vernacular that will resonate with the audience, is search engine friendly and widely shared online.  Lipman notes that Edelman considers search and social to be intertwined.  (I agree wholeheartedly, despite the ever changing nature of the social network and search engine landscapes.)

The Edelman process is one every communicator should review, because it includes multiple content formats and correctly gives each element – text, photo, video, graphic etc. – special consideration from planning to execution.  This is important, because different content types are weighted and treated differently by social networks and search engines, and generate different responses from audiences.  (Related reading:  Multimedia content generates more online views.)  Lipman offers some good advice and a terrific content strategy map.

For those who took one look at Lipman’s map and decided there’s way too much involved in SCO, Joe Chernov of Eloqua outlined the strong connections between public relations, social media and search last week in a blog post titled “Content Marketing as a Force Multiplier.”   In it he described six “compounding benefits” companies can derive from a content marketing program, noting that content drives PR and social media, feeds demand generation and creates sales opportunities, improves SEO and ultimately, begets more content.  The cumulative effect of mindfully integrating efforts across networks, platform and content formats can’t be denied.

At least, that’s what I think. This blog post originally started as an e-mail to some colleagues, to which a link to Armano’s post was attached, about revisiting some aspects of our own approach to content dissemination. What aspects of Lipman’s map caught your attention?

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

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Chaos at Google Shouldn’t Up-end Social PR and Content Strategies

Posted on July 5, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Source: Mashable

As many Americans were tending the grill, lolling in the shade and watching fireworks yesterday, the corner of the blogosphere devoted to search engines was on fire.   Google’s agreement with Twitter to display Tweets in near real-time in search results expired over the holiday weekend.

Tweets haven’t disappeared from search results entirely.  The public areas of Twitter are still accessible to Google’s spiders, and tweets are still showing up in search results.  However, Google is no longer taking a dedicated feed of tweet data from Twitter which included information about your social graph, enabling Google to display tweets from your social circle within your search results.

Google has effectively shut down real-time search, however, the company promises that it will return, but gives no set time frame.   In the meantime, tiny search engine Topsy is the only place one can search for tweets long-past.  However, other search engines, including Bing, will continue to intake feeds from Twitter, and incorporate social data and tweets in their search results.

Search engines are capricious, and it’s easy to forget the underlying fact that they are businesses and their motives do not include positioning your brand advantageously.   Rapid shifts in search algorithms can play havoc for those who attempt to game search results.

So what does all this mean for your PR and content strategies?  Nothing, I would argue.  Between the flurry of changes to their algorithm and the limited launch of Google+, Google has put its money on social content and personalized results.  Other search engines have done the same.  And, search engine benefits aside, social networks like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn play important roles in the consumption (and sharing, and dissemination) of news and information.  Abandoning social networks because of the chaos at Google is a bad idea.

Many PR pros now consider search engine visibility for their messages and brands an important key performance indicator (KPI) and something they measure closely. Tactics that are still useful for building online visibility include:

  • Target your tweets. Find the different stories within your press releases, for example, and tweet them separately.  Don’t just tweet “XYZ Co. Announces Something Important….”  Look within the press release for facts, stats and bullet points that can stand alone as tweets, with links back to message. Don’t forget to identify and then use relevant hashtags.  (Tips on writing a tweetable press release)
  • Atomize the content.  Are you publicizing a white paper, or a new product?  Derive as much content as you can from your central asset.  Build a slide deck that offers key points and post it to SlideShare.  Create an infographic, and share that on Twitter and Facebook. Video a short chat with one of the key players and upload that to sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo, and embed it in your blog.  Atomizing the content puts interesting pieces of information in various networks, where people can find- and share – your message.  Many of these networks are search engine friendly and can provide one more way for your content to be indexed by the engines and displayed in their results.  (More on atomizing content)
  • Take the time to optimize the press release.  Using the correct keywords and structuring the press release (or any other content you plan to deploy digitally for that matter) with search engines in mind will more clearly inform engines about your message and can help improve how it is indexed, and ultimately displayed. (Learn more about optimizing press releases and other content)

Simply put, brands that take the time, energy and effort to build authentic presences in social networks to which their audiences gravitate will be rewarded. Loyalty, mindshare, and visibility via the viral nature of social sharing are key benefits organizations can derive from building a truly connected brand.

Related reading:

PaidContent: See You Later, Realtime: Google Ends Twitter Search Deal, For Now

Mashable: Google Loses Access to Twitter Stream, Suspends Realtime Search

SearchEngineLand: As Deal With Twitter Expires, Google Realtime Search Goes Offline

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

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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.

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Press Releases and Social Media

Posted on April 21, 2011 by | 15 Comments

Strategies to build content interaction on social networks

Yesterday PostRank released the results of research they performed on the frequency with which press releases that originate on commercial newswire web sites are shared in social networks.  PostRank found press releases on PR Newswire’s web site were shared much more frequently than content posted to our competitors’ sites. The study counted the number of times press releases were shared on 20+ social networks.  (Read the full PostRank study.)

Where press releases go viral: results of a survey by PostRank

We’ve known for a while the audience we’ve cultivated on PR Newswire.com is more likely to share content than the average internet user. A study of PRNewswire.com users we commissioned Forrester Research to perform revealed that despite the diversity of the PR Newswire audience (it’s comprised of professional journalists, bloggers, individual investors, and consumers researching products and services) they share a common trait – they’re more likely to share the content they consume than the average U.S. internet user.

(More details on information consumption on PR Newswire.com by different user groups:  journalists & bloggers, individual investors & consumers.)

However, we were honestly surprised by the fact that press releases posted to PR Newswire.com are shared much more frequently than those found on competitor sites.  Why is this the case?  Well, in addition to cultivating a quality audience, several other tactics we’ve employed have helped boost the sharing of PR Newswire content.  And we think these lessons we’ve learned from running a news site are useful for anyone developing a content strategy:

  • Make it easy for your audience to share your content – and to credit you when they do so.
  • Employ humans, not automated feeds, to distribute content thoughtfully in social networks.
  • Set the bar high for content quality.
  • And don’t forget search engines.  More of your content will be shared the more easily it can be found.

This list might look simple, but each of these tactics requires some real effort on our part.  Let’s look at each aspect in more detail.

  • We encourage sharing, and make it easy.  This may be a bit obvious, but we’ve had a variety of social sharing tools embedded in all the press releases displayed on PRNewswire.com for years.  Readers can tweet, blog, share, like, email, print, download, Digg, Stumble and post press releases without leaving the page.   Additionally, we don’t put barriers between the audience and the content by requiring registration, or restricting access to certain types of news.
  • We’re carefully distributing press releases and multimedia content in social networks, and are blending the messages with curated content. Blasting audiences with content they don’t want has never been a good idea.  You have to take the same care in developing your audiences in the social layer you did when developing the audience for your web site.  They aren’t necessarily one and the same! PR Newswire has taken a measured approach to distributing press releases within social networks, and we’re using actual, real-live humans to guide and curate the content we share online.  Some of the content we post is fed automatically, via RSS feed based upon industry and subject.  However, we also have a variety of folks sharing interesting press releases we see, and other industry news, within the news feeds, to add extra dimension and value to the content we share.

Our efforts are paying off – the different Twitter feeds we host are well received, and, well, the results speak for themselves.  Clearly, press releases do have a place in social networks.

  • We set a high bar for content quality.  This is less obvious, but we’re pretty sure the fact that we keep the bar high on content quality (and have done so for years) is why people – from professional media to consumers browsing the web – consider PR Newswire news to be credible and trustworthy.  We vet organizations when we establish accounts, we authenticate and verify all of the press releases we receive, we refuse copy that is advertorial or can’t be verified (e.g. unsubstantiated claims) … the list of the measures we take and criteria we use go on and on. And, as we noted earlier this week, PR Newswire editors proofread press releases carefully, finding and fixing thousands of mistakes in press releases submitted for distribution each week.
  • Search engine visibility. Before someone tweets or shares a press release they’ve read, they have to find it first.  PR Newswire has been devoted to delivering the best online visibility in the industry.  We established the lead in unique traffic and search engine referrals years ago, and maintain it today.  Obviously, in the news business, the more interest you can generate in content is an important measure, and visibility is a key driver in creating interest.
press release seo prnewswire search engines

There’s no question that press releases are popular fodder on social networks, despite the frequent assertions they’ve gone the way of the dodo.  A quick search on Twitter for “prnewswire” yields scores tweets with links to press releases.

PR public relations press release twitter social media

Press releases shared on Twitter

A similar search of Facebook posts yielded the same result.  PR Newswire is a credible source of information for social network denizens.

pr press release facebook social media

A snapshot of press releases shared on Facebook.

So, we’re  pretty happy about the PostRank findings, and are glad of the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about the work happening behind the scenes here at PR Newswire, and are happy to share our tips for building engagement with content.   We’d love to hear from you about strategies you’ve employed to increase social interaction with the content your organization has developed, too!

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

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The best PR/social media/search stories I read this week

Posted on April 15, 2011 by | 1 Comment

My fire hose: My RSS reader, Hootsuite dashboard, Mashable Follow page, and PRN Media Monitoring (I use it for social media monitoring) dashboard.

Staying informed is easy these days – until you find yourself gulping from the information fire hose, eyes bulging as you desperately try to swallow everything coming through that pipe.   I do not profess to have solved this problem for myself, but maybe I can make your life a bit easier by offering you a digest of things that got my attention this week.   Tell me what you think, and if you saw something note worthy this week, please return the favor, and share it with me!

How to build business by focusing on click throughs and conversions, not just rankings.   SearchEngineLand

An important reminder that the whole point of SEO really isn’t ranking well on a search results page — it’s about making the cash register ring.  By focusing on click throughs and converstions, author George Asplund offers keys to building business results and sustained value.  Even if you’re not an SEO pro, the discussion keyword selection criteria is important for any communicator writing online content.

Google told you so.   SEOmoz

The best SEO any more is a great product.  Gone are the days when a brand could achieve high rankings in search engines merely by employing the correct keywords.  To attain lasting visibility and value today, you have to generate real audience enthusiasm.

Why you should tweet during a crisis.  Dave Fleet

Dave breaks down how deft use of Twitter during a crisis can soothe online audiences and actually steer their behavior.  A little information can go a long way toward protecting reputation … and not swamping the call center.

Zynga: How the virtual world can save the real world. Simon Mainwaring

I don’t play online games, and the fact that people spend real money on virtual goods is something that I will freely admit to “not getting.”  That they do so is, however, undisputable fact, and this post from Simon Mainwaring offers inspired examples of how real funds aiding human disasters have been raised in virtual worlds.   Zynga is the leader in the space, and they clearly have their thumb on the pulse of their customers, building wildly successful businesses, and raising money for disaster relief with breathtaking speed.

Six verbs you need to understand the new web.  Social Media Today

This post emphasizes the changes in assumptions, approach and mindset needed to successfully promote your brand or organization online.  Author Gini Dietrich breaks down the user behaviors that ultimately shape and inform our communications strategies.

TMI is a way of life for author Sarah Skerik, VP-social media for PR Newswire.

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Google +1: What PR & Marketing Pros Need to Know

Posted on April 1, 2011 by | 8 Comments

The +1 button from Google

This week Google again signaled its increasing integration of user feedback, personal preferences and content from the social layer into its search results with the launch of its new +1 button, which offers some similarities to the Facebook “Like” button. Google describes the +1 (people are just saying “Plus One” and apparently it’s going to be a verb, e.g.” Plus One our page!”) as a “public stamp of approval,” but similar to the Facebook Like button, the +1 functionality will ultimately influence the visibility of content online, and will add layers of personal preference information to the social graph.

Google’s description (from the Google +1 page) “The +1 button is shorthand for “this is pretty cool” or “you should check this out.” Click +1 to publicly give something your stamp of approval. Your +1′s can help friends, contacts, and others on the web find the best stuff when they search.

How it works:

Starting this week, anyone who opted in to the experiment (URL) saw a +1 icon after each item in their Google search results. By clicking on the +1 icon, users can signal their approval of a particular search result.  Google says the data from +1 interactions will directly inform search rankings.

From Google’s blog post about +1 : “When you do a search, you may now see a +1 from your slalom-skiing aunt next to the result for a lodge in the area. Or if you’re looking for a new pasta recipe, we’ll show you +1’s from your culinary genius college roommate. And even if none of your friends are baristas or caffeine addicts, we may still show you how many people across the web have +1’d your local coffee shop.”

Eventually, Google plans to offer publishers the +1 button for web sites, enabling users to +1 content they like without leaving that web site.

There is one catch.  In order to use +1, Google requires users to have a Google Profile.  The benefit of these profiles is pretty clear for professionals and enthusiasts who want to be found by peers. However, despite Google’s large number of users, one still has to wonder if the company will get enough average Joes to set up a Profile.  This bit feels weird and unnecessary for me – Google are very good at collecting data (they already know, for example, which is in my social circle) – and the profile requirement might limit adoption. 

Google search results showing +1 buttons

So what does Google’s +1 functionality mean to public relations and marketing professionals?

Another opportunity to generate earned media credibility

Purveyors of crappy content – beware.  The +1 button will result in your content being pushed further and further down in search results.  Why?  By rewarding good content with +1 votes, user interaction is one more means by which useful and interesting content will be surfaced – including ads, sponsored content, press releases and other forms of paid and owned media.

Showcasing expertise, and signaling personal interest

Google requires +1 users to have a Google Profile in order to use the product. The pages and content a user gives a +1 click will be collected on the Profile. And, this being Google, one can be confident that profile information will find its way into search results.

My Google profile, showing the +1 tab where you can see the sites and content I've endorsed by clicking +1 in search results

In my mind, this represents a nice opportunity to create another space on the Web – and a highly visible one at that – for people to showcase their interests and knowledge. The content garnering your +1 vote will be associated with your profile, and inform search engines and peers of your personal interests.

Author authority

Author authority simply relates to the relative authority of someone who Tweets or shares a press release, blog post or article within the social layer.  People and brands with established presences and loyal followings in social networks are the de facto shapers of opinions and starters of conversation. They are truly influential, and their interactions carry more weight in search results.  Utilizing social channels effectively an imperative for brands, because author authority is currently and will undoubtedly continue to be a key data point used by Google and other engines to authenticate influence, and inform rankings.

My conclusions:

This is bad news for anyone who wishes this whole social media fad would just go away, already.  Google is continuing to emphasize the social layer in search results.    Additionally, though I’m sure we’ll see a spate of marketers encouraging people to “+1″ pages and content, the consensus is that +1 will be tough to game, because of the emphasis on author authority.   Focusing on producing useful content just got even more important for brands concerned online visibility.

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

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Storytelling Rules & Writing Better Press Releases

Posted on March 28, 2011 by | 20 Comments

Everything is a story. Stories are how we make sense of the world around us, how we communicate, how we reach out and touch others. Press releases, videos, podcasts, blog posts, tweets… They’re all forms of story telling, even the driest financial statement has at its heart the story of a company’s performance. And that’s important, right? People work at that company or have invested in it, or supply it with goods or services, they depend on it in one way or another, so the story needs to told and told well.  Lastly, well told, genuine, audience-focused stories may be more important than ever: Google’s ‘Farmer’ update may have included the ability to interpret what users consider ‘valuable’ in content.  This is very new and a radical change.  If true, then the more original and well written the story, the more likely it is to rank well.

So what makes a good story?  And if stories are so universal, is there anything we can take from millennia of story telling to help us improve the stories we write, improve engagement and optimize for higher search ranking?

Fans of Star Wars, ancient mythology and certain novelists will be familiar with the name Joseph Campbell.  Campbell was an academic interested in the common threads running through all of the great myths.  In the late 1940s he published The Hero with a Thousand Faces in which he lays out the theory that the great myths from all cultures and regions of the world share a similar structure, which Campbell called the monomyth.

Campbell summarizes the monomyth thus: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

I stated that “everything is a story.” If so, then could we create better, more effective press releases, marketing campaigns, blog posts or tweets by applying Campbell’s theories?  I think so, and here’s my attempt to map Campbell to the the humble press release.

The first hurdle is that we’re not writing fiction…  So unless it is actually about a specific individual, who is to be our hero?

I’d say that the hero is our reader, and that we are the ones offering the hero a journey and the eventual boon to take back to his/her village (bear with me here…).  We like well told stories, but we really love the ones we can identify with.  If a press release can plant the image of ourselves using that product, attending that event, buying that stock, it’s been a story well told…  So, if my assertion holds any water, then the first rule of the Campbell school of press release ‘literature’ is

Rule 1.  Know your audience.

This enables us to write the right story, set our hero a challenge he or she will accept and guide them to fulfillment.

So our hero is considering the challenge (they are reading our press release after all), but is not yet committed.  The prize has been identified (status, material wealth, some other boon), but… in all good stories there will be challenges to face, one-eyed ogres to slay, armies of orcs or Sith lords to fight.  How can you help your hero overcome their natural hesitation at embarking on such a hazardous journey?

Campbell identifies helpers or companions in the great myths that provide the hero with materiel, knowledge or other gifts that will eventually be used in the decisive battle in which the prize will be won.  Skywalker had Obi Wan, Frodo had Sam, your hero has…. yes, you!  Arm your hero with all the information and resources required to complete the tasks required to earn their prize.

Information, case studies, video, images, downloads, links, contact details, a map; all are the equivalents of light sabres, The Force or invisibility cloaks in your story. So the second rule of Fight Club, er, sorry, wrong story… the second rule of mythic press release writing is

Rule 2. Give your audience what they need to achieve their goal.

And so, travel-stained and weary, but wiser and richer, your hero sets off on the journey home, carrying the prize he battled hard for.  And in this, my young padewan, is the final lesson of today’s story.  For the hero is returning to the village from whence he or she came, and the boon they have been granted is no boon at all if it is kept secret.  It must be shared to realize it’s full value.  What does this mean for our press release?  We must give them the tools to share it with friends and colleagues on social networks or media or email or whatever their own social poison is.  Follow the third rule and you set up your story for success.

Rule 3.  Help your audience tell the world about your story.

I’ll end with two quotes, one from a PR practitioner who knows more about this business than I ever will and the last from Joseph Campbell himself.

Rohit Bhargava is SVP, Global Strategy & Marketing at Ogilvy. He was kind enough to talk at PR Newswire’s global sales conference in January 2011 and he was the one who got me thinking.  In a discussion full of insight he said “People buy stories,” and if we make our stories simple then more people will buy them.

Lastly, Joseph Campbell, “What I think is that a good life is one hero journey after another. Over and over again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there, and the help also, and the fulfillment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of a fiasco. But there’s also the possibility of bliss.”

There are many, many guides to writing great press releases out there.  I hope mine has added a little value.  How about you? What are your rules for good writing?  Let me know.

Author Rod Nicolson is PR Newswire’s VP of user experience design & workflow.

Image courtesy of Flickr user jmv.

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Writing more effective press releases: lessons from search and social media

Posted on March 24, 2011 by | 2 Comments

The content we produce – press releases, blog posts, articles, fodder for press kits, web site copy, landing page text – is grist for the online information mills, which are powered by search engines and social networks.   The chaff – lightweight, self-serving, overly-sales-y content – is separated from the wheat, namely, the substantial and robust information offering true value to audiences.  These information mills also gin up attention from our audiences around the clock, and continually serve up information linked to each individual’s interests at that moment.  This all happens in real time.

When we understand this, we can optimize content accordingly to drive conversions – namely, the outcomes by which they’re measured, such as leads generated, traffic driven, or sales tallied.  This is highly tactical, supremely strategic, where-the-rubber-meets-the-road stuff.  We’re talking about that tipping point when a potential customer acts in your brand’s favor … or doesn’t.  These decisions are also made in real time.

“Marketers constantly leverage the data their campaigns are producing to make them more effective,” notes Matt Kropp, VP of domestic client strategies & solutions at Covario, a leading search marketing agency.   “They are analyzing the behavior the keywords trigger to determine whether or not that word actually drives a conversion, and are organizing keyword and strategies by expected outcomes, and you do that by using real time data.”

Easy to find sources of real time data that can help you write better press releases:

  • Mine your social media monitoring accounts daily to see what your audiences are talking about.
  • Check your press release reports to see which releases generated the most interest.
  • Look at your company’s web site analytics to get a handle on what areas of your site are most popular and which keywords people used in searches that led them to your web site.
  • Talk to product teams, and develop an understanding of what questions customers most frequently ask.  Recurring questions are, in my mind, a red flag indicating an information gap in need of filling – providing you one more story idea and messaging opportunity.

Use specific language that will drive a particular outcome:

The idea of using language that triggers specific outcomes is one public relations pros – and anyone, for that matter, who is writing online content – should consider.   Words and phrases with a broader focus may drive brand exposure and increase awareness, but may not deliver an increase in web site traffic.  Thinking about the intention behind the keywords a person plugs into a search engine can be useful when writing a message for which one is seeking a specific outcome.

A good example comes from the mortgage industry, because people shopping for good rates on mortgages often turn to the internet.  The keyword “mortgage calculator” has been found to attract people at the beginning of the process, who are starting to consider purchasing a home.  However, phrases like “30 year fixed rate” are used by people who are very close to making a purchase.  Understanding the intent behind language used is a proven way to attract the people who are close to making the decision you want to support in your communications.

How to do this? Work with the teams doing the SEM and SEO for your organization, and understand what keywords they’re using to build awareness, and what terms they use to encourage specific outcomes, and use those terms accordingly.  This doesn’t mean packing a press release with all the keywords on the list – another mistake I see fairly often.  Focusing a message on a specific term, and your audiences’ specific intent, will produce a more interesting message.

What’s in it for PR?

This is all very interesting, but what’s in it for public relations and other content-intensive professions?  Actually, a lot is at stake.  I’ve also seen – first hand – how the PR side of the house can get too complacent when drafting copy, and not focus on creating messages that will drive outcomes. Tired pitches directed to writers who don’t come close to covering the suggested topic, press releases pounded out using a template and shopworn jargon, online content bereft of keywords and links, an absence of visuals and failing to engage in social channels – these are some of the myriad sins against PR effectiveness I’ve witnessed recently. While the old “this is the way it’s always been done,” argument may comfort some, in reality, tactics not producing results need to go by the wayside.

A good place to start is to look at tactics the outcomes-obsessed and metrics-driven marketing automation and SEO crowds are using today.   I think looking at how these two segments operate can be pretty informative for PR – because they are looking not just at the outcomes of activities that drive awareness and interaction, they are looking at conversion rates.

Pretty much anyone in the marketing or SEO game will agree that content marketing, (as defined by SearchEngineLand: creating genuinely useful or entertaining content for many specific niches of your target audience—not to overtly promote your business, but to build rapport and brand equity—and give it away for free) is the engine for any digital strategy. Audiences require more robust information.  The brands that provide it are rewarded richly when their audiences eagerly share, reference and link to the content.  Search engines reward good content, too, and notice the signals generated when real people get excited over and interact with a piece of information.

So, what are some other rules for crafting a more effective press release?

  • Be deliberate when you craft your message, and be sure it supports the outcome you want to encourage.   Your headline should convey exactly what the message is about.  The links in the story should provide easy access to more relevant information (not just to you home page!) The story itself should be interesting and tell a story. The next step(s) should be clear to your readers.
  • Be relentlessly, authentically human in your messages and interactions. Not what you expected is it?   The SearchEngineLand blog post titled “4 Principles of Conversion Content Marketing” I read yesterday that was the catalyst for this post said it well — human interaction remains the killer app in all of digital media. Let’s face it.  Content that isn’t useful doesn’t generate results.  Provide information that is useful and interesting, and your audience will respond by eagerly sharing the information, distributing it for you, and adding an additional layer of credibility generated by personal recommendations.
  • Avoid jargon like the plague.  You’ll force yourself to write a refreshingly original piece of content, and will probably end up using more human sounding language.
  • Offer more than just text.  Adding multimedia to press releases – including photos, videos, animations, slide decks – provides additional opportunities to attract attention, encourage engagement, and invite interaction.

This is a long post, but I think I’ve just scraped the surface of this issue.  What other tactics do you recommend for writing more effective press releases and other online copy?

Author Sarah Skerik geeks on content, context and search. She’s vice president of social media for PR Newswire.

Good related reads

Search + Social =Authority + Influence by David Armano of Edelman

4 Principles of Content Conversion Marketing by Scott Brinker, SearchEngineLand

3 Content Strategies to Target Decision Makers by Intent by Derek Edmond, SearchEngineLand

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PR Newswire’s Site SEO & the Impact of Google’s Farmer Update

Posted on March 8, 2011 by | 3 Comments

On February 24, Google announced a major update to its algorithm.  Nicknamed“Farmer,” the change was, according to the Google blog “…designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful,” in other words, ‘content farms.’  In the same post, the company noted that the change should provide better rankings for higher quality sites, rewarding those that feature original content.

In the days following the change, Wired.com reported that Google is continuing to tweak the algorithm because of some unintended consequences of the Farmer change, quoting Google Fellow Amit Singhal:

“…Any time a good site gets a lower ranking or falsely gets caught by our algorithm — and that does happen once in a while even though all of our testing shows this change was very accurate — we make a note of it and go back the next day to work harder to bring it closer to 100 percent.”

“That’s exactly what we are going to do, and our engineers are working as we speak building a new layer on top of this algorithm to make it even more accurate than it is,” Singhal said.

The SEO blogs are full of speculation regarding the exactly what new or adjusted parameters Google is using in its algorithm. The high number of advertisements on pages, a lack of valuable content above the fold, the number of links from social media and social networks have all been raised as potential factors in the way Google is now ranking on its results pages.  In the Wired article linked to above Singhal describes how they asked external testers questions about what makes web sites valuable, and that the patterns in the testers’ responses have been codified within Google’s algorithm.  What is clear is that this was a major update for Google, and given their understandable reluctance to reveal details of how they rank sites in the search results pages it will be a while before its impact is better understood.

As reported elsewhere, PR Newswire’s own website traffic did take a hit on February 24th and is running at around 20% below levels from before the update, although some of this drop is cyclical as we have just come out of a busy U.S. earnings period.  Our Google Page rank has not altered, our ranking in Google News appears consistent with before the update, and traffic to our customers’ IR Rooms is  unchanged.  As you can see in the graph at the top of the page showing data from the independent analytics company Hitwise, PR Newswire is still generating considerably more search clicks that its competitors.  Maintaining high visibility for PR Newswire.com is something we take very seriously, and we’re in contact with Google regarding the drop.

If you’re interested in more information about the Farmer update (also called Panda by Google) here are links to some great posts trying to unpick the results.  We’re following the conversation closely, so if you have a view feel free to post it below and I’ll be glad to respond.

Related Links:

Google Farmer Update: Quest for Quality – Sistrix

The ‘Panda’ That Hates Farms: A Q&A With Google’s Top Search Engineers – Wired

What Google’s Crackdown on Content Farms Means to You

Google’s Panda/Farmer Update – What To Do About It – Distilled

Correlation Between Google Farmer Update and Social Media Buzz? – Zen

Author Rod Nicolson (@rodnic66) is PR Newswire’s VP of User Experience Design & Workflow.

UPDATE: The post has been updated to show the most recent search engine traffic. The original graph used in this post can be seen here.

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Real Time Search & Implications for Communicators

Posted on March 4, 2011 by | 2 Comments

While the concept of real time search results is fairly new to many of us, for Rob Garner, vice president of strategy for digital marketing agency iCrossing, it’s nothing new.  He’s been researching, writing and speaking about the evolution of real time search results since late 2009, and I included some of his observations in a post about real time PR last year.

We know the ability of Google, Bing and other search engines to find and display content just seconds after it was posted to Twitter has real ramifications for anyone using content to reach and engage their online audiences.   To get the latest update on real time search and implications for marketing and PR pros,  I interviewed Rob yesterday on the subject, and here’s what he had to say:

Many thanks to Rob for talking with us.  Find more of his thinking (along with others from iCrossing) on The Content Lab.

Authored by Sarah Skerik, vp social media, PR Newswire.

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