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.

Many public relations practitioners have warmed in recent years to the power of search engine optimization for growing the impact of pull based PR efforts.

Journalists, bloggers and industry influentials use search engines to find subject matter experts, research companies, locate past media coverage and track topical trends. In fact, a recent survey on journalists’ use of search by TopRank reports that 91% of those journalists, reporters and editors surveyed use search engines to do their jobs.

Traditionally, search engine optimization efforts have been managed by corporate marketing departments – either in-house or through an outside agency. However, will all the opportunities to create value in the form of increased online brand visibility, reputation management and internet based media coverage, public relations deserves a seat at the corporate SEO table.

To achieve that, it’s important that PR professionals understand the foundation of SEO tactics as well as the business benefits for PR efforts as well as to the larger organization.  The upcoming series of posts will outline SEO and PR tactics with the most impact, how to choose the best keywords, on page SEO and link building best practices as well as measuring the value of SEO to public relations efforts. It will also cover when PPC is a better fit than SEO, how to combine SEO and social media promotions and the finer points of selling the benefits of SEO to decision makers.

Corporate web site optimization projects require an equal measure of search engine knowledge, understanding of corporate messaging and ability to appreciate and acquire links from credible sources. By learning the fundamentals of SEO and the possible impact on public relations effectiveness, PR departments can demonstrate their competitive advantage.

To that end, here is a series of ten blog posts that present specific tactics that will help PR practitioners implement content optimization tactics and improve online PR performance through search:

Keep in mind that while these explanations and examples will be centered around PR and news content, many of the SEO  and social media marketing tactics can be applied to any kind of content whether it be job listings, FAQ/Knowledge Base info or products/services.

Public relations is more than press releases and media relations efforts to pitch journalists stories about companies. Public relations also involves building thought leadership, social media engagement, content development, internal company communications and many more aspects of corporate communications that affect marketing.

Due to the shift of advertising and publications online, newsrooms have been dealing with limited resources due to job loss and budget cuts for several years. The recession has not improved that situation and creates even more pressure for journalists to produce more content with fewer resources. Public relations and media relations efforts help meet that need for content by delivering story ideas, research, subject matter experts and resources.

Digital public relations savvy agencies are making both traditional media relations, digital media relations and optimized news content work together as part of a Push Pull PR strategy. Public relations agencies work to partner with journalists to provide content via push delivery, but can also optimize (SEO) news content to make it easy for story researchers to find companies the public relations firms represent.

The trend in hard times is for companies to cut all marketing costs that are not tied to direct sales. Yet, some companies are shifting budgets to smart, creative online marketing and public relations efforts. When no one else is marketing, there’s even more opportunity to stand out to prospective buyers.

As companies decide where to invest their limited marketing resources, there is a distinct opportunity to focus on investing in relationships with their customers, prospects, employees and business partners.  

Companies that have been engaged in social Web participation long before the economy went into recession may already have an asset that new social media participants desire — better relationships with their customers. Digital public relations and social media efforts can facilitate the effectiveness of building those relationships — even for companies that are just now starting. The challenge is figuring out how to best use the resources available and what internal expertise or outside help will make best use of them.

Blogger relations is not a matter of media relations with a new type of media list. Bloggers are typically not reporters and don’t follow the same rules and practices within traditional journalism. Yet a single blogger can attract an audience on par with that of a small news organization.

As a blogger with over 15,000 subscribers, I’ve been on the sending and receiving end of blog pitches. Here are a few hard won insights for media relations professionals trying to make sense of the blogger audience.

• Be relevant. It seems so simple and obvious, yet it is the biggest mistake made when pitching bloggers. Look at the categories of the blog, tags and previous blog posts. Is your pitch REALLY relevant?

• Personalize. Getting an email pitch with no personal reference at all, or just a press release and no message is a sure trip to the trash folder. Take the time to research the blog, make comments and get involved. Be honest about who you are in the comments and provide thoughtful insight that is of value and relevant to the blog post.

• Make it easy. Most bloggers don’t write 600-1,000 word stories in response to a press release. Bloggers like to link to things. Provide a summary of the news release and a link to the full version. Many bloggers will copy and paste the summary, add commentary and a link to the full release. Popular bloggers are very busy, so make it easy for them.

• Be persistent. Don’t be offended or give up if a blogger doesn’t take your story the first time. Be courteous and smart about repeat attempts though. Watch to see if they really do pick up on your story before sending another pitch. ALWAYS follow up with a thank you email or comment when your story IS picked up. Courtesy goes a very long way in the blogosphere.

There’s plenty of advice on blogs about how to pitch blogs, but the bottom line is to be relevant, timely and persistent. Online PR efforts with blogs is not a numbers game. A little bit of relationship building will go a long way with the individual bloggers you’re working with as well as their readership. And so on and so on.

Virtual Reality and 3D platforms not just a child’s game. “Second Life: The Dream Platform for PR Professionals,” was the last session I took while attending PRSA International 2008, but it was one of the most effective. Why you may ask? Because Second Life isn’t just about creating an avitar and playing in a virtual world it is about jumping on board to the future of interaction.

Second Life not just another social media site, and these statistics prove that:

• 14 Million Users
• 100 Countries represented
• 35 Million hours spent on Second Life a year
• $1.5 Million UDS earned per day on virtual goods
• 35 Median age of users on Second Life

What do these statistics say to us? They say that there is an untapped market that is not declining, but growing rapidly. 35 is the median age of the user, there are 14 million users in over100 countries, and $1.5 million dollars are made each day. This tells us that Second Life is not going anywhere but up. Vitrual worlds are now not only for children they are for adults.

People are interacting using Second Life, businesses are selling goods and networking, even presidential candidates are using Second Life to get to a wider audience a new audience why aren’t we? In this session there were tons of people that questioned why they should be on Second Life? It seems like a trend and it is so new what could it really do for them?

Answer: Over 10 years ago people were scared of a computer tool called the “internet”, now this is the most widely used computer tool in the world. Secondly, in 15 years when we are trying to hire new employees they are going to be from generation now. These employees are the generation that are growing up on mainly knowing these virtual worlds, if we are to progress in our industry and our field we need to adapt to change.

Virtual Reality and 3D Platforms are being used by hospitals, non-profits and even global businesses like Nokia to promote their products and services. A new way of interacting with our target audience, a new way of reaching new audiences and keeping true to what PRSA International 2008 has been trying to promote all weekend, point of connection. Connecting with people from all over in one.

I am excited to see where this leads PR and Media Relations. As scarey as it is to accept change the excitement of the unknown keeps me on the edge of my seat. I say embrace Second Life to give your company and your clients a “second life” at reaching a broader audience.