Posts Tagged ‘PR’
Having your blog or Web site rank high in search engine is essentially a guaranteed way to convert sales. But as a PR person, how can you help your clients achieve number-one ranking nirvana?
While at the recent BlogWorld Expo, I sat in on a session that proposed the creation of a network of blogs with content specific to the various products or services your client sells. Relevant key words in the blogs’ titles and content will help it rank so that it does not dilute the keywords in other articles. The strategic use of keyword specific anchor text and linking structures will help as well.
Now, I’m not an SEO expert, but as a PR person, I see the many benefits to this. But there’s a side of me that asks, “Is this genuine?” There’s two sides to this. One of them is black, the other is white. So, I think it’s a gray hat strategy.
The Black Hat
From what I understand, the bad side of this comes in how the blogs are presented. If a network of blogs all have different designs, branding/names, domain registrations and IP addressees, then the assumption is that they are not related. But if all links and referrals point back to a single vendor, this is blatant link farming and search engines look at this extremely unfavorably.
This is a disingenuous method of boosting your page rank. And it does a dis-service to your readers. This will also, if identified by the search engines, end up hurting your ranking and site more as a result of being viewed as manipulative of the search engine results page.
The White Hat
Creating quality content is never a bad thing. But there’s a right way to do this. The theory is sound, but the practice needs to be executed properly.
If you keep the branding and disclose who runs the sites, then the benefits should still come. The underlying premise here is that the content is valuable. Provide information that helps guide a purchasing decision and that will help convert the traffic to revenue.
Technically, there’s more to good content than the words on a page. Ensuring that your site (or sites) is properly optimized with the appropriate links and anchor text, page structure (tagging, linking structure, focused keywords, etc.) and linking out to other quality content are just as important to helping your client’s blogs rank.
Sharing your content is where a different side of blogger outreach comes in to play. Spend time cultivating relationships with other bloggers and sites for content distribution and linking purposes, rather than develop this network artificially yourself. Develop authoritative sites that are on topic and link out to more sites than just your own.
So, in the end, it all comes back to “write quality content.” What do you think of this model, is it unethical? How would you improve upon this model?
~ Extra special thanks to Kristy Bolsinger for her help w/this post. Always good to have a fact checker 
Tags: bwe09, ethics, execution, PR, Tips
Unique is a powerful world. Which is why you should only use it if something truly is unique.
If you find yourself typing “fairly unique,” take a deep breath, hit the delete key 13 times and try again. Same goes with “very unique,” “truly unique” or “quite unique.”
Unless the product really is unique. In that case, simply leave it at unique. It’s a powerful word by itself.
Tags: PR, PR Tips, unique
Back in April, we were promised that the Twitpitch would be the future. And after eight months, it looks like the future is still on the way. The same can be said with a recent project called “MicroPR.”
These short, high-level pitches are great for putting a link out onto Twitter, but for targeted, effective pitches, they are merely an arrow in the public relations professional’s quiver.
I’ll start with Twitpitch. Stowe Boyd, whom I have met a number of times and always enjoy chatting with, devised a plan to streamline getting pitches. A great idea and if you want to pitch Stowe, and Stowe only, then get on Twitter and throw #twitpitch on there.
What this exemplifies more than anything is how each pitch must be customized, tailored and based on the person doing the pitching’s knowledge of the recipient. Stowe likes music, composes songs and also has a music blog. Did you know that or did you just know to put #twitpitch in a twitter message?
MicroPR
MicroPR is essentially a way for reporters to pitch PR and Marketing people via Twitter. The full story is on Brian Solis’ PR 2.0 blog (which, if you’re not reading, you should be). So, on the surface, sounds like a great idea. And a cursory search of Twitter, shows the beginnings of an effective discourse.
But my problem is that it seems to be a case of PR folks outsmarting themselves. Thanks to MicroPR and Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out, PR folks are able to keep an eye out for opportunities to place their clients in front of attentive reporters.
But of course a lot of hard work is still to be done. Establish rapport, making a connection is still the name of the game. I think that email is still an invaluable tool for PR pros. MicroPR requires a journalist to alter an ingrained work flow in order to post to MicroPR, monitor the results and then choose the best source.
So, two tools that are trying to unite PR and journalists. But I think the true task is to keep the emphasis on the relations part of our career. What do you think?
Tags: best practices, MicroPR, PR, Twitpitch
Pitching. That word has come to instill fear in PR pros and journalists alike. The 24-hour news cycle has made pitching an announcement even more competitive and challenging than ever.
Tons of posts exist about how to craft an effective pitch. But in my conversations and those held in the public forum, the success of the pitch is directly proportianate to the quality of the relationship the company/PR agent has with the recipient of the pitch.
So, my tip for pithing is to not do it blindly. Your client or company is in a vertical. That vertical has press and analysts. Make it your mission as the PR rep to have a great relationship with them.
Tags: Pitching, PR
One of the things I quickly realized when I wrote my last post is that it is much more difficult to participate in a marketing or public relations campaign than one would imagine. So, I wanted to expand a bit more on the Participate element of CRAP.
Most large companies simply aren’t agile enough to actively be involved and followup on a campaign. And a lot of smaller companies simply don’t have the time to be actively participating in conversations.
Participating in a marketing campaign is about connecting with the audience. Let them into your world. Show them how things work and show them why your product is the best.
One of the best examples of participation is Wine Library TV. The point of WLTV is not to get video views or Twitter comments, it is to sell wine. The videos that are produced, the events Gary speaks at and the messages he sends on Twitter are a means to an end.
But other examples exist as well. Every party thrown is an act of participation. When Scott Beale at Laughing Squid has a drink up, the goal is to meet new people, interact with his audience and hopefully score some new business.
More traditional methods exist as well. Take the Webinar as an example. A project manager or product architect giving a personal, non-marketing tour of a product or technology goes a lot further with an engaged audience than a banner ad on Digg.
So, participate with your audience. It’s not about being seen, it’s about seeing and connecting with the audience.
Tags: conversation, marketing, Participate, PR
Yeah, I said it. Marketing is a bunch of CRAP! But not the kind of crap you may be thinking I mean. I am talking about C.R.A.P.: Communicate, relate, anticipate and participate.
These are the foundations of an effective marketing campaign and will help any brand, any PR pro or any marketer work better with their clients and potential customers. So, spread the CRAP and let me know what you think.
Communicate
Photo from Flickr user kool_skatkat under Creative Commons.
This is a pretty obvious practice and should be standard operating procedure. Communicating means not just broadcasting, but responding and conversing with your audience as well. Most organizations fall short in a couple of key areas.
Openness is essential. The Beta’s delayed? Say so. There’s a bug? Fix it, apologize and move on to new features. There is a limit to how open you want to be, but I feel that in order for a company to succeed, it needs to be as open as responsibly possible.
Brevity is a key. I have invented a word: conciseification (ironic, no?), which means “take what you said in 500 words and say it in 200. Take your four sentences and make them two. By tightening your message, it becomes more memorable. The recipient can take the message away much easier.
Listening makes you a good spouse. By actively listening and conversing with your audience, they feel respected, empowered and happy. A happy audience is one of the most effective marketing tools possible.
Relate
Relating to your potential market is absolutely essential. Don’t just go to the trade show, take it over. Be a presence anywhere your potential customer base is at. This does not need to be huge parties, expensive sponsorships or even in-depth webinars.
A simple hello or a simple appearance at a meetup is enough. People will remember the brand or the business that goes the extra step to go to a Barcamp or to go to a PHP Meetup. Your competition isn’t doing it, so you should be.
Anticipate
This is probably the hardest premise to follow. In the tech business, people the customers generally get what they want. How can you as a marketer anticipate what the customer wants? Easy: Follow the other three elements of this post.
By communicating, relating and participating, you become an expert. You can identify trends and you can jump ahead of the mob to deliver the solution it is running toward.
Participate
I thought about just retyping the word “participate.” But I realized there’s a lot more to participation than being present. You’re participating because you have a goal: to succeed. But if you are genuinely passionate about the product or brand you are representing, then it will show.
Photo from Flickr user matiasjajaja under Creative Commons.
These concepts make for an effective cornerstone for a product launch, a new campaign or simply reconnecting with your audience. Step in this CRAP and the only thing you’ll smell is success. What do you think?
Tags: idea, marketing, PR