Download - The New PR Toolbox
The New PR Toolbox
Tom Becktold, SVP, Marketing, Business Wire
August 12, 2009
If you’re tweeting from this event…
Hash Tag #bwevents
The Tools You Know and Love
• The Press Release• The Web Site• Media Relations• Press Events• Reputation and Crisis Management• Marketing Campaigns
And the New Tools
• Blogging
• Podcasts/Vidcasts
• RSS
• SEO/SEM
• User-Created Content
• Social Networks
• Social Bookmarking
• Wikis
• Crowdsourcing
True or False: Social Media is Bad for Brands
• False. Social media is just another channel for brands to communicate with their customers.
• Brands who use social media right---like Dell, Comcast, & Southwest Airlines---have greatly enhanced their brand image.
What Do I Need to Know?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• SEO is about making the content you can control as relevant as possible for specific search terms, so Google ranks them high on a search engine results page (SERP)
• Why is it important?
Organic Ranking Visibility(shown in a percentage of participants looking
at a listing in this location)
Rank 1 – 100%
Rank 2 – 100%
Rank 3 – 100%
Rank 4 – 85%
Rank 5 – 60%
Rank 6 – 50%
Rank 7 – 50%
Rank 8 – 30%
Rank 9 – 30%
Rank 10 – 20%
The Importance of Search Ranking
First Step: Pick Your Keywords
• Looking for the keyword variations users most often use to find your site or release
• Free keyword research tools– Google External Keyword Tool– Wordtracker.com– Business Wire’s Press Release Builder Tool
Press Release Builder
Press Release Optimization
The Press Release.It’s not just for journalists’ eyes anymore.
These days,
if you’re not writing for ,
Your release might as well be invisible.
Press Release Optimization Tips
• Focus on keywords in the headline, subhead & first 2 ¶s
• Don’t try to be cute---search engines don’t get puns or plays on word
• Link spokespeople to company bio or LinkedIn
• Link out as much as possible in the first 2 ¶s• Link deep to specific pages on your website
Formatting Adds Google Juice
• Bold, Italics, Symbols *@ #• Subheads and bullet points• Improved Financial Tables• Anchor Text and Hyperlinks• Foreign language characters• Social Networking Tags= FREE Improved Search Engine Visibility
Logo branding, formatting, multimedia content and links built into the release
from the start
Logo branding, formatting, multimedia content and links built into the release
from the start
Smart links & anchor text
Smart links & anchor text
FormattingFormatting
Social media sharing linksSocial media sharing links
Releases on many web sites will include photo,
logo, links and formatting
Releases on many web sites will include photo,
logo, links and formatting
Yahoo FinanceYahoo Finance
Google NewsGoogle News
Blogs• What can blogs do
for brands?– Help reinforce brand
image– Humanize a brand– Position a brand as a
resource, expert or thought leader
– Be a customer service channel
www.businesswire.com/blogwww.businesswire.com/blog
Who is Blogging?
ExpertsExperts
AgenciesAgencies
News MediaNews Media
BrandsBrands
“Executives should only be allowed to blog if they can be trained to have a personality again.”
- Greg Peverill-Conti (@gregpc), VP of Emerging Technology, Weber Shandwick
Should CEOs Blog?
A Few That Do it Right
Sun Microsystems – Jonathan’s Bloghttp://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/
Marriott – Bill Marriott’s On the Movehttp://www.blogs.marriott.com/
Dallas Mavericks/HDNet – Blog Maverick
http://blogmaverick.com/
Podcasts• Great examples of PR/marketing podcasts
– Managing the Grayhttp://www.managingthegray.com/
– For Immediate Releasehttp://www.forimmediaterelease.biz/
– American Copywriterhttp://americancopywriter.typepad.com/
– Or check out ours… All Things Press Release Podcasthttp://businesswired.wordpress.com/
category/podcast/
Social Networks
Brands & Social Networks
• The rule for brands on social networks: Provide Value.
• Opportunity to engage with customers at the grassroots level– Give brand evangelists a place to do flourish– Provide access for those customers who want
to talk to you
Great Brands on Facebook
CoachCoach
Susan G. Komen Race for the CureSusan G. Komen Race for the Cure
Great Brands on Twitter
DellDell
ComcastComcast
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Social Bookmarking
• Powerful tool for driving traffic to websites, press releases, blog posts, etc
• Also helps SEO by associating content with more general categories (e.g. ‘health,’ ‘tech,’ ‘business,’ etc)
Crowdsourcing
• Very popular platform right now, allows users to suggest ideas for the brand & lets other users vote them up & down…the brand then implements the most popular ideas
• Dell IdeaStorm (http://www.ideastorm.com/)• MyStarbucksIdea (http://mystarbucksidea.com/)• UCSD AlumnIdea (http://ucsd.alumnidea.com/)
MyStarbucksIdea
Social Media News Release• Ford Example (brand-produced)
http://ford.digitalsnippets.com/environment
– Provides easily downloadable multimedia, including photos & embeddable video
– Easy-to-pull facts, quotes, suggested tags & links to additional info & related discussions
– Convenient social media sharing links– Brand-produced SMNRs tend to be costly
Brand-Produced SMNR
Business Wire’sSmart News Release (SNR)
• Logo/Photos/Multimedia downloadable in multiple resolutions
• Embeddable video & audio• Social media sharing links• Company profile• Permalink archiving
Smart News Release
Smart Marketing Pages
It’s Not About the Technology• The most important thing to remember about
social media for brands is: it is not an item on a checklist.
• A blog, or Facebook page, or Twitter feed, is not always going to be the best thing for that particular brand.
• Know where the conversation about your brand is. And go there.
Thank You! Questions?
Tom Becktold, SVP, MarketingBusiness Wire Los Angeles
Twitter: @becktold
Follow Business Wire on Twitter! @businesswire