Dana Todd, Chief Marketing OfficerNewsforce619-459-3603dtodd@newsforce.com

The PR R/Evolution Has Begun!

Doug Hay, Principal & CEOExpansion Plus626-793-4911

dough@expansionplus.com

Quick Cred Slide: Dana Todd

I’m not a PR professional. But I started life as a journalist, and racked up 13 years in interactive marketing and advertising since

Co-founder of Newsforce

Chairperson of SEMPO, semi-famous search engine marketing geek

Newsforce Network mashes up Advertising, PR and News into an always-on communication platform

My hair color is “Cherry Bomb”

Quick Cred Slide: Doug Hay

Been there, done that. With some 40 years of business experience I have seen it all. Great time to be in PR.

We are experiencing an amazing evolution with consumers now in control of the media which is scaring the ‘ell out of a lot of executives. Requires clever marketing/PR to succeed.

Co-founder, Expansion Plus, an internet & PR consultancy for Web 2.0.

Speak at conferences and do online webinars

My degree is in accounting but I left that as quickly as I could. Love the creativity of marketing/pr.

The more things change,

the more things change.

A Few Things Haven’t Changed

PR IS NOT THE SAME AS MARKETING

Foundation of PR is to “influence public opinion”

Typically reach mass audience via media influencers

Public relations is not just media relations

Strategy and goal-setting is often overlooked in all the digital noise, but is incredibly important

Listen > Strategy > React > Measure

A Lot of Things HAVE Changed

Definition of “public” now includes search engines

Online real estate is measured in eyeballs, not column inches; unlimited potential views

Historical news is as accessible as breaking news

Strategy is storytelling in many media forms, to many different audiences

Even the structure of the press release itself is changing

What Is Influencing Your Audience Today?

Search Engines

News Engines

Other Websites

Blogs

Peer Reviews

Comments

Syndicated Content

Podcasts

Video

Social Networks

Tagging

What is Influencing Your Audience Today?

Let’s Talk about PR Strategy

Don’t employ tactics before strategy

Your PR goals may look more like communication goals than sales goals

Micro-influence and Macro-influence

It’s a sequence that’s very similar to Marketing:

Research

Plan/Strategy

Execution

Monitor, Adapt

The Press Release:It’s Not Just for the

Press Anymore

Press Releases Online

News Engines

Search Engines

Journalists

Buyers

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The "New" News Release:Marketers Are at the Gates!

“Marketers have ‘hijacked’ the news release”, - ROI of Online Press Releases, Society for New Communications Research (SNCR)

This is why it's no longer a "press release," but a "news release"— it's not just for the press anymore

Taken further, it’s ultimately about a content strategy that supports your communication goals (including breaking news and other news)

Intended Uses of News Releases Expands Online

source: “ROI of Online Press Releases,” a 2008 report by the Society for New Communications Research

3 Types of Press Releases

Traditional media

Internet focused

Social media release

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MultimediaAdd unlimited multimedia

Videos:

Powered by YouTube

Link to your own video channel or distribute to YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo! Video using Marketwire channel

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The New Media Relations

Who Are the Media Gatekeepers Now?

The newsroom as we knew it is going away

Mid-tier news and vertical sites can eclipse masthead news in traffic and importance

Bloggers are incredibly important but are a little tricky to handle sometimes

Lots of freelancers, and more on the way – highly fragmented

Search engines are inhuman/e gatekeepers

HARO: Help a Reporter Out

Social Spark & Pay Per Post

My PR Genie – DIY Press Lists

Direct-to-Consumer PR

Sometimes, YOU get to be the journalist and publish an article nearly verbatim

Be a good storyteller for the public – write the way a journalist would, NOT the way a PR person would!

The public will judge you, and vote with their clicks and comments (or lack thereof)

SEO for PR

How Do I Improve My Natural/ Organic Search Presence?Post quality content to the Web on a regular basis via multiple vehicles (e.g., news releases, blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

Optimize the content in your articles and news releases – just like you do your website

Use keywords and keyword phrases religiously, liberally and relentlessly; just make sure the content is of high quality and relevant

Include links with keyword anchor text

Make a PR Keyword Plan

Use historical research (Newsforce keyword research tool, Google Trends, http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com, etc.)

Use editorial calendars from trade and general pubs to “predict” demand

Seek commonalities and assign priorities

Plan to write and post at least two significant pieces of content a month to target keywords in some way

Use a variety of outlets

Google Trends

Free tool to track seasonal keyword volumes: http://www.google.com/trends

Syndication & Distribution

Distribution:You can reach the public directly

Via news search engines

RSS & other feeds

Mobile newsfeeds & digital newsrooms

Direct placement (Newsforce, mat releases)

Social media (Twitter, blogs, Facebook)

User generated/social news (iReport, Newsvine, Digg)

Approach with care! Digg and Newsvine hate PR flacks

Achieve Parity: Display alongside similar news from big-name sources

Press Release right next to CNET story!

Mashing Up PR and Advertising

Bypass the editorial chain altogether – buy your way into the premium news!

Where Do I Post News Releases?

On your company newsroom (as RSS and/or HTML, not a PDF)

Free and paid wire services or PR ‘portals’

BusinessWire, PR Newswire, Marketwire, Prime Newswire are major wire services

Lots of cheap online-only distribution services

Not all services distribute to search engines and “news search engines” such as Yahoo News

PR Portals

Web Syndication ServicesMake sure they regularly get picked up by Google News—this

is key

ExpertClick.com allows for HTML formatting and the liberal use of links

TransWorldNews gets picked up by Google News pick-up and also runs its own search engine

PRWeb distributes to Yahoo News, allows links

Newsforce Network is a paid placement network, but customer content is also submitted via RSS to Google and others

Free Portals:Some are better than others, but use them

PR-USA.net is one that enjoys regular Google News pick-up

24-7PressRelease.com, ClickPress and openPR.com sometimes see Google News pick-up and always improve universal Google Web visibility

List of 50 free News Release Portals:http://www.avangate.com/articles/press-release-distribution_69.htm

RSS & SEO

Each syndicated press release or article would have one or more links to selected pages on your web site

RSS content is vital for SEO as the syndication builds back links

Measurement & Metrics

Easy to Track, Hard to Measure

Go back to your goals: what did you want to accomplish in terms of influence?

Decide upfront how you’ll measure success

Lots of new social media tracking tools:• Buzz Metrics• Radian6• Techrigy SM2 (has a free version)

Use cookies & tracking tags wherever possible, plus unique phone numbers

RSS & wire services may strip hyperlinks, tags

Free for social media tracking: Techrigy SM2

Not Free: Radian6 [drool-worthy dashboard]

Search Engine Ranking

Other Measurement

Feedburner tracks RSS subscribers and reads

Most paid syndication and wire services provide tracking and reporting

Use a unique phone number for your PR, too!

Look in your web analytics for referral information

Thank You!

dtodd@newsforce.comFollow me: Twitter.com/danatoddBecome a Newsforce fan on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newsforce/43140934618

dough@expansionplus.comGive me your card or email us for free whitepaperwww.expansionplus.com

Some of the slides in this deck were authored by and used with kind permission of Brent Skinner from STETrevisions www.linkedin.com/in/brentskinner Thanks, Brent!