Prstack2 Tackling Pr Workflow eBook

8/20/2019 Prstack2 Tackling Pr Workflow eBook

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U S I N G G O O G L E

S U G G E S T T O

R E A D T H E M I N D S O F

Y O U R T A R G E T C U S T O M E R S

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO

MODERN PR TOOLS& WORKFLOW

MY

PR STACK#2


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FOREWORD TACKLING MARKETING ANDPUBLIC RELATIONS WORKFLOW By Stephen Waddington

Welcome to the second PRstack book. 30 peoplehave written how-to public relations and mar-keting guides to tools.

PRstack’s purpose is straightforward. Theproject helps make sense of the toolsmarket and create a modern work ow for acommunication team or public relations agency.

Academics and practitioners, students andsenior professionals, and men and women haveall come together to work on this project.

The second PRstack book is more ambitiousthan the rst but the principles remain thesame.

The project is open-source. Content waspitched, debated and re ned. Along the waywe’ve invited comments via Facebook and Twit-ter.

Each chapter has been reviewed and edited bymyself and Margaret Clow. Prezly founder andCEO Frederik Vincx has provided design supportto create the physical and digital versions of thebook.

In each chapter there’s an explanation of a tool,what it does and how you use it in practice.

Contributors share practical advice on di erentareas of public relations work ow includingplanning, content, engagement, and monitoringand measurement.

We’ve also included guidance from experts on

implementing change within an agency or com-munication team, and some simple hacks to getyou started.

I’d urge you to read this in conjunction withthe rst book. Together the two books providepractical guidance and case studies for morethan 50 tools.

My thanks to everyone that participated in thisversion of the PRstack book, as well as thoseinvolved with the rst version. I appreciate yougiving so generously of your time and expertise.

I hope that you’ll agree that it’s a useful con-tribution to public relations and marketingpractice.

ABOUT STEPHEN WADDINGTON

Stephen is Chief Engagement O cer at Ketchum. He is Visiting Professor in PublicRelations at the University of Newcastle, and was President of the CIPR in 2014. He isthe author or editor of ve books on public relations practice.

F O R E W O R D

http://twitter.com/wadds


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TABLE OF CONTENTS CHANGING ORGANISATIONAL WORKFLOW 6 How to implement and change work ow in a communications or public relations team

Frederik Vincx @fritsbits

9 Sticky notes and spreadsheets to software as a service Aly Saxe @Aly_Saxe

SIMPLE WORKFLOW HACKS 13 Using IFTTT and Zapier to automate repetitive public relations tasks

Stuart Bruce @stuartbruce

17 Using IFTTT to automate common public relations tasks Andrew Ross @ajmross

21 Using a tablet to manage an agency or communication team

Rachel Miller @AllthingsIC

PLANNING26 Using NodeXL and Gephi to map networks and in uencers

Michael White @michaelwhite1

31 Using Awedience to engage with an online community Matt Anderson @MrMattanderson

35 Using Traackr to build relationships with online in uencers Erica Eliasson

39 Using free tools to create a basic SEO keyword report David Sawyer @zudepr

43 Using Google Scholar as a public relations planning tool Liz Bridgen @lizbridgen

47 Using Followerwonk to map audiences and competitors Helen Laurence @HelenJLaurence

CONTENT 52 Using Wordpress to build owned online newsrooms

Matt Appleby @mattappleby

56 Using Wordpress to build a personal portfolio Livi Wilkes @LiviWilkesPR

60 Using live video streaming to engage with di erent audiences Abha Thakor @NonStopNewsUK

64 Using real people to test digital content Tim Lloyd @timolloyd


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CHANGINGORGANISATIONALWORKFLOW


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HOW TO IMPLEMENT AND CHANGEWORKFLOW IN ACOMMUNICATIONS ORPUBLIC RELATIONS TEAMPublic relations tools are a hot topic following the creation of the PRstack website and rst book.Frederik Vincx explains how agencies use new tools as part of their work ow.

Changing working practices is tough in an mature organisation operating an established sector

Ten practical solutions for implementing change in your organisation

Frederik Vincx@fritsbits

http://twitter.com/fritsbitshttp://twitter.com/fritsbits


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CHANGING WORKFLOW IS HARDImproving a work ow isn’t just about tools andtechnology, it’s mostly about changing pro-cesses. And that takes a lot of time and e ort.Communications teams are generally willing toimprove their work ows yet often daily worksimply gets in the way.

Many teams do manage to keep up with the

constantly evolving o ering of new tools andtechniques. However I interviewed several com -munications professionals and asked them howthey roll out work ow improvements.

Here are 10 tips that will help you implementchange:

1. START WHERE IT HURTS How do you go through the list of 250+ tools inPRstack?

Gerry Wisniewski, a director at Edelman, sug-gests to start by listing the most boring andrepetitive tasks that your team is doing. Whatdo the juniors hate doing? Which jobs don’t youlike? These are the tasks that tools solve best.

Here’s some inspiration:

• Tired of copy/pasting coverage reports inPowerpoint? There’s a tool for that.

• Fed up with manually updating contactspreadsheets with social data? There’s a tool for that.

• I made a list of 10 boring tasks that you canautomate .

2. HAVE TECH TESTING MOMENTS

Embed tech testing in your organisation. Awardwinning agency Battenhall has learning lunchesevery Thursday. Each week another team mem-ber presents new tools or opportunities. It helpsthem keep a nger on the pulse.

3. GET AMBASSADORS

The people that present tools will become itschampion. They’re the early adopters that canspread the enthusiasm with the majority andlaggards. Give these people the time to followup and the freedom to try their new tools.

4. INVITE A GEEK FROM YOUR TEAM

Programmers or system administrators will lookat your work ow problems from a di erent per -spective. Invite them to your work ow improve -ment sessions. Make sure to keep the “yes hat”on though, because nothing can kill enthusiasmover ideas like over-analytical technical discus-sions.

5. INVITE VENDORS IN Learn rst-hand about tools from the peoplethat build it. Vendors are often open to com-ing over for a show and tell. It’s a win-win: thevendor gets product feedback and meets apotential client. The communications team getsto discover technology that can make their workeasier. Both get a free lunch

6. INVITE AN EXPERT

You could also invite experts over for a presen-tation about PR tools. Hire seasoned PR trainerslike @horationelson [IN FULL] or @stuartbruce[IN FULL] to jumpstart your work ow improve -ment e orts. Paying for training will makesure that you invest time and it increases thechances of following through.

7. TRY FAST

Avoid analysis paralysis. Refrain from listingthe pros and cons of tools up front. Also refrainfrom asking permission from your boss. First,try if it feels good. Do a small test and see if

As a vendor of public relations tools I meet a lot of agencies and in-houseteams. They often know about PRstack. They’re impressed by the amount oftools (250+) but explain that they haven’t done much with tools yet.

The same question keeps popping up: how do we get started with this? Howdo we get our team on board?

H O W

T O I M P L E M E N T A N D C H A N G E W O R K F L O W I N A C O M M U N I C A T I O N S O R P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S T E A M

https://coveragebook.com/https://www.fullcontact.com/https://www.prezly.com/blog/2014/04/10-boring-pr-tasks-happy-automate/https://www.prezly.com/blog/2014/04/10-boring-pr-tasks-happy-automate/https://www.prezly.com/blog/2014/04/10-boring-pr-tasks-happy-automate/https://www.prezly.com/blog/2014/04/10-boring-pr-tasks-happy-automate/https://www.fullcontact.com/https://coveragebook.com/


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the software helps you to be faster or better.You’ll be able to make a much better case if youdecide to roll the solution out to the rest of yourteam.

8. DO A RISK-FREE PILOT

Using a brand new tool for an important project

might not be the best idea. In times of stresspeople too often revert to their old ways ofworking.

Trying a project management tool? Use it toplan the next o ce party, for example. If itworks well for a small team, the enthusiasm willspread through the organisation much morethan via an email directive from the CEO.

9. EDUCATE THE TEAM

Demonstrate to team members how the toolwill make their lives easier or add value. DannyWhatmough, head of Social, EMEA at WeberShandwick, told us that implementing new toolsrequires education around how it is used andhow every person can get the most out of it. Ifthe value to the individual isn’t properly commu-nicated the technology will fall at.

10. USE A SOFTWARE REQUIRE-MENTS CHECKLIST

In big organisations the procurement and ITteam will want to have their say. Most develop-ers of Software as a Service (SaaS) are allergicto this. Their business model is built around

repeatability: they have one software solutionthat they sell to all their clients. Getting stuck inlong sales processes gets in the way of improv-ing their software for all clients.

Speed up the procurement process by havinga compact software checklist. This is a list ofsecurity and product requirements that yourteam needs. It will make it easier to measure upthe tool and to get started.

Ask your team to list their most painful tasks.Armed with the PRstack list of 250+ tools you’llmost likely nd many time savers that will allowyou to focus on the work that really matters.

ABOUTFREDERIK VINCX

Frederik is a user experience designer hell-bent on improving the lives of communicationprofessionals. As the founder of PR CRM Prezly he has spent the past six years buildingsoftware that helps teams improve their relationship with the media, bloggers andstakeholders.

https://prstack.co/http://twitter.com/fritsbitshttps://prstack.co/


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STICKY NOTES AND

SPREADSHEETS TOSOFTWARE AS A SERVICE Aly Saxe is a recovering public relations agency owner. Here she tells her story of building a start-up to help agency owners reinvent work ow.

Aly Saxe@Aly_Saxe

An account, by former agency boss, of the opportunity for tools in modern work ow

Understand the impact of software as a service on public relations

If your clients or organization isn’t driving change then millennial employees will


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I had the most genius spreadsheet system anypublic relations team could ever want. I couldtell you anything – which reporters my team hadthe best relationships with; which awards wereworth the client’s time and which were just cashcows; how many speaker proposals we had tosubmit to get one keynote; who pitched whichblogger on what day and how many pitches it

took to get them to write about the client.As brilliant as it was, we still missed deadlines.We still had the occasional double pitching inci-dent. We still couldn’t always nd exactly whatwe needed, when we (or the client) needed it.

During this time my agency found a niche inthe business-to-business technology space andlaunched 50 or so software as a service (SaaS)startups. Every industry was enjoying a bu etof cloud-based tools to help them with everyaspect of their work ow.

While most every industry has an avalanche ofSaaS, public relations has been slow to get onthe bandwagon. A recent Arketi Group survey found nearly half of public relations teamsdidn’t consider themselves knowledgeable oncloud technology, and 41% listing complexity asa technology challenge.

Despite the in ux of new SaaS tools out there,many of which will be covered in this editionof #PRStack, public relations teams are largelysticking to what they know for the most part –

spreadsheets and sticky notes.Why? Public relations software that’s emergedin the last few years isn’t a scary, cumbersomeintruder, here to confuse you and mess up yourprocesses. It’s also not reserved for big agenciesand their Fortune 500 clients. It’s available now,a ordable for the smallest teams working onbehalf of the smallest companies.

But what you really need to know about publicrelations SaaS is that it’s not just a competitiveadvantage - it’s mandatory. Here’s why.

ASCENDANCY OF SALES ANDMARKETING TECHNOLOGY

Public relations teams are more vulnerable thanever. Organizations are on the hunt for fasterand more cost-e ective options. A recent PRCouncil survey reports that when it comes tonegotiating with client procurement, 44% ofteams say procurement’s top goal is to reduce

billing rates, while 24% say the goal is to reduceoverall budget.

So put yourself in the client’s position. You canchoose a public relations team that o ers up abasic monthly report listing recent activities andmedia hits, or you can go with a team that o ersup insight and data that pairs great results withsmart resource allocation and a clear line ofsight to ROI. Which would you pick?

If you think the public relations industry is toomired in traditional processes to change – well,that’s what late adopters and naysayers saidabout other industries such as customer rela-tionship management (CRM).

In the early 90s, the typewriter still had a placein the modern o ce and your best sales manag -ers had a rolodex. Then the software boom ofthe 90s changed business forever and CRM soft-ware became a known category by the end ofthe decade. Salesforce, the rst major SaaS CRMvendor, quickly became the category leader,with its cloud-based CRM becoming ubiquitousin companies all over the world.

Implementation rose quickly, with two studiesshowing an increase from 57% to 72% adoptionof CRM in just four years. By 2014, CRM was a$23.2 billion market. Could you even imagine asales team operating without CRM today?

Marketing automation came along a little laterto solve a speci c problem: marketers neededto manage various channels and a demand formore sophisticated lead nurture. This was virtu-ally impossible to do with their manual systems.Sound familiar? So marketing automationsoftware was created to help marketing teamsdeftly control their entire funnel, all the way tosales. Not everyone jumped on the bandwagonat rst; at the start of 2013, only 25% of theworld’s biggest companies had adopted market-ing automation. Today, just two years later, that

gure has shot up to 59% .

Today any business that tries to manually runa marketing programme, manage sales opera-tions from a Rolodex, or analyze its inboundresults based on web tra c alone faces aHerculean task. No sophisticated organization(even really small ones) would consider puttingin the amount of resources required to do anyof these things without SaaS.

S T I C K Y N O T E S A N D S P R E A D S H E E T S T O S O F T W A R E A S A S E R V I C E

http://arketi.com/assets/pdfs/ARK-2015-Counselors-Academy-Agency-Technology-Benchmark-Study.pdfhttp://prcouncil.net/voice/2015/prs-growth-spurt-continues-a-look-at-the-councils-latest-datahttp://prcouncil.net/voice/2015/prs-growth-spurt-continues-a-look-at-the-councils-latest-datahttp://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/05/22/gartner-crm-market-share-update-47-of-all-crm-systems-are-saas-based-salesforce-accelerates-lead/http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/05/22/gartner-crm-market-share-update-47-of-all-crm-systems-are-saas-based-salesforce-accelerates-lead/http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Columns-Departments/Reality-Check/Dont-Confuse-Implementation-with-Adoption-53684.aspxhttps://blog.dashburst.com/infographic/history-of-modern-marketing-automation/http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2400796/59-of-b2b-fortune-500-companies-use-marketing-automationhttp://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2400796/59-of-b2b-fortune-500-companies-use-marketing-automationhttps://blog.dashburst.com/infographic/history-of-modern-marketing-automation/http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Columns-Departments/Reality-Check/Dont-Confuse-Implementation-with-Adoption-53684.aspxhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/05/22/gartner-crm-market-share-update-47-of-all-crm-systems-are-saas-based-salesforce-accelerates-lead/http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2015/05/22/gartner-crm-market-share-update-47-of-all-crm-systems-are-saas-based-salesforce-accelerates-lead/http://prcouncil.net/voice/2015/prs-growth-spurt-continues-a-look-at-the-councils-latest-datahttp://prcouncil.net/voice/2015/prs-growth-spurt-continues-a-look-at-the-councils-latest-datahttp://arketi.com/assets/pdfs/ARK-2015-Counselors-Academy-Agency-Technology-Benchmark-Study.pdf


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TRANSFORMING EFFICIENCY INTOEXCELLENCE

Looking over our own industry’s evolution, we’veseen the public relations work ow managementgrow from pens and legal pads, and sticky notes(I’m guilty) to spreadsheets. Only in the lastcouple of years have savvy public relations prac-titioners started to look at software that can putus on par with our sales and marketing peers.

One factor accelerating this adoption: the risingleadership of millennials in the public relations

eld. As a generation of digital natives accus -tomed to tech convenience, younger publicrelations professionals simply won’t acceptthe wasted time and e ort involved in manualprocesses.

One survey found that 67% of millennials judgetheir employers by their technical knowledge;another study found that this group was muchmore frustrated than older workers when theyhad to waste time searching for documents orcontact information, or locating speci c infor -mation about a task.

Millennials expect the workplace speed ande ciency o ered by SaaS tools – and accordingto the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, they arecurrently the largest sector of the workforce,with 28% already in management positions.

Finally, let’s remember that we’re in the busi-ness of client service. Much of our job is aboutsoft skills, such as ensuring our clients feelaccommodated and understood. A CEI Surveythat says 86% of buyers will pay more for abetter customer experience . That’s important toremember in a service industry like public rela-tions – and right now SaaS is a service provider’sbest friend.

Sticky notes and spreadsheets can’t empowerpublic relations teams to map intelligentmeasurement with valuable relationships andexcellent service. But public relations SaaS canunlock the door to stronger connections, more

e cient organizations, bigger retainers, andbetter results. Teams can’t a ord to hesitateanymore – public relations SaaS is here and it’sgoing to change everything.

ABOUT ALY SAXE

Aly Saxe (@Aly_Saxe) is a recovering public relations agency owner, and now the CEO of Iris,a software platform for savvy public relations practitioners.

http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/technology/articles/pages/millennials-expect-to-use-latest-tech-tools-at-work.aspxhttp://www.wired.com/insights/2013/08/the-rise-of-the-millennial-workforce/http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/08/the-rise-of-the-millennial-workforce/http://millennialbranding.com/2014/2015-millennial-majority-workforce-study/http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecrandell/2013/01/21/customer-experience-is-it-the-chicken-or-egg/http://www.irispr.com/http://twitter.com/Aly_Saxehttp://www.irispr.com/http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecrandell/2013/01/21/customer-experience-is-it-the-chicken-or-egg/http://millennialbranding.com/2014/2015-millennial-majority-workforce-study/http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/08/the-rise-of-the-millennial-workforce/http://www.wired.com/insights/2013/08/the-rise-of-the-millennial-workforce/http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/technology/articles/pages/millennials-expect-to-use-latest-tech-tools-at-work.aspx


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SIMPLE WORKFLOW

HACKS


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USING IFTTT AND ZAPIER TO AUTOMATEREPETITIVE PUBLICRELATIONS TASKS IFTTT and Zapier are powerful tools that automate many repetitive tasks that you frequently doon the web, as Stuart Bruce explains

Stuart Bruce@stuartbruce

Understand when it’s appropriate to use automation - and when it’s not

How to set up IFTTT and Zapier tasks to automate repetitive tasks

Hands-on example of how to set up a Zapier task to create a native Twitter image from anInstagram photo


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EXAMPLES OF PUBLIC RELATIONSTASKS THAT CAN BE AUTOMATED

These are just a few ideas for common publicrelations tasks that you can automate

• Add people to a Twitter list if they mentioncertain keywords or key phrases.

• Email people to ask them to share your newblog post.

• Save a photo that you like on Facebook toyour OneDrive or Dropbox account.

• Post a tweet when you create a new Insta-gram video or photo.

• Creating a new project in an accounts packagesuch as FreeAgent automatically creates theproject in Toggl so you can track your time.

• Promote a new podcast episode via updateson social media channels and email.

• Add email addresses from an event evaluationform to a MailChimp list for email marketing.

• Send news or blog headlines to Bu er forediting/approving before going out in a di er -ent time zone.

• Add a new O ce 365 contact to MailChimp list.• Save favourited tweets to OneNote.

AUTOMATION IN ACTION

I was the moderator of the World Communica-tion Forum in Davos and at the end of the twodays was meant to give a speech summing upthe proceedings.

However, I decided to make it more social andengage a wider audience by inviting the chairof each of the sessions to give their own 15second summary which I shot live on stage with

my mobile and published immediately as anInstagram video.

HOW TO CREATE A ZAP

You can create your own custom zaps or exploreexisting ones. It’s easiest to start with existingones and then experiment with editing andchanging them before starting to create your own.

In this example we’re going to use a zap thatconverts an Instagram image into a Twitterimage so that Twitter will display it inline, as itdoesn’t do so with Instagram images anymore.

1) Set-up a free Zapier account herehttp://zpr.io/fNqr . Using this referral linkgives you (and me) 100 extra free tasks permonth. Thanks!

2) Choose Explore on the top menu.

3) Type Instagram into the search box andclick on the logo.

If you’re organising an event you can create an IFTTT recipe or Zapier Zap toautomatically add everyone who mentions it to a public Twitter list.

Both sites work in a very similar way. You create an account, connect webservices and then create triggers that Zapier or IFTTT uses to do an action onanother web service. In fact IFTTT is an acronym of If This, Then That.

U S I N G I F T T T A N D Z A P I E R T O A U T O M A T E R E P E T I T I V E P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S T A S K S

http://zpr.io/fNqrhttp://zpr.io/fNqr


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4) Click on Explore Instagram on Zapier!

5) Click on Use this Zap for Instagram NewMedia Posted to Twitter Create Image Tweet.

6) The Choose Trigger and Action shouldalready be set-up with Instagram as NewMedia Posted and Twitter Create ImageTweet.

7) It will then prompt you to connect your Ins -tagram account. Make sure you’re loggedinto the correct Instagram account, beforeyou do this. It will prompt you to name theaccount. This stage is important if you areusing it professionally as you might want toconnect multiple accounts.

8) Next you’ll be prompted to connect yourTwitter account, which is the same processas for Instagram.

9) Step 4 is to add custom lters, but you canignore this at the moment.

10) Step 5 is to write the content of your tweet.The insert image URL eld should alreadybe set-up.

11) Step 6 lets you test the zap.

12) The nal step is to give your Zap a nameand turn it on.

Now that you’ve successfully experimented witha zap you can start to edit it and to create yourown custom ones.

RISKS OF AUTOMATION

The biggest risk of using automation tools likeIFTTT and Zapier is that they are automationtools. Public relations is about relationships

between people and organisations and you can’tautomate relationships.

There is always a risk in using free services thatthey can be withdrawn or changed withoutnotice. Both services also rely on the APIs (appli-cation program interfaces) of the web servicesthey connect to and companies frequentlychange their APIs which might mean that yourzap or recipe suddenly stops working.


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ABOUTSTUART BRUCE

Stuart Bruce is an independent public relations adviser working with in-house corporate andgovernment agencies and teams all over the world to help modernise their public relationsstrategies and practices. He is a Fellow of the CIPR.

For example LinkedIn recently restricted its APIaccess which means that some of my favouritezaps stopped working.

WHICH SERVICE SHOULD YOU USE?

IFTTT is a more consumer focused service, whileZapier is more targeted at businesses.

Personally I prefer Zapier. It’s harder to use anddoesn’t have such a ‘pretty’ interface as IFTTT,but connects to far more services enabling youto do more. The customer service provided byZapier, even on free accounts, is also very good.

Managing Zapier is also easier as you can addmultiple accounts of the same type (e.g. severalTwitter accounts) which means you can manageall your corporate accounts from one Zapieraccount. With IFTTT you have to set up multipleIFTTT accounts.

U S I N G I F T T T A N D Z A P I E R T O A U T O M A T E R E P E T I T I V E P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S T A S K S

http://twitter.com/stuartbruce


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USING IFTTT TO AUTOMATE COMMONPUBLIC RELATIONSTASKS Andy Ross shares six of his favourite automation tasks from Twitter alerting and monitoring tonative social media posts.

Andrew Ross@AJMRoss

Understand how to create recipes on IFTTT, combining triggers and actions.

Experiment with six recipes to automate common public relations tasks.


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U S I N G I F T T T T O A U T O M A T E C O M M O N P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S T A S K S GETTING STARTED WITH IFTTT

Follow the simple one-step process to sign upfor an account on the IFTTT website. From here,IFTTT should show your dashboard. On thedashboard, there is a brief explanation of howIFTTT and recipes work.

‘This’ stands for a trigger, while ‘That’ stands foran action. These two linked events create an

IFTTT recipe.Click recipes and you will see links to createcustom recipes, browse and use recipes alreadycreated by other IFTTT users. If you’ve added arecipe to your dashboard, you will have optionsto turn o , delete, and edit that recipe.

#1: TWITTER MONITORING

The simple ‘Save All #Tweets with Any #Hashtagto #Google Docs #Spreadsheet ’ recipe combinesRSS and Google Docs, and once set up, auto-matically compiles all your hashtag mentions ina single spreadsheet document, working roundthe clock to make sure you never miss a tweet.

What’s more, creating your Google Sheet as ashareable le will also allow your team 24/7access to this updated list of tweets on anydevice, at any location, with a web connection.

This is a fantastic solution to save time in com-piling top tweets and understand more aboutthe key in uencers driving not just your twitterinteractions, but also those of your competitors

#2: INTEGRATED COMMUNICATIONMANAGEMENT Bu er is a fantastic low cost solution to drivetra c, increase fan engagement and save timeon social media, allowing you to take yourcontent planning and social sharing to the nextlevel.

Mixed together with Google’s Calendar func-tionality (which can be embedded in Outlookand many other services/devices too) this IFTTTrecipe allows you to have clear oversight of anintegrated editorial calendar of both o ine andonline activities, meaning that you’re always ontop of timings for key strategic announcements.

TIPIf This, Then That (IFTTT) is a free-to-access network that puts the internet to work for you, creatingsimple connections between the products you use every day.

For public relations practitioners the power of IFTTT is in automating web-application tasks, easilytransposing data and insight, cutting out many arduous manual tasks. A selection of some of the mostproductive IFTTT recipes for public relations are shared below - but the best way to discover is to bake

your own.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/89246-save-all-tweets-with-any-hashtag-to-google-docs-spreadsheethttps://ifttt.com/recipes/89246-save-all-tweets-with-any-hashtag-to-google-docs-spreadsheethttps://buffer.com/https://ifttt.com/recipes/307410-use-google-calendar-to-keep-track-of-your-buffer-posting-schedulehttps://ifttt.com/recipes/307410-use-google-calendar-to-keep-track-of-your-buffer-posting-schedulehttps://ifttt.com/recipes/307410-use-google-calendar-to-keep-track-of-your-buffer-posting-schedulehttps://ifttt.com/recipes/307410-use-google-calendar-to-keep-track-of-your-buffer-posting-schedulehttps://buffer.com/https://ifttt.com/recipes/89246-save-all-tweets-with-any-hashtag-to-google-docs-spreadsheethttps://ifttt.com/recipes/89246-save-all-tweets-with-any-hashtag-to-google-docs-spreadsheet


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#4: POSTING NATIVE IMAGES TOTWITTER FROM OTHER PLATFORMS

Launching a new social platform can be aburden - but having convinced yourself of the

bene ts of the impact and in uence of settingup an Instagram account, you’re struck by thefact that all of those fantastic photos you’velined up to post look clunky when you share theimages across your primary network, Twitter.

You also know that tweets with timeline imagesincrease engagement by more than half, yet youdon’t have the time, resource or the capacity toduplicate your work.

This solution is simple, but an absolute timesaver for one-man-bands or small teams. Set-

ting up this IFTTT recipe means that when youpost on Instagram, the photos will show up inyour Twitter feed as full images rather than justlinks. Simple.

#3: TWITTER ALERTING

You’ve got wind of a big policy announcementcoming from Westminster, and it’s vital thatyou get on the front foot as early as possible,publishing your response immediately followingthe aftermath.

Using IFTTT to integrate Twitter with your smart-phone’s own native noti cation functionality isa quick and easy time-saving solution to yourproblem.

By cooking up a recipe which immediately mes-sages you a noti cation every time a usernameyou pick tweets, you can get on the front footimmediately - whilst also making sure you’re notpre-occupied with constantly refreshing yourTwitter feed.

TIPFor IFTTT, RSS (or really simple syndication) is like our is to baking, an essential ingredient that sitsat the core of many staple recipes.

You can automate noti cations from RSS to almost any device, easing the burden of sharinginformation across your organisation – be that through monitoring the activity of competitornewsrooms, tracking key stakeholder announcements, or simply keeping tabs on the latest news in

your sector.A great tool for creating custom RSS feeds is Page2RSS - a service that helps you monitor web sitesthat do not publish feeds, checking any web page for updates and delivering them to your RSSreader.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/103249-automatically-post-your-instagrams-as-twitter-photoshttps://ifttt.com/recipes/204592-get-an-if-notification-everytime-a-username-you-pick-tweetshttps://ifttt.com/recipes/204592-get-an-if-notification-everytime-a-username-you-pick-tweetshttp://page2rss.com/http://page2rss.com/https://ifttt.com/recipes/204592-get-an-if-notification-everytime-a-username-you-pick-tweetshttps://ifttt.com/recipes/204592-get-an-if-notification-everytime-a-username-you-pick-tweetshttps://ifttt.com/recipes/103249-automatically-post-your-instagrams-as-twitter-photos


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#5: AUTOMATICALLY BACKUPCONTENT

User-generated activity is also a great contentcreation resource for your team - perfect forsharing across other channels, both externallyand internally.

But you don’t have the time or the energy tocommit to the manual laborious process of ick -ing through every photo posted in a Facebookgroup and saving to a hard drive or shared area.

Cloud services will let you take a deep breathand relax. By connecting Facebook with a cloud-based storage system such as Dropbox throughIFTTT you will now have immediate accessto Facebook photos you have been taggedin – accessible from anywhere with an internetconnection.

IFTTT is a great way of backing up any incom-ing or outgoing social content, whether that betext-based to Google Docs or image-based toDropbox, Flickr or Google Drive.

#6: MONITORING YOUR SEARCHRANKING IN REAL TIME

Using VisualPing.io tool is a great way to moni-tor your search engine ranking for a speci cquery, and setting up alerts will make sure youreceive alerts each time your ranking changes.

To better track and make sense of any datatrends, instead of just letting them sit unread inyour inbox, bake IFTTT’s recipe that combinesGmail with Google Docs and keep a record ofthese changes in one easily accessible spread-sheet.

ABOUT ANDREW ROSS

Andrew is the public relations and policy manager at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations(CIPR). He’s passionate about using paid, owned, shared and earned media to deliver businessfocused communications outcomes.

https://ifttt.com/recipes/15-download-new-facebook-photos-you-re-tagged-in-to-a-dropbox-folderhttps://ifttt.com/recipes/15-download-new-facebook-photos-you-re-tagged-in-to-a-dropbox-folderhttps://ifttt.com/recipes/15-download-new-facebook-photos-you-re-tagged-in-to-a-dropbox-folderhttp://visualping.io/https://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_use/222330-track-serp-changeshttp://twitter.com/ajmrosshttps://ifttt.com/recipe_embed_use/222330-track-serp-changeshttp://visualping.io/https://ifttt.com/recipes/15-download-new-facebook-photos-you-re-tagged-in-to-a-dropbox-folderhttps://ifttt.com/recipes/15-download-new-facebook-photos-you-re-tagged-in-to-a-dropbox-folderhttps://ifttt.com/recipes/15-download-new-facebook-photos-you-re-tagged-in-to-a-dropbox-folder


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USING A TABLET TO

MANAGE AN AGENCYOR COMMUNICATIONTEAM Flexible working means more than just the ability to work from home. According to Rachel Millerit’s about accessing what’s important to you, whenever and wherever you need it.

Rachel Miller@AllthingsIC

Build a communication team or public relations agency on a tablet

Description of a modern o ce: electronic documents, syncing les, online editors, networkingand a cloud-based suite of o ce applications

How-to guides for FaceTime, LinkedIn, Microsoft O ce 365, ScannerPro, SharePoint, Skype,Slack, WhatsApp and Wordpress


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U S I N G A T A B L E T T O M A N A G E A N A G E N C Y O R C O M M U N I C A T I O N T E A M

I run my company from a exible o ce space I rent, and the rise of appsmeans, in reality, your o ce can be in your pocket.

I can be as productive on my tablet, an iPhone or iPad, whilst on the train orin the garden, as I can sitting in an o ce cubicle on a laptop.

Here are ve things I do constantly, and how I do them on my tablet while onthe move.

#1 SCANNING DOCUMENTS

There’s always a reason to need to use a scan-ner. Gone are the days when you need a bulky

atbed scanner attached to your computervia USB. I recommend the app ScannerPro byReaddle.

It’s as simple as using your device’s built-in iOScamera to take a photograph, which the appthen converts into a scanned picture which canbe saved as a jpeg or PDF, meaning as soon asit has saved the le, you can share or upload it.There’s also the option to have multi-page PDFs.

The manual scanning mode gives you accurateedge adjustments after scanning – no morewonky images or missing sections. It automati-cally detects the edges, xes geometry, removesshadows and creates the perfect scan.

#2 SYNCING RECEIPTS TO SHARE-POINT I have synced my scanned les to my OneDrivefor Business via the ScannerPro app. I scanreceipts, train tickets and other expenses using itknowing they are synced and saved immediately.

This means I don’t need to sit and manually scanor photograph piles of receipts at the end of themonth, but do it as I go, and know it’s alreadyin my les. I’ve set a rule in SharePoint so itcalculates the amounts too, which saves time asmy accounts are updated as soon as I share andsave the image.


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#3 WRITING BLOG POSTS VIA WORD-PRESS

I use the WordPress app to write and edit blogposts. It’s good enough to create articles fromscratch without the need to use a laptop.

It also allows you to track visitor stats to see

what your top posts have been and the mostpopular stories of the day. Plus it shows youwhere your site visitors have come from.

If you turn on noti cations, you can be informedwhen you have received comments or if there’ssomething requiring your attention on your site.This helps you keep in touch with the commu-nity around your website.

#4 KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH MYPROFESSIONAL NETWORK

Having an iPad or iPhone means you are alwayscontactable, from making calls (often forgotten!)to FaceTiming or using the Skype app, clientscan reach you.

I use various social networking apps to com-municate with the communities I’m part of.This includes Slack to keep in touch with the FIRpodcast network show hosts, Yammer for CIPRInside and Google Plus for the CIPR Social MediaPanel.

• SlackThe Slack app for Apple Watch sends menoti cations, allowing me to decide whether toswitch to iPhone/iPad to respond. It’s useful totrack mentions and be alerted to informationintended for me.

• WhatsAppThe WhatsApp Watch App is also good enoughto keep up-to-date with noti cations. It’s glance -able information rather than detailed as you cansee what has come in. However, using What -sApp via iPhone or iPad is better as you canreply properly and view more of the conversa-tions.


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• LinkedInThe LinkedIn app has most of the functionalityof the desktop version. It works well to accessyour inbox, reply to messages and invitationsand read published posts. It also enables you tofollow companies and clients you need to keepup-to-date with.

#5 WORKING USING MICROSOFTOFFICE APPS

As I have a Microsoft O ce 365 subscription,I can access the full suite of Microsoft O cefor Mobile apps. They work as well on mobiledevices as desktop.

It has full functionality, which means I’m able toedit PowerPoint slides, edit Word documents,access spreadsheets in Excel and see the fullfolders in Outlook. It’s good to be aware of thedi erent options so you choose what’s right foryou.

The basic package (O ce 365 Business Essen -tials) doesn’t have full O ce desktop. But givesyou a 50GB inbox and up to 1TB of onlinestorage.

The O ce 365 Business package has a licencecovering 5 phones, 5 tablets and 5 PCs or Macsper user. It has the full O ce desktop, so youcan work virtually anywhere.

O ce 365 Business Premium includes all of the

above, plus mail and HD video conferencingwith Skype for Business.

ABOUTRACHEL MILLER

Rachel is the Founder of All Things IC communication consultancy and blogger at allthingsic.com . An experienced and multiple award-winning practitioner, Rachel is endlessly curious aboutinternal communication.

http://www.allthingsic.com/http://www.allthingsic.com/http://twitter.com/allthingsichttp://www.allthingsic.com/http://www.allthingsic.com/


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USING NODEXL ANDGEPHI TO MAP

NETWORKS ANDINFLUENCERS Michael White shows how to use network mapping to identify communities and in u -encers by examining social network connections.

Michael White@michaelwhite1

How-to guide to using open-source tools to identify communities and in uencers

Build a network map to understand the topology of a network and the role of di erentparticipants


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U S I N G N O D E X L A N D G E P H I T O M A P N E T W O R K S A N D I N F L U E N C E R S

Social media is about relationships. Network mapping lets us see these rela-tionships. In this tutorial we combine the functionality of NodeXL and Gephito create a visual network map that can be used as part of a public relationsprogramme.

4) After the import is complete your Excel

sheet will be lled with data, notably vertex1 and 2 with Twitter usernames.

5) Click on ‘Export’, which is just below‘Import’, and export ‘To GraphML File’. Click‘Yes’ on the message that appears aboutedges and save your le for accessing lateron.

There are ways to visualise data in MicrosoftExcel using the NodeXL plugin, but over thelast two years I’ve found Gephi o ers greaterfunctionality.

USING GEPHI TO MAP YOUR NET-WORK 1) Start the installed Gephi program and on

the ‘Welcome to Gephi’ pop-up windowselect ‘Open Graph File’. An options screenwill come up where the default selected‘Directed’ network is correct.

2) Next calculate eigenvector centrality whichinvolves selecting the ‘Data Laboratory’ tab,

navigating to the bottom of the screen tothe ‘delete column’ button, and then deleteeigenvector centrality (as a quirk of NodeXLthe column imports as blank so must bedeleted).

3) Return to the ‘Overview’ tab and underStatistics, to the right of the screen, ‘Run’eigenvector centrality. This is a measureof how important a single node (Twitteruser) is in a network, as calculated by thenumber of edges (connections).

4) Next select the ‘Ranking’ tab on the leftof the screen, click the red diamond thatappears to the right of ‘Nodes’, and selectthe rank parameter as eigenvector central-ity. The min and max node size is simply avisual representation to show how impor-tant a Twitter user is based on connections;click ‘Apply’.

NodeXL is a free open-source plugin for Excel

developed by the Social Media Research Foun-dation. Download it here and double click onthe template le to run in Excel. Unfortunatelyit is not yet compatible with Mac OS or thelatest version of Excel. Keep up-to-date with therelease history for the latest version .

Gephi is a free open-source program for Win-dows, Linux or Mac OS that uses data to createinteractive and explorative visualisations. Thinkof it as the Adobe Photoshop of visual dataanalysis. Download it here and run through theinstallation instructions to get it running.

I’ll use NodeXL to:

1) Gather data on the network connectionsbetween Twitter users mentioning the#PRstack hashtag;

2) Import this data into Gephi to visualise as anetwork map;

3) Draw top-line results from the visualisation.

As we are using open-source software it is reli-ant on Twitter’s API Rate Limits . This can cause

frustration due to slow loading. The Twitterdeveloper community expects restrictions willsoon relax to encourage innovation.

Otherwise use NodeXL to import data fromother social networks that do not have theserestrictions.

USING NODEXL TO GATHER TWITTERDATA

1) Open Microsoft Excel via the downloaded

NodeXL template and select the ‘NodeXL’tab, which should be to the right of ‘view’.

2) Select ‘Import’ where a list of nine socialmedia options exist; select ‘From TwitterSearch Network’.

3) Fill in the details you would like to searchacross; the more tweets you select, thelonger it will take to develop (large mapscan take 24hrs+).

http://gephi.github.io/http://nodexl.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=CompleteReleaseHistoryhttp://gephi.github.io/https://dev.twitter.com/rest/public/rate-limitinghttps://dev.twitter.com/rest/public/rate-limitinghttp://gephi.github.io/http://nodexl.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=CompleteReleaseHistoryhttp://gephi.github.io/


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6) From the ‘Layout’ tab select the ‘ForceAtlas2’ visualisation and run it, you will see yournodes generate. Have a play around withthese settings; place your cursor aboveitems to get a description of each item. Also

notice the ability to switch text on at thebottom of Gephi so that usernames show.

To nalise your network graph select the‘Preview’ tab at the top of Gephi, hit the ‘Refresh’button at the bottom of the screen, and selectyour desired options.

5) Now return back to the ‘Statistics’ paneland run ‘Modularity’, approving the defaultsetting. Click on the ‘Partition’ tab, selectthe green arrows to refresh, and from thedropdown menu select ‘Modularity Class’

to colour the nodes; click ‘Apply’. These arethe basic statistical requirements to gener-ate a basic social media network map, nowto visualise.


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Have a play; there are no wrong or right meth -ods to visualise. Once nished, click on ‘File’ atthe top left of Gephi to export your visualisation;.PDF is the basic export preference.

HOW TO READ YOUR NETWORK MAP

The accuracy of a network map will dependupon the size of the dataset used, data used,and how it was generated. For a detailed intro-duction to the technicalities of social networkmapping buy the book Analyzing Social MediaNetworks with NodeXL: Insights from a Con-nected World .

We can read the map using the below as indica-tors:

• Colours represent potential communities(as speci ed between their follow/followingrelationships);

• Lines (edges) show follow/following relation -ships;

• Twitter user (node) size refers to in uence(bigger the better), as calculated by the num -ber of connections.

This guide is a basic overview of social medianetwork mapping. The technique has untappedpotential and an application to visualise social

media networks.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Analyzing-Social-Media-Networks-NodeXL-ebook/dp/B004CRSN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439589658&sr=8-1&keywords=Analyzing+Social+Media+Networks+with+NodeXL%3A+Insights+from+a+Connected+Worldhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Analyzing-Social-Media-Networks-NodeXL-ebook/dp/B004CRSN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439589658&sr=8-1&keywords=Analyzing+Social+Media+Networks+with+NodeXL%3A+Insights+from+a+Connected+Worldhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Analyzing-Social-Media-Networks-NodeXL-ebook/dp/B004CRSN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439589658&sr=8-1&keywords=Analyzing+Social+Media+Networks+with+NodeXL%3A+Insights+from+a+Connected+Worldhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Analyzing-Social-Media-Networks-NodeXL-ebook/dp/B004CRSN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439589658&sr=8-1&keywords=Analyzing+Social+Media+Networks+with+NodeXL%3A+Insights+from+a+Connected+Worldhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Analyzing-Social-Media-Networks-NodeXL-ebook/dp/B004CRSN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439589658&sr=8-1&keywords=Analyzing+Social+Media+Networks+with+NodeXL%3A+Insights+from+a+Connected+Worldhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Analyzing-Social-Media-Networks-NodeXL-ebook/dp/B004CRSN8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439589658&sr=8-1&keywords=Analyzing+Social+Media+Networks+with+NodeXL%3A+Insights+from+a+Connected+World


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WHAT YOU CAN UNCOVER FROM THE PRSTACK COMMUNITY

The PRstack community isn’t just about developing how-to guides to make sense of the growing thirdparty tool pool. It is a cultural shift that invites innovation to the work ow of public relations in the 21stcentury. A necessary step forward in a competitive industry where digital practice areas are contestedand claimed by a range of agencies; resulting in boardroom budget battles. In the end everything leadsback to open-source innovation and community discussion. Geeks rule the world; this is why I’m proudto be a part of the PRstack project.

ABOUTMICHAEL WHITE

Michael is a digital specialist at strategic communication consultancy Lansons. He is rated one ofthe UK’s top ten PR bloggers by media measurement company Vuelio.

http://twitter.com/michaelwhite1


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USING AWEDIENCE TO

ENGAGE WITH ANONLINE COMMUNITY Matt Anderson@MrMattanderson

Map a social media community using Awedience around an issue or topic to identify in uencers

Identify the behaviour and content that drives conversation within the community

Understand the best times to engage with members of the community based on when theyare most active


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U S I N G A W E D I E N C E T O E N G A G E W I T H A N O N L I N E C O M M U N I T Y

Media databases on the whole tend to be inaccurate, they don’t include blog-gers or social media power users and the plethora of tools that measure in u -ence can be very misleading, gamed easily or just plain wrong, such as Klout.

This analytics landscape leaves public relations practitioners with only oneoption - to hack together information from resources such as Bluenod, Peer-index and Technorati, with a large dose of good old fashioned research, todetermine in uencers within a community accurately.

• De ne your target community and iterativelybuild new segments

• Analyse structure, communities and contex-tual in uencers

• Who are the key players in an industry thatdrive relevant conversations

• What content drives conversations and whatis the best time to share content

• Measure the impact of your activity and doesthe network change

I will show you how this is easily achieved withAwedience which analyses either accounts or ahashtag such as #PRStack.

The app can immediately provide a powerfulsummary to instantly allow you to make senseof a community in an interactive ‘sun burst’ as

seen below or by clicking on the activity tab forall the top line information.

Awedience is a rich analytics environment withbroad breadth and depth. The app.awedience.com free layer has over 30 di erent reportingelements for each analysis.

However, its key bene t is the segmentation ofTwitter followers into tightly connected groupsso that all other metrics, most importantly in u -ence, are in context.

HOW TO ANALYSE A COMMU-NITY EFFECTIVELY FOR POWERFULRESULTS

With the Awedience tool you’ll be guided toknow what to say, when, about what, and towhom - powerful stu .

To do this e ectively we need to understand

how a community functions by nding out howto:


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#1 WHAT CONTENT STIMULATESCONVERSATIONS IN A COMMUNITY

By clicking on the analysis tab on the left handside you can see the most mentioned hashtagsto join in with conversations or key phrases, soyou can have a better idea of the tone of voiceand lexicon of a community.

Also under tweets is retweets - you can instantlysee the most shared content and tactics that

work in engaging a community, such as thistweet by Prezly with a bright engaging image.

#2 WHO DRIVES CONVERSATIONS IN A COMMUNITY AND WHO IS PASSIVE

Awedience allows you to immediately drill downinto conversations, to give you insight on thelatest news, discussions or issues. It will let youknow who is making the most e ort in engagingwith the community or leading discussions.

#3 WHO IS REALLY INFLUENTIAL

WITHIN CONTEXT RATHER THANNOISY?

Social Media is a mass of data – conversations,links, groups, friends, interests – and it’s hard toread. The community analysis makes it use-ful- nding individual groups and communities,subject-based conversations and identifyingwho drives, leads and in uences each one.

Within larges industries, it will split a communityinto sub communities regarding who has in uence

within them. The larger the node the more in uen -tial the community member, based on context.

You are even able to set goals to target in uenc -ers in the software too.


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#4 WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TOENGAGE WITH A COMMUNITY ORINFLUENCER

Click on the biorhythms heart shaped tab toreveal when an account or community is active.This diagram below is featuring my account@MrMattAnderson.

You can see that the best time to engage withme is generally in the mornings towards the endof the week. A great way to use this data is toperhaps nd the best time to pitch to a bloggerfor example.

Awdience delivers actionable insights regardingwho are the best people to engage with, what

content in uences them and at what time isbest to stimulate and drive conversations with acommunity.

More in-depth analysis, such as community andstructure, is a paid for service but the remainingreports are all based on a freemium model app.

ABOUTMATT ANDERSON

Matt (@mrmattanderson) is the co-founderof Montage Communications. He’s astoryteller, community builder and socialmedia veteran, working with clients includingBrabantia, Pilgrims Choice and The NorthFace.


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USING TRAACKR TO

BUILD RELATIONSHIPSWITH ONLINEINFLUENCERS Erica Eliasson explains how the Italian heritage wine brand Barone Ricasoli reached newgenerations of consumers by focusing on social in uence.

Erica Eliasson

Understand how to identify in uencers around a market or issue using Traackr

Learn lessons from a case study to apply to your own organisation

Best practice guide to in uencer identi cation and engagement


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U S I N G T R A A C K R T O B U I L D R E L A T I O N S H I P S W I T H O N L I N E I N F L U E N C E R S

Digital marketing transformation doesn’t always come easily for heritagebrands. They have been around for a long time and have generally gaineda loyal client base. However, with an ageing customer base and a rapidlychanging media landscape, Barone Ricasoli needed to reach new generationsof consumers.

To address this issue, the Swedish wine importer WineWorld together withthe digital communication agency Pronto created a unique job opening at theBaron’s vineyard in Tuscany. The winning applicant would spend a few daysat Brolio, the castle that belongs to Barone Ricasoli, to create a limited editionwine, which would then be sold at Systembolaget in Sweden.

To succeed with the campaign, Pronto used thein uencer marketing tool Traackr in order toidentify, engage and analyse the impact frombrand ambassadors and job applicants.

IDENTIFYING THE RIGHTINFLUENCERS IS KEYIn uence is not about popularity - in uence isabout context and content. In Traackr, you enteryour keywords de ning the relevant conversa -tions you are targeting and the tool will bring

up the most relevant in uencers matching yourentries. You can also add lters by bio, locationetc.

You can see in uencers’ online footprint andscroll their social content to understand their con-versations and decide whether they are relevantor not to your project.

Traackr’s conversation engine then allows you toknow in real time what they publish on each plat-form, what they think and engage with, even whatis trending within your community, which can behelpful to build your brand content strategy.

Traackr’s in uencer relationship capabilitiesgather all your interactions with your in uencers(whether from relevant Twitter handles, emailsor manual notes) in one place, making it easy tomeasure the level of engagement and manageconversations, together with your team.

After nding and adding in uencers to your proj -ect, you can sort your in uencers by reach (thesize of the in uencer’s audience), resonance (thein uencers’ engagement with the community)and relevance.


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For the Barone Ricasoli case, we started witha search that helped us to choose the four topwine in uencers in Sweden. These in uencerswould be part of a jury that would select the newwinemaker for Barone Ricasoli.

LISTEN AND ENGAGE AT THE RIGHTTIME

Digital marketers need to spend time listening to

online conversations led by in uencers so thatwe understand ongoing discussions and createactivities and content that will resonate with ouronline community.

For the Barone Ricasoli campaign, we broadenedthe search after nding our jury members. Thishelped us to activate and engage Swedish winelovers in order to encourage them to apply forthe job opening as a winemaker at the baron’scastle.

700 applications were submitted and by activat-ing digital wine in uencers found in Traackr, wecould drive tra c to the job posting and helpapplicants to share their applications (more

shares and engagement would attract the juryinterest).


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U S I N G T R A A C K R T O B U I L D R E L A T I O N S H I P S W I T H O N L I N E I N F L U E N C E R S

MONITOR, ANALYSE AND MEASUREYOUR IMPACT

Monitoring brand mentions and hashtags willenable digital marketers to keep engaging inconversations, for example with link shares, shareof voice and sentiment.

BEST PRACTICE SUMMARY 1. Listen, listen again and continuously

listen

Brands need to allow their team to spend time lis-tening to online conversations led by in uencersso that they can understand ongoing discussions,create activities and messages that resonate withthe online community.

2. Identify the right digital in uencers

For Barone Ricasoli and WineWorld, Pronto iden-ti ed the initial set of key in uencers and invitedthe top four ones to participate on the jury, whichhelped give credibility to the campaign and guar-anteed earned media from the onset. Engagingwith the right in uencers is key for the success ofany campaign, as only genuine commitment andpassion can drive a real emotional connection toa brand.

3. Create a story worth sharing

With this winemaker job opening, Pronto andWineWorld created a campaign that providedongoing opportunities for true engagement:

• Inviting the top four key in uencers in Swedento be part of the jury

• Inviting anyone in Sweden to apply (over 25years old)

• Generating visibility for the six nalists

• O ering a money can’t buy experience withthe Barone Ricasoli Brand

With the in uencer marketing practice maturing,best practices emerging and programs startingto bring measurable and proven results, Traackris helping social media marketers move fromtactical and local programs to develop global andscalable in uencer marketing strategies.

ABOUTERICA ELIASSON

Erica is an executive producer/analysis specialist at the digital communication agency Pronto inStockholm, Sweden. She is co-founder of the social music app OneSong .

http://pronto.se/http://www.oneso.ng/http://www.oneso.ng/http://pronto.se/


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USING FREE TOOLS TO

CREATE A BASIC SEOKEYWORD REPORT David Sawyer describes an eight-step process to create a basic keyword report in a dayusing freemium online tools.

David Sawyer @zudepr

Understand the work ow for keyword planning using Ahrefs, Excel, Google Analytics, GoogleWebmaster, MozBar, SemRush and SpyFu.

Investigate the keywords that people use to nd your website and those of your competitors.

Prioritise your list based on a trade-o between volume and competition.


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#1 INVESTIGATE EXISTING KEY-WORDS (30 MINUTES)

Access your organisation’s Google Analytics account. Make sure it’s connected to yourGoogle Webmaster account.

• Click Reporting.

• Set the date range.

• Go to the left hand column: ‘Acquisition |Search Engine Optimization (sic) | Queries’.

• Eyes to the bottom and increase the Rows toe.g. 5000.

• Towards the top of the screen Export (toGoogle Sheets or Excel).

This spreadsheet shows you what Google Searchterms are sending people to your website.Hundreds of them. In priority order (look at the‘Landing Pages’ too to see which work best).

#2 BUILD YOUR OWN LIST OF KEY-WORDS (60 MINUTES)

Contact your client/colleagues (suppliers/stake-holders too). Ask them what they think peoplewould type into Google to nd your organisation.

You’ll have your own thoughts. Make a list.

#3 INVESTIGATE COMPETITORS(60 MINUTES)Now for a rst look at your competitors:

• Create a new Word or Google Doc.

• Pick ve competitors.

• Click their homepage url.

• Right click, then ‘View page source’.

• Hit CTRL F and search for ‘‘, ‘description’,and ‘keywords’. These are towards the top ofthe page.

• Cut and paste into your Word doc.

• Repeat ve times.

Gold dust. Particularly the keywords, if available.These are often the phrases your competitorthinks will get people to their site. You’re gettinginside their minds: mining their intent.

#4 EXPLORE YOUR COMPETITORS’KEYWORDS (60 MINUTES)

Use Ahrefs (Positions Explorer) and SpyFu free-mium tools to nd the search queries drivingthe most tra c to your competitors’ sites.

• Type the domain name.

• Screengrab, using e.g. Awesome Screenshot orSave to Google Drive. .

• Rinse and repeat.

You’re looking for the top ve organic keywords.Run your own site too.

Repeat the same process for SemRush (thebest keyword tool ). It reveals the top 10 organickeywords. Click on ‘Organic Research’ in theleft hand column then ‘View full report’ beforegrabbing.

#5 USE GOOGLE KEYWORD PLANNER(90 MINUTES)

Set up a Google Adwords account and get all ofyour keyword phrases into the Keyword Planner.

I prefer to look for ‘closely related’ terms too.This way you get all the phrases from your listsbut generate some extra nuggets you won’t havethought of (often with complete data).

U S I N G F R E E T O O L S T O C R E A T E A B A S I C S E O K E Y W O R D R E P O R T

http://www.google.com/analytics/https://www.google.com/webmasters/https://ahrefs.com/positions-explorerhttp://www.spyfu.com/https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-to-google-drive/gmbmikajjgmnabiglmofipeabaddhgne?hl=enhttp://www.semrush.com/http://www.robbierichards.com/seo/best-keyword-research-tool/http://www.robbierichards.com/seo/best-keyword-research-tool/https://adwords.google.co.uk/KeywordPlannerhttps://adwords.google.co.uk/KeywordPlannerhttp://www.robbierichards.com/seo/best-keyword-research-tool/http://www.robbierichards.com/seo/best-keyword-research-tool/http://www.semrush.com/https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/save-to-google-drive/gmbmikajjgmnabiglmofipeabaddhgne?hl=enhttps://www.awesomescreenshot.com/http://www.spyfu.com/https://ahrefs.com/positions-explorerhttps://www.google.com/webmasters/http://www.google.com/analytics/


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Set a bid, and a budget, and download your plan.

Then, delete the spreadsheet columns you don’tneed.

Leave yourself with: ‘Keyword’, ‘Average MonthlySearches’, ‘Competition’, and ‘Suggested Bid’.

#6 KEYWORD VOLUME VSCOMPETITION (30 MINUTES)

Everyone likes a magic formula. This one’s fromLarry Kim at WordStream .

“...You want to go after keywords with somevolume, because they’ll have a better return interms of tra c. But you don’t necessarily wantto go after the most competitive keywords,because you’re less likely to be able to rank forthem. You’re looking for a sweet spot.

Take the number of monthly searches for thekeyword, multiply that by the suggested bid,then divide it by the competition level on thatkeyword.”

• Insert a new ( fth) column entitled ‘MagicFormula’ in your Excel doc or Google Sheet.

• Shout over to a techy colleague and ask themto help you insert a formula for column E.

• Try e.g. =(B2*D2)/C2 where column B is Aver -age Monthly Searches, column D is Suggested

Bid, and column C is Competition.• Then sort the whole kit and caboodle by

column E with the highest number being thebest. Don’t discard the O’s and unclassi ed.

#7 REFINING YOUR KEYWORD LIST(90 MINUTES)Remember that Google built Keyword Plannerto help people buy adverts not a ect its organicsearch results.

While Larry’s formula is useful, you must considerthe following:

• What is the Domain Authority (DA) – use Moz-Bar – of your competitors? And how does yourorganisation compare? The higher your DA (ona scale of 1-100) the better.

• If your DA is lower than 30 it’s unlikely (evenif your competitors are equally poor) that youare going to rank for the most competitive

search terms. Try targeting phrases with aver-age monthly search volumes of fewer than100. Hat tip to Andy Crestodina for this one.

• Try locational search terms, or longer phrases(these are good for blog posts).

• And if you sell something, which phrases aremost likely to lead to a sale. Which have the

highest user intent to buy.• Now you’ve re ned your terms, use MozBar

again to see if you have a chance of rankingon Google’s rst page. Check out the DA of thenumber-one and number-10 ranking site. Ifyour DA is within that range, go for it.

Bonus tip: Sometimes you need to throwthe keyword report out of the window andthink out of the box.

I’ve had three separate pieces of businessby ranking rst for ‘£5k digital scotlandvoucher’. This search term would never haveshown up on any keyword report.

The key here is to write for your custom-ers and know what they want. I wrote anengaging blog post to alert my SME custom-ers that there was free money to spend ondigital marketing (the implication being onsomeone like me).

This also shows that even with the lowestDA of all sites on Google’s rst page for thissearch term, my post comes out top. Why:it’s engaging, well SEO’d, and I got in there

rst.

http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/08/06/keyword-research-tipshttps://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbarhttps://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbarhttp://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/how-to-research-keywords-tips/https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbarhttp://zudepr.co.uk/5k-digital-grant-scotland-business/http://zudepr.co.uk/5k-digital-grant-scotland-business/http://zudepr.co.uk/5k-digital-grant-scotland-business/http://zudepr.co.uk/5k-digital-grant-scotland-business/https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbarhttp://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/how-to-research-keywords-tips/https://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbarhttps://moz.com/tools/seo-toolbarhttp://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/08/06/keyword-research-tips


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At the end of this step you want:

• Your full list spreadsheet (ranked by magicvolume vs competition formula).

• Your top 25 to 50 keyword phrases spreadsheet.

• And I like a one-page Word document with upto ten keyword phrase groups. For example,in the case of my business, Zude PR, I rank thesame for PR company Glasgow as Glasgow PRcompany. It’ll be similar for you. These shouldbe the basis of your static web pages. But feelfree to have the odd shot at them in a blogpost every so often.

#8 WRITE WELL

If you spend time doing a keyword report don’tleave it lying in a cupboard. Whether you’re writ-ing a page for a website or penning a blog post,use your keyword phrase:

• Four times in the body copy (assumes a 1,000-word article).

• Once in the title tag/SERP/the headline yousee in Google. At the front. And in the H1header (usually the same as the title).

• In the meta description (no direct SEO bene tbut does a ect click through rate).

• Make sure you use loads of synonyms. A neattrick here is to look at the Wikipedia entry forthe keyword phrase and see what words are

used in the rst three paragraphs.• One keyword phrase (grouping) per page. Bar

the homepage where you can try for a few.

• Please measure. Here’s one I wrote earlier (seewhatsmyserp ).

Above all else write well or no-one’s going toread your content.

ABOUT DAVID SAWYER

David owns Glasgow-based Zude PR . He helps businesses and organisations to useSEO, media relations, content marketing and social media marketing. To sell theirproduct/cause to the right people.

http://zudepr.co.uk/prstack-writing-images-headlines/http://www.whatsmyserp.com/serpcheck.phphttp://zudepr.co.uk/fcipr-fellow-jane-cumming/http://zudepr.co.uk/http://twitter.com/zudeprhttp://zudepr.co.uk/http://zudepr.co.uk/fcipr-fellow-jane-cumming/http://www.whatsmyserp.com/serpcheck.phphttp://zudepr.co.uk/prstack-writing-images-headlines/


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USING GOOGLE

SCHOLAR AS A P UBLICRELATIONS PLANNINGTOOLGoogle Scholar allows users to search for authoritative and peer-reviewed academicmaterial. Liz Bridgen explains how public relations practitioners can use this tool.

Liz Bridgen@lizbridgen

A how-to guide on accessing academic research through Google Scholar and using it for publicrelations planning

Academia.edu , a social networking site where academics share research papers, is anadditional resource for following and accessing research

Insiders’ tips on how to access academic content that is hidden behind a paywall

https://scholar.google.co.uk/http://www.academia.edu/http://www.academia.edu/https://scholar.google.co.uk/


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U S I N G G O O G L E S C H O L A R A S A P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S P L A N N I N G T O O L

Do you use Google at work? Perhaps your research adds insight to yourcommunication strategies, helps build your knowledge in a new area, or addsauthority to the media content you write. Since Google (and commercialmarket intelligence sites) are pretty good at coming up with relevant content,why use Google Scholar for online research?

Any Google search result will present you with amixed bag of results, however good your searchterms. Among the valuable stu there will bearticles written by non-experts with their ownagenda, media articles which may or may not becompletely objective (and possibly written by a journalist with no knowledge of what they arewriting about), and commercial information. It’sup to you to decide which results are bona de -which, if you are operating in an unfamiliar area,can prove di cult.

Google Scholar is a Google product which allowsusers to search for peer-reviewed (and thushopefully accurate and authoritative) academicliterature. The results of a Google Scholar searchwill provide links to work written and published

by academic publishers. In most cases thesearticles will have been reviewed before publica-tion by several other academics to ensure theirresearch rigour and accuracy.

Google Scholar should only contain articles andinformation that meet two main criteria.

1) They are scholarly (e.g. they are publishedby a university or are from an academic

journal or conference).

2) They either have the full text or an abstract

(summary) of an article available.However, there’s more - for a high rank in GoogleScholar search results, the number of citations iscrucial. Citations are when another author (whose


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Good market research is expensive andsometimes out of reach of new, small, ornot-for-pro t organisations. As a result, mostpublic relations practitioners turn to Googleto ful l their research needs. The screenshotbelow shows the results of a standard Googlesearch. It presents a mix of commercial contentand online articles (which may or may not be

using the best or most recent research andmay or may not be interpreting this researchcorrectly).

What happens if we try Google Scholar? Youmight nd, like I have, that you have to playaround with your search keywords to get themost relevant results. I’ve also changed thesearch criteria to only include articles from thelast ten years.

This screenshot shows a very di erent set ofresults. Some, of course, aren’t relevant but

there are some articles which give us un-medi-ated and recent research, written by experts intheir eld.

work also meets the criteria above) mentions aparticular academic article in their research. Ahigh number of citations isn’t always an indica-tion that an article is good (it could mean that itis highly controversial) but it serves as a guide. Italso allows you to see which authors have citedthat work (and in turn, you can check out whatthey have written about).

GOOGLE SCHOLAR IN PRACTICE Take the ctional example that you work fora small tech company that has developed adevice that allows people to play music with-out headphones that isn’t audible to anyoneoutside a 50cm radius of that person’s head.

The bene ts of this technology are immense -for instance, sportspeople can listen to musicwithout bothering anyone else while being fullyaware of their surroundings. The companybehind this technology wants buy-in from largecorporations who will integrate it into theirproducts.

However, to persuade industry giants of thebene ts of this technology, your communica -tions approach needs some solid researchdetailing the bene t of music (and the problemof headphones) to support its claims.


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U S I N G G O O G L E S C H O L A R A S A P U B L I C R E L A T I O N S P L A N N I N G T O O L

In the right hand column you’ll see links to PDFor HTML les - this is where you can view thearticles in their entirety. If this link doesn’t existit means that the article is probably behind apaywall (although you’ll still be able to see anabstract (summary) of the article so that youcan check its relevance). If you are unwillingto pay to access the article (a copy of a journal

article will cost around £20) you might still beable to get hold of a copy. Try these tips.

• Google the author(s) names with the title orsubject of the paper. Many academic journalarticles start their lives as conference paperswhich are often freely available. This will be anearlier iteration of the paper, but may still beuseful.

If your search gives you a dizzying section ofsearch results, or doesn’t deliver the goods,you still have some options:

• Find the author(s) university home page asshe or he might publish the article there. Simi-larly, the author may publish through theirpage on Academia.edu - a social networkingsite for academics.

• Go to the journal homepage - many journalso er selected past issues for free and youmight get lucky.

Care should be taken reading academic journalarticles if you don’t have any training in the

area you’re investigating as it’s easy to misin-terpret research results or cherry pick key nd -ings without considering the broader contextof the subject. However, even with this caveat,there’s a lot that you can take from readingacademic articles.

• A lot of commercial content focusses on whathappens - academic research often looks atwhy things happen (using research ratherthan guesswork) and the implications.

• Each academic article you read contains cita-tions. Check these out as they can direct youto other articles which might be of interestand which may not have been picked up byyour initial search.

• Google Scholar is a global resource and isuseful if you are researching regional/culturalcontexts or want to nd out more aboutconsumer behaviour in other countries.

• You can start to understand the names of themain researchers and key university depart-ments in your area of interest. This can thenopen doors to a whole range of opportunitiesfor collaboration.

Google Scholar allows you to build your ownknowledge and expertise in a speci c area,rather than relying on someone else’s medi-ated view of a subject. Which, if you want tolook like an informed and educated public rela-tions practitioner, has got to be a good thing.

ABOUTLIZ BRIDGEN

Liz is principal lecturer in public relations at She eld Hallam University, She eld, UK.

http://www.academia.edu/http://twitter.com/lizbridgenhttp://www.academia.edu/


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USING FOLLOWERWONK

TO MAP AUDIENCES AND COMPETITORS Helen Laurence shows how to use Followerwonk for audience and competitor research whentime and money are short.

Helen Laurence@HelenJLaurence

Followerwonk o ers a cost-e ective means of identifying Twitter users by searchingbiographies

Understand the demographics of the followers of a Twitter account

Characterise and benchmark di erent branded Twitter accounts


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U S I N G F O L L O W E R W O N K T O M A P A U D I E N C E S A N D C O M P E T I T O R S

AUDIENCE HUNTINGThe rst of these is the ability to Search Bios – asimple tool that lets you search the bios orpro les of anyone on Twitter for key words andcategorise them by criteria, such as followernumber or social authority.

For example, working in the eld of healthcare, Imight be keen to approach media psychologiststo tweet about an embarrassing ailment I’m try-ing to raise awareness of, say bad breath and itsimpact on con dence. I’d simply go to Follower-wonk.com, click on the Search Bios tab and enterthe words “psychologist” and “TV”.

I’d then choose either followers or social author-ity to place the ndings in order.

The social authority score out of 100 is basedon retweet rates and, although no measureis completely infallible, it does give a sense ofwhich in uencers could help achieve betterengagement.

Followerwonk has a range of functions, many of which are free, that providevaluable insights quickly.

Search Bios is also handy for constructingblogger lists – an overwhelming task without astructured approach. For example, inputting thewords “blogger” and “mummy” yields decentresults and you can make things more speci cby adding terms such as “hu post”. You canthen either build your own list or follow the bestcontacts straight from the site.

As with all free tools there are limitations. It’sdi cult to sort your results by country so if youare trying to reach a UK market you have to siftout relevant targets. It can also miss some bigin uencers if the exact keyword doesn’t appearin the pro le (not every parenting bloggerdescribes themselves as a “mummy”!) so it’sworth playing around to nd the right combina -tion.

KNOWLEDGE REALLY IS POWERHaving identi ed your key targets, the next stepis getting them interested and that’s where theAnalyze tab comes in.


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This provides a graphical breakdown of a givenuser’s Twitter habits and the habits of his or herfollowers. More in-depth information can beaccessed via subscription but the free stu ispretty useful, so it’s well worth giving this a try

rst.

Input the handle, select ‘analyze their followers’from the drop down box and dive into the data! Just be aware that users with very large follow-

ings may require a subscription.I’ve used a TV psychologist to demonstrate.

You can see when a blogger, journalist orkey in uencer is most active and time yourapproach accordingly. The active hours arehelpfully broken down into retweets, @contactand non-@contact tweets so you can maximiseyour chances of getting a retweet for yourcampaign messages.

Not only that but in addition you are able toanalyse the activity of their followers, with arange of charts allowing you to look at:

• Follower counts – the number of people fol-lowing their followers

• Following counts – the number of people thefollowers follow (the more they follow the lessthey may engage with their streams)

• Account ages – how many of the followerswere early-adopters (perceived to be morevaluable)

• Frequency of tweets – how many of the fol-lowers accounts are dormant

This allows you to make judgements aboutwhich targets to prioritise based on the engage-ment levels and in uence of their Twitter com -munities.

This info can be highly useful for your own Twit-ter account too Once you’ve engaged your keyin uencers, learning about their habits can aidtheir receptiveness. You can even use Follower-wonk to schedule your tweets via Bu er to goout when your followers are most active.

OUTWITTING THE COMPETITION Keeping an eye on the competition may helpyou stay one step ahead but competitor intelli-gence is not always easily or cheaply gained. Fol-lowerwonk’s Compare Users tab allows you tomeasure yourself against up to two competitorsat any one time, providing a useful snapshot oftheir Twitter activity.

Input your handle and those of two of yourcompetitors and Followerwonk does the hardwork for you.

A Venn diagram shows the overlap between thethree users in terms of followers and followings.You can stick to one competitor if preferred asthis does give less data to wade through. I’vestuck with my embarrassing ailment exampleof bad breath here and used three brands oftoothpaste.

Where there is overlap it’s useful to know,especially when your competitors are follow-ing or followed by the same media targets orin uential bodies, such as charities.

You can then bear in mind that your target hasalso been privy to your competitors’ messaging


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U S I N G F O L L O W E R W O N K T O M A P A U D I E N C E S A N D C O M P E T I T O R S

and adapt yours accordingly. Where a user fol-lows both you and your competitors, it’s also afairly good indication that they have an interestin the eld and are likely to be friendlier targets.

Sneakily, you can also spot new targets that arefollowing both of your selected competitors andgo after these.

A summary is given underneath the graphics,which gives a basic comparison of followernumbers and social authority, alongside, aver-

age number of tweets, number of retweets,@contacts and URL tweets. A useful tool forperiodically tracking how well you are shapingup against the competition.

EMBRACE YOUR INNER-WONK

For the data-geeks among us, I’ve hardlyscratched the surface here and there is plentymore analysis available, especially if youhave the money. However, for those simplyinterested in putting together a savvy engage-ment strategy, what I’ve aimed to show is howstraightforward that can be with this user-friendly tool. So, go on – embrace your inner-wonk.

ABOUT HELEN LAURENCE Helen is an experienced public relatio

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