The public relations world is in a state of flux with increasing importance on getting into the content and social web business. Consumers are spending more time with digital and social media. Advertising dollars are following. That means less budget to staff newsrooms and reporters, journalists and editors to pitch.

On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end-consumers through push and pull public relations. Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online public relations results.

Why is this so? Changes in the way the media and end-consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for both the search and social Web. Today’s increasingly social media savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

Of course, throwing keywords at social media tactics isn’t quite the same thing as developing and implementing a plan to reach specific goals. Dropping links to news being promoted on social networks can have impact but is difficult to sustain. For long term value from effort with SEO and social media, public relations professionals should follow best practices as well as the fundamentals:

1. Identify the specific audience to reach. What are their behaviors and preferences for content, sharing, media types, etc? What keywords are used in a social AND search context? Empathize with their content preferences and the context in which they consume and share. A blogger often has very different preferences than a TV reporter or a newspaper journalist.
2. Set specific goals and objectives that can be measured. Mentions, comments, links, rankings, traffic, media coverage or other “engagement” metrics. Leverage tools from search engine optimization and social media marketing to track Web-based metrics.
3. Develop a strategy for reaching those goals with the intended audience. Content creation and promotion is essential for an SEO and Social media public relations effort. Today is not just the age of “Brand as Publisher” but “PR Practitioner as Publisher”. One effective strategy for gaining unsolicited media coverage is to become the media. Or at least perceived as such through attracting a significant audience to a brand news portal or blog.
4. Figure out which mix of tactics (blog, social networks, media sharing, microblogging, etc.) will support and execute the strategy. Original content is ideal but often not practical or sustainable. Content curation mixed with original content can scale. Develop social networks and build channels of distribution for promotion of news.
5. Identify which specific social tools to use. If social networks are the right channel, which social network? Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or niche networks? If video is in the mix, does distribution need to be limited to YouTube or does it make sense to syndicate to Vimeo, Metacafe and others.
6. Put proper measurement tools in place and identify what events and outcomes to analyze. Web analytics and social media monitoring services are essential for collecting useful and reportable outcomes from news SEO and social promotion.
7. Identify individuals and resources necessary to implement. Forecast time, internal reporting, and feedback mechanisms for participants. The most effective social media SEO efforts for public relations involve the agency or public relations practitioner working together with content creators, SEOs, marketers and others in a position to publish and promote content online.
8. Plan for success and what it will take to scale when you succeed. Be ready to address issues or failure as well. Test, test, test! Social media SEO can amplify reach but it takes work and resources. Find out what has to be displaced or subordinated in order to incorporate social media and SEO into the online public relations mix.

This post originally appeared in the PRSA TechConnect Newsletter Jan 2011.

SEO helps a search engine to do its job more effectively.

Search engines aren’t perfect – that’s why people in SEO are flourishing. People who write web copy often only consider one audience: customers, or analysts; maybe journalists. You should consider the extra audience of search engines.

SEO boils down to three elements: keyword research, site interactivity, and links.

1) Keyword research reveals the permutations and variations of the terms people are searching for. Start with the notion of what’s important and pop that into a keyword research tool. It comes back with multiple versions, ordered by popularity, so you can make smart choices about the words you use in your titles and press releases and articles.

2) The technical aspect of how a search engine interacts with your site is, in most cases, a job for your IT department.

3) With linking, go after quantity and quality of links, every day, for ever. You might be publishing good content, but no one will know unless you tell somebody. If you have an unpopular site – maybe because it’s new – use PRWeb online news releases and amplify them through social media channels.

Don’t be scared of getting it wrong – but don’t spam.

The dangers of getting SEO wrong are no worse than the dangers of, for example, using PR software without segmenting your list and blasting people with pitches. The thing to avoid is being overly aggressive and using what might be perceived as spamming tactics. Keyword stuffing, or engaging in linking tactics that Google considers unsavory, such as buying links from a publication – that’s a big no-no for Google. Earn your links: they’re forever, there’s no risk, and they’re more valuable.

SEO will not dominate PR, but it will improve it.

Search engines will never be perfect, and social media will never be perfect. Algorithms aren’t any smarter than human beings. There will always be a combination of technology and human intuition. I’m predisposed to looking for the middle ground. When you have these emerging technologies and industries, it’s usually the middle ground that becomes practical over time.

Learn SEO from TopRank Online Marketing:

Lee Odden will be giving a pre-conference 1/2 day SEO Bootcamp for Communicators at the PRSA International Conference Oct 17th, 2010 in Washington D.C..

The SEO Bootcamp offers a deep dive into the essentials of search engine optimization and social media, real-time search, content marketing, universal search and digital asset optimization.  The workshop offers strategies, tactics, exercises and case studies that will equip you with knowledge that will bring you to the front of the pack when it comes to SEO, online reputation management and search engine dominance.

Endorsed by the President of of the PRSA, Odden has over 12 years of Search Engine Optimization experience and has provided strategic guidance and training for companies ranging from HP to McKesson to PRWeb.

“The SEO team at TopRank has been a tremendous partner for improving the search engine visibility of the PRSA Jobcenter. I recommend TopRank’s SEO consulting services without reservation.”
William Murray, President and COO, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

All attendees will receive a copy of Optimize! Public Relations, documenting the top ten tactics for optimizing content to increase news traffic and online media coverage. Seating is limited for this high impact workshop so be sure to get registered today.

You can register for the SEO Bootcamp here.

Operating a small business can be daunting enough without having to compete against the already established companies in your industry. However, with online PR, you can quickly gain a firm footing and begin to assert your company’s presence. Despite their size, small businesses have several advantages over their larger sized counterparts:

• Small Businesses are much more nimble
• Online PR is best if done incrementally, doesn’t require large resources up front
• Creativity levels the playing field
• Online PR is still a relatively new field
• Success can come quickly, if you’re sharp

Being a Small Business Has its Advantages

The size of a small business should not be a reason for failure.  If anything it should be a reason to succeed. In the online world, larger businesses have more people who wish to have a say in making decisions – decision by committee. The CEO, the CTO, the CFO, VPs, and marketing directors all have a say in how the company operates online. A small business on the other hand can react and respond much quicker. Take for example a customer who may have had a negative experience, they voice their concerns on social media channels and so now all their contacts know about their experience. A large business is likely to have protocols for how they respond to customers online and may not get to do so within an acceptable time frame.

Since there is no decision by committee for a small business, they are able to decide what to do quickly and efficiently, address the customer’s concerns, and provide a more transparent form of feedback. The customer now knows their opinion is valued and is much more likely to become an evangelist for the company.

It’s Not What You Have, But Who You Have

In the corporate world there are departments on one side of the business who aren’t aware of what another part of the business is doing. When decisions are being made about anything in the online space, marketing, IT, and customer development departments all have a say in what happens. Consider the small business that may only have a management team of three each performing multiple roles and you have a much quicker decision making process.

An Even Playing Field

A lot of the strategies which work for the larger companies also work for smaller sized business. When thinking about the different internet marketing approaches such as social media, search engine optimization, and press release distribution services, there isn’t a marketing technique which is more favorable toward a large company than a smaller sized operation. In all of these areas, brains defeat wallet size, so if you’re a truly savvy small business you can dominate much larger players unwilling or unable to be as creative.

The Online World is Still New

There’s still a lot to learn about online PR, and as technology advances, larger businesses have no distinct advantages over the smaller sized business in terms of establishing a knowledge base. People who’ve been in the online world for years will tell you the only constant for the web is change. If a small business is prepared for change, there should be no reason why they have to fear or worry about not performing.

Potentially Quick Success Rate

Small businesses can quickly establish themselves with efficient participation in online PR. Defining success – whether it’s ranking high in search engines, selling more product items, increasing brand mentions, or receiving more traffic – is within your reach. The fluidity of a small business is often the catalyst to online success, propelling start-up companies to previously impossible levels of visibility and brand recognition.

Consider just 5 – 10 years ago where the Internet was far less populated and tradition media was the main form of ‘PR’. There was a much larger separation between large corporate entities and the smaller-sized businesses. Now, with a medium accessible by nearly everyone, that vast separation has been leveled.

PRWeb is a TopRank Online Marketing client.

Her presentation at OpenCa.mp started with an admission of being somewhat hungover, we are at a tech conference after all, and a rate of speech that was more like East Coast than South West. She was engaging and entertaining.

A lot of companies are doing “Third world social media”. They’re doing things tactically and not integrating into their overall business.

1. About jaw dropping reports:  Sure, servies like Radian6 can create nice looking reports, but what does it mean?

It’s not all about the numbers. What is the data trying to tell us? What are we tring to prove or accomplish. What should we be doing differently. Who cares about this insight?

2. Launch an all out PR assault – tell everyone about your social media program

3. Make executives love it. Dazzle them. Scare them. Do what you have to do.

4. Get your house in order: Who “owns” social media. This includes people, policies, processes and plans. Social media strategy and task forces are the biggest killer of social media in companies. Develop a philosophy and move forward.

Takeaways:

• Brands don’t communicate with people, people do.
• Becoming a social business takes time.
• Social media is not a burden, it is a gift.

@paulaberg

Lee Odden is a man with a message: write to your audience. Of course, PR pros knew that already. If we’re pitching to a tech publication, we talk tech; if we’re pitching to a newspaper, we’re topical. However, we’re still ignoring the audience of the search engine – and it’s one of the most influential publics we have. Search engines don’t buy our products and they don’t write the news – but they influence everyone who does. No one knows this better than Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing. His business is built on optimizing brands’ online performance, and he believes that ‘Optimized PR’ – the practice of integrating the opportunities offered by search engine optimization and social media into your PR – is the future.

“Optimized PR reacts to opportunities.’ says Odden. ‘The opportunities are in the way that journalists, analysts and bloggers are doing their jobs now. An astronomical number of journalists have lost their jobs in the last five or ten years. Those that remain in the newsroom are expected to do more with less. They’re using search and social media to do their research and to identify themes, trends and emerging stories. Our own surveys show that between 90 and 100 percent of them have used Google as a part of their job. Optimized PR helps them find your company.”

“TopRank gets anywhere from ten to thirty unsolicited media pick-ups every month from industry publications that cover search and Internet marketing,” says Odden. “There’s no PR firm; no outbound pitching. It’s Optimized PR, and there are two elements to it. The first is creating keyword-optimized content so that journalists and bloggers find your company where they’re searching. The second element is pushing that content out through self-grown social media networks and channels of distribution.”

Although the language might sound intimidating, the activity itself isn’t. Broken down into its parts, much of Optimized PR will come naturally to PR professionals skilled in building networks and creating topical content; while other elements can be accomplished with inexpensive online tools. So where do we, as relative novices, start?

“Start with optimizing a press release,” says Odden. “This involves keyword research. Start with the notion of what’s important and pop that into a keyword research tool. It comes back with multiple variations, ordered by popularity, so you can make smart choices about the words you use in your titles and press releases and articles. Just by doing that, you’re giving yourself an advantage, because your press release is now more likely to be discovered through Google search.

“Now, you could take your optimized press release and also create a blog post of that same news. Maybe you’ve got a video embedded in the press release. What if you transcribe that video as part of your blog post? Or take some screenshots of important parts of the video, and add those to the blog post. You’ve now got new, original content by repurposing what you already had.”

“Then,” he continues, “you push that social-friendly version of the press release out through social media channels. This assumes you’ve made the effort to grow a Twitter network, a Facebook network, a LinkedIn network. Your blog might have a large number of subscribers, and an email newsletter. Other readers might find your post through blog search, or image search. If they can find it, they can link to it – and those links move you up the search engine rankings and make it easier for journalists to find you. Now, your social media channels are working together with your press release. You’ve got something optimized for search, and optimized for social: you’ve got Optimized PR, and its reach is… there’s just no comparison.”

“Compare that to pitch – the idea of just pushing a press release,” says Odden, “Compare interrupting a journalist’s day and asking them to write about your company with the idea of a journalist on a deadline, who goes to Google and finds you because you’ve written an optimized piece of content, prompting them to connect with you via Facebook to set up the call that will enable them to get their story finished.

“Of course, the two techniques work together. Often, as a journalist, you get your pitch, you read it for 10 or 15 seconds and you go straight to Google and search for the company who’s sent it. If that company has optimized their content and they show up, that connection is priceless. It’s almost like third-party validation.

It’s a convincing sell, but you might remain unconvinced of your ability to put the technical aspects of SEO and social media channeling into practice. Odden, however, has encouragement for you.

“Experiment and participate,” he advises. There are companies who acknowledge that they may not have the resources to do it, so they hire people like us. Others might do some self-education by going to conferences and training sessions; there’s online education and lots of resources. But none of that means anything unless you experiment yourself. Start a blog, do some of the social things to grow a network, then pick content optimization opportunities and try your hand. And SEO is easy to try. Even if you just Google, ‘Learn SEO’, you’ll find a resource that gives you advice.”

Article originally published by Vocus

Photo Credit: Andy Beal

On Thursday, January 28th 1PM EST TopRank Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden and Bulldog Reporter will be offering a high impact webinar for Public Relations and Communications professionals on using search engine optimization to increase online visibility and placements. Details are below, but you can register here:

Optimized Public Relations: 10 Easy SEO Tactics PR Can Use to Increase Digital and Traditional Media Pickup in 2010 Bulldog Reporter’s PR University Presents a New Webcast Tutorial Thursday, January 28, 2010

PR pros looking for the latest SEO tools and know-how to build brand and buzz should attend this new webcast tutorial from Bulldog Reporter’s PR University titled: “Optimized Public Relations: 10 SEO Tactics PR Can Use to Increase Digital and Traditional Media Pickup in 2010.” :

This PR University webcast takes place on Thursday, January 28, at 1PM EST (noon CST, 11AM MST, 10AM PST).

In just 90 minutes, this PR University webcast tutorial will give PR professionals the tools and step-by-step instruction they need to positively impact their company or brand’s perception, positioning and coverage. They will learn how to find their keyword sweet spot, how to use those words and phrases to boost the number of people who visit their site and how to write optimized copy to drive greater results and return on investment.

Key takeaways from this webinar:

• The opportunity Google’s Universal Search offers PR for news and other digital assets
• SEO Primer: Common myths, essential concepts and key definitions PR must understand how search engines work
• How to conduct keyword research-plus online tools and new techniques for finding their company or brand’s keyword sweet spot
• Word counts, hyperlinks, headline writing rules and other SEO guidelines
• How to use keywords to optimize your online newsroom, website, press releases — and virtually any PR communiqué
• SEO Distribution: Smart press releases, social media releases and other emerging distribution tools that leverage optimized PR copy for wider reach online
• Actionable tips for incorporating SEO and Social Media into an optimized PR program
• How to optimize press releases, websites and PR communiqués by integrating keywords and phrases

Register for the Optimized Public Relations webinar here.

Attendance at Bulldog Reporter’s PR University : audio conference costs $299 per dial-in site. Participants in the 90-minute conference will be able to pose specific questions for the presenter at several junctures during the discussion. Attendees of PR University conferences receive one credit toward PRSA accreditation maintenance.
Registration also includes an up-to-the-minute conference manual and a full transcript. For more information on taking part in the event, go here : or for personalized service and special offers please contact our client satisfaction representatives toll free at: 1-800-959-1059.

About Lee Odden:

Lee Odden is CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, a Minnesota based digital marketing agency with experience providing Search Engine Optimization and Social Media PR consulting services to organizations including PRSA, PRWeb, McKesson and Marketo. Odden’s SEO advice is featured in a chapter of “Online Marketing Heroes”, published by Wiley,  he contributes to Mashable, iMediaConnection and the Microsoft Advertising Blog and is executive editor of Online Marketing Blog, ranked by Advertising Age and Technorati as a top Business & Marketing blog.

As a 12 year internet marketing veteran, he’s been cited by The Economist, DM News and Target Marketing Magazine for SEO, Social and PR expertise and is a sought after speaker for conferences including Search Engine Strategies, Pubcon and PRSA International. Odden serves as on the DMA Search Marketing Council, is on the advisory board for Search Engine Strategies, Marketing Profs Conference Programming advisor and a past MIMA board member.

Connect with TopRank on the Social Web:
Twitter: @toprank
Blog: Online Marketing Blog
Facebook: Online Marketing Blog Fan Page

Forward thinking companies would do well to assess the SEO and social media readiness of their marketing and PR resources.  Is the current digital PR effort leveraging improved visibility through search engines? Do current PR and Marketing staff or vendors possess the digital PR tools they need to offer competitive consulting in a “PR 2.0” world? Consider the following questions to assess the SEO and social media readiness of your digital PR assets:

1. Is social media participation conducted without attention to SEO?
   According to the iPressroom Digital Readiness Report, social media adoption outranks organic SEO. Yet more than 82% of Internet users surveyed in “When Did We Start Trusting Strangers” (published by Tom Smith, one of the researchers of the Digital Readiness Report) stated search engines are the tools most frequently used to source information about products, brands and services. That disconnect reinforces the need for search engine optimization as a key digital marketing and PR tactic.
2. Do social media and SEO efforts work together?
   Some companies are indeed implementing social media and SEO programs, albeit separately. SEO and social media have a clear intersection, and if both are in place, they can work together to compound results. The outcome of many social media interactions and sharing is content. One of the most important concepts to grasp when exploring possibilities with search for PR is that, “If content can be searched on, it can be optimized for better performance.” Therefore, content creation should factor in search optimization whenever relevant. Social media marketing efforts that factor in keyword optimization of content can directly influence the discovery of communities and social content via search engines. Additionally, social content can boost links to your website, improving search traffic and Pull PR results. In other words, if you’re going to create it, why not optimize it?  Implementing social media and SEO as silos misses a significant opportunity.
3. Is a search and social media friendly website part of the digital PR strategy?
   The 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer indicates that companies’ own websites are viewed as more credible sources of information than blogs, social networks or advertising.  The positive effects of frequently updated, quality content on search rankings present a strong case for investing in a search and social media friendly content strategy.  Whether PR professionals have influence over content creation on an entire web site or limited to an online newsroom, keyword optimization of news content creates entry points to stories through search for journalists, analysts and bloggers researching online.
4. Where does a blog fit within the social media content strategy?
   The highest-ranked digital skill for large organizations, according to the iPressroom Digital Readiness Report, is blogging.  Blog savvy PR efforts should include the ability to develop a blog content plan that not only publishes news that the company wants to distribute, but information of specific value to target audiences. Such a blog content plan might include a scheduled mix of posts on subjects relevant to an industry niche in formats that are journalist and/or blogger friendly. Now that every company that is promoting themselves online is in effect, a media company, it’s important to begin to think like one by leveraging an editorial plan and to package information that is useful to customers as well as journalists and other bloggers.   Search optimized and social media friendly blog content can extend the reach of company news to search engines as well as social media news and bookmarking sites.
5. Are target audiences profiled and what is the best way to reach them?
   Analyzing survey results is a great start to determine best practices, tools and tactics for a digital PR strategy. But it’s just that—a start. Profiling the target audience should be an early and integral part of the process. Who is the target audience? What are their preferences for types of social content? Which social media sites do they visit, and how often? What type of search do they use for story research?  Answers to these questions and more will make a digital PR effort that leverages both search optimization and social media participation more efficient.  A good model for understanding social behaviors is the Forrester Technographics report. If consumer social behaviors can be profiled, why not journalists and bloggers?
6. What is your PR firm’s true core competency: traditional or digital PR including social media and SEO?
   The demand for traditional PR skills by many accounts is slipping.  18% of respondents in the Digital Readiness Reports said they have no interest whatsoever in traditional PR.  For the vast majority of respondents, knowledge of social networks (80%), blogging, podcasting and RSS (87%), and micro-blogging (72%) is either important or very important when it comes to PR and marking hiring.

The big question for companies that want to stay ahead of the digital PR game is, “How do your online PR resources (in-house or agency) measure up?

On their own, SEO and social media channels offer attractive opportunities for reaching industry influentials as well as end consumers through push and pull PR. Together, SEO and social media combine to create a competitive edge that can boost online PR results.

Why is this so? Changes in the way the media and end consumers discover, consume and share content illustrate the intersection of opportunity for search and the social web. Today’s increasingly social savvy content consumer not only expects to find what they’re looking for on search engines, but to interact with the results. Those interactions take many forms including: commenting, voting and sharing. As a result, social media can affect search engine visibility in numerous ways, creating new promotion opportunities for public and media relations efforts.

Of course, throwing keywords at social media tactics isn’t quite the same thing as developing and implementing a plan to reach specific goals. Dropping links to news being promoted on social networks can have impact but is difficult to sustain. For long term value from effort with SEO and social media, PR professionals should follow best practices as well as the fundamentals:

1. Implement a listening program using social media monitoring, search engine ranking and keyword research tools.
2. Identify the specific audience to reach. What are their behaviors and preferences for content, sharing, media types, etc? What keywords are used in a social AND search context?
3. Set specific goals and objectives that can be measured. Mentions, comments, links, rankings, traffic, media coverage or other “engagement” metrics.
4. Develop a strategy for reaching those goals with the intended audience. Content creation and promotion is essential for a SEO and Social Media PR effort.
5. Figure out which mix of tactics (blog, social networks, media sharing, microblogging, etc) will support and execute the strategy.
6. Identify which specific social tools use. If social networks are the right channel, which social network? Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace or niche networks?
7. Put proper measurement tools in place and identify what events and outcomes to analyze.
8. Identify individuals and resources necessary to implement. Forecast time, internal reporting, and feedback mechanisms for participants.
9. Plan for success and what it will take to scale when you succeed. Be ready to address issues or failure as well.

A set of guidelines and a focus on strategy is always important, but don’t let that get in the way of experimentation. There is no substitute for learning about effective SEO and social media as communication channels than through participation. Social media optimization is the convergence of SEO and social media that allows media relations and PR professionals to optimize news content and leverage social media channels to promote it.

Determining the effectiveness of SEO for Public Relations starts with clearly identified objectives. Matching the purpose for the effort with specific metrics is essential.  For example, if improving brand visibility is a goal, then documenting brand mentions in connection with news & PR content at regular intervals can demonstrate the effect of content promotion and link building.

Online PR metrics and tools often include:

• News wire service metrics (see screen capture below)
• Web analytics for landing pages and web site
• Google and Yahoo alerts
• Monitor blog search engines (via RSS)
• Press release landing page conversion tracking
• Social media monitoring
• Inbound links
• Pickups on blogs
• Pickups on other web sites & online publications
• News and Standard Search Engine Rankings
• Conversions: Less likely sales, more likely white paper downloads, webinar signups, newsletter subscriptions, demos, etc

A press release that is keyword optimized and announcing a promotional offer of some kind, should have tracking codes added to the links embedded in the release. Those links should point to landing pages designed to convert visitors from the press release to the desired outcome. Ranking is not a worthwhile metric in this case but conversions are.

Capturing various measures and key performance indicators isn’t enough to gain support for optimizing news content in many organizations.  These efforts belong within the Public Relations effort and should emphasize goals consistent with PR objectives. Sometimes it takes a little creative packaging of analytics to help other departments or upstream executives “get” the value of  optimizing PR content for search.

Here are a few tactics to use in order to sell the value of SEO within a PR effort:

• Show competitor social search visibility vs client/company
• Show competitor’s optimized news content ranking in various types of search engines where the company/client is not (and probably should be)
• Research a keyword glossary and run a ranking report on those phrases. Show the lack of search visibility for what search audiences are actually looking for, relevant to the business
• Run a test of a few news items, whether they be blog posts, press releases or a digital asset like video. Take a benchmark measurement first and then show progress.
• Set keyword ranking goals for news content and estimate the cost to achieve the same goals with PPC advertising over time. Demonstrate the cost of organic search traffic vs PPC traffic.

If you can’t get budget approval for an overall search campaign as part of specific PR efforts, then using a competitive example or a small scale test might be enough to demonstrate the value of incorporating SEO with Public Relations.