To my point, with Google poised to release their official brand pages for their new Google+ social platform, the idea of “Yet Another” comes to mind with, you guessed it, yet another fan page to manage.  Now, why is this relevant for WordPress for public relations?

WordPress can, and in my opinion should be, the hub for your social activity.  Google+ provides yet another way to share your brands content with the idea that users will follow the link, or click, back to your domain.  Where they will then have the opportunity to follow, or join, your brand’s other digital marketing strategies.

For example, let’s say we publish an awesome new press release on our company’s new widget product. Will post our press release to our WordPress site in either in its existing form as a release or as a blog or news style post.  Now, we can then distribute, or syndicate, that post to our followers on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and now Google Plus.  Ultimiatly, this WordPress to social workflow is the driver for a digital marketing and search engine strategy. The benefit is, that if you use these social networks to drive traffic to your digital web property, you’ll gain more awareness for your brand and helping with valuable SEO tactics.

So, when it comes to yet another social profile, I say bring it on. It’s just another way to help build upon your website’s digital strategy.

The Daily Herald, the largest suburban Chicago newspaper and the third overall largest newspaper in the Chicago market, announced today that it will start charging online customers to read their news. The move comes as the struggling paper seeks to retain reporters to allow for their signature micro-coverage of the vast suburban market.

Douglas K. Ray, chairman, publisher and CEO of Paddock Publications, which operates the Herald explains the move in a report published on the paper’s website.

“We invest significantly in reporters and editors and an infrastructure that provides tailored coverage of local news, suburban business developments, politics and entertainment as well as sports from the pro levels to preps. We believe that what we do has value to our readers and to the community. A new payment structure will enable us to continue to provide the kind of quality local news and the journalism expected from the Daily Herald.”

For non-print subscribers, unlimited access starts at $19.99 a month and will allow for access on all digital platforms. The paper currently only offers a desktop web version. (An iPad/iPhone app are touted for the future.) The new policy does allows for non-subscribers to access a small number of free page views within a 30-day window before access to the site is restricted.

The Daily Herald is the first Chicago-based daily newspaper to rollout an online content subscription. Crain’s Chicago Business follows a similar model with their weekly business print version and digital access for about $99 a year.

Infographics, or information graphics, are nothing new. For years, society has harnessed the power of visual representation to logically interpret cause-and-effect through diagrams, timelines and flow charts. From newspapers and magazines to city maps, scholarly work and textbooks, infographics in many ways are a staple in modern communication practice. In traditional public relations practice, infographics are commonly found as components of one-pagers, “by the numbers”, white papers and case studies.

With the decline of print news and as online and digital publishing continue to take a larger share of the information market, the need to discover better ways to disseminate concise information through WordPress blogs and email marketing has no doubt taken the center stage in the public relations, marketing and pro-blogging industries.  Since web content publishers only have a few seconds to invoke a readers decision, visual representation can provide a cognitive ways to engage readership and provide essential knowledge.

In recent months, we’ve witnessed a surge of infographic on popular pro-blogging outlets such as Mashable and Ragan featuring a variety of social/digital driven topics and trends. Some of the more popular infographics we’re seeing are typically geared towards online publishing and social media trends including stats on usage, by the numbers, how-to in step-by-step format as well as historical timelines. Unlike infographic of the past, these modern takes are attempting to almost conveying a complete story in of itself. Much like a one-pager, white paper and a case study did so in the past rather than as a supplement to a story or idea.

Outlying benefits to creating infographics for WordPress blogging:

Because stats and information provide value and infographics are a concise way to outline a point, the probability of a blog post with an infographic to go viral, in todays social web, is very high. Chicago-based infographic creator Lab42 cited that infographics created for their clients have:

…generated over 5,000 tweets, 2,000 Facebook ‘Likes’, and hundreds of linkbacks to their website. – Lab42

Because infographics are typically a image file or a .pdf as part of a blog post, it provides many easy way to share on the social web and can provide value in strategic search campaigns. Infographics do not necessarily have to be for a broad audience rather, in most cases, can be applied to a business-to-business marketing plan, facility or geographical region.

Elements of a great infographic:

• Data-driven Research:

An infographic is only as good as the data it represents. Quality, fresh data is essential to a great infographic.

• Quality Design:

A great infographic should be visual appealing and avoid clutter.

• Complete Thoughts:

Mind the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. Readers will need the complete process and all of the parts to arrive at the end point.

• Timelines:

Background information is essential. For someone not as familiar with the given topic, historical data and timelines will provide the building blocks required to get up to speed.

• Unique Data:

Original data can be a challenge and time consuming but it’s the cornerstone for a great infographic. Providing valuable content for the reader is what makes a great infographic.

• Sources:

If original data is not possible, then citing where the information was obtained is essential.

Media Pitching:

While creation of an infographic is typically not a no-cost, it should be considered for budgeting a story pitching strategy. Again, with only seconds to grab a reporters attention, an infographic could be an important conduit to a media pitching strategy.

Viral Billboards:

While infographics provide value to the reader, or the consumer, through stats and figures, the can also provide value the creator. Infographics have proved to be a great way to unobtrusively get your company’s name, or domain name, out on the social web. Most infographic provide sources and information on the creator in the footer. Much like white papers and case studies did in the past.

The Cons:

Obviously they can be cost prohibitive as it require some type of data mining, fact checking and a medium to create the graphic. Additionally, with the rapid evolution of the internet and the continued popularity of the craft, most infographics will have a short “shelf life”. Plus, there’s no guarantee that your infographic will hit the viral superhighway.

Having a plan to get the word out on your new infographic is essential. Decide how one might strategically place this new infographic on online media outlets, social properties and and other ways to further extend its reach.  What are some of your infographic ideas?

Great Examples:

Infographic Sources:

• mashable.com
• infographiclabs.com
• lab42
• 1wd.co

What is WordPress?

WordPress is an opensoure content management system (CMS) that originally launched for running a blog. Basically, it’s a piece of free software that one can upload to a web host and use it to run a website. It gained popularity – to the tune of 13% percent of the top 1,000,000 website¹ – because:

• it’s free
• supported by an excellent community of users and
• for the most part, offers a simple user experience.

There are a lot of reasons why WordPress is so amazing but ultimately, it brings the power of advanced web publishing to the people. Prior to the advent of WordPress, someone who wished to create a website, or blog, without a budget or technical expertise, would rely on traditional blogging services like Blogger or Xanga. Today, with almost little to no startup costs, WordPress can be utilized to create a full-fledge website/blog. Most importantly, users can launch their site/blog on a private domain, with their own hosting account and further its creation with their own foresight. Being able to tweak the website’s front end – or theme – to one’s desire, is ultimately what has driven the popularity of this platform.

Over the last several years, WordPress has truly opened the doors for several niche blogs and news outlets. Including CountryMusicChicago.com, an online magazine/blog created by yours truly. WordPress helps Country Music Chicago disseminate information, in a timely manor, to its readers. Much like of a traditional news website.

In my upcoming posts, I will elaborate more on why WordPress is free and the tools needed, or recommended, to get started.

Scott Winterroth

scott@frontandsocial.com

I’m really excited for the idea that I’ll be able to comment on two of the things I have a lot of passion for, public relations and WordPress.  This blog, while I’m still working on some of the kinks, will hopefully bring insight to both the PR and WP communities.

Please follow our official Twitter account @wpforpr and our Facebook page is coming soon.

~Scott