Dana Todd, Chief Marketing [email protected]
The PR R/Evolution Has Begun!
Doug Hay, Principal & CEOExpansion Plus626-793-4911
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!
[email protected] me: Twitter.com/danatoddBecome a Newsforce fan on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newsforce/43140934618
[email protected] 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!