Best of 2008: Interactive PR
What are some of the best tools for implementing PR 2.0? How do PR, SEO and social media work together to build name recognition and credibility for a company? What are the best (and worst) practices in interactive PR? How should marketers and PR professionals adapt to the decline of traditional publishing and the rapidly increasing influence of social media?
Find the answers to these inquiries and more here in some of the best articles and blog posts about interactive PR from 2008.
Thankful For PR 2.0 by THINKing
Harry Hoover calls out some of his favorite PR 2.0 tools, technology that has made the practice of PR more effective and transparent. Included on his list are Twitter, Peter Shankman’s Help a Reporter Out (HARO), and online social media release service PitchEngine.
Digital PR and SEO Series: Part 3 Social Media Monitoring by Online Marketing Blog
The prolific, mercurial Lee Odden explains how to integrate media relations, SEO and social media to optimize your brand’s online presence, reputation management and engagement with key audiences.
Dirty PR, Sexy Keywords and Outsmarting the Search Engine by PitchEngine
Noting that “there have always been bad PR practices out there, but thanks to this digital era of communications, new methods of PR delivery are making it increasingly tricky for journalists to weed out the good from the bad,” Jason Kintzler explains how PR professionals can use SEO and social media properly—for relationship-building, not trickery.
Steve Rubel on how blogs are changing the face of PR by iMedia Connection
Lori Luechtefeld talks with PR pro and blogger Steve Rubel about the importance of focusing on your audience and message rather than shiny, sparkly new online tools. Among other points, Rubel contends that the press release will evolve rather than disappear, that blogging has permanently altered the media landscape, and that transparency is paramount in building relationships with a broader range of constituencies.
PR Firms: Spend your Money on SEO by Orange Soda
A helpful, if perhaps somewhat controversial, post about what’s dead in PR (e.g., press releases, inviting reporters to lunch) and what’s hot (e.g., blogging and SEO). Some of the points made are spot-on, but as the posts above from Jason Kintzler and Lori Luechtefeld note, the press release is much more likely to evolve with changing practices than to disappear.
Building Relationships is More Important Than Building Links Alone by Search Engine Journal
Blog links have become a valued commodity in the PR world, so much so that popular bloggers receive a constant stream of pitches by email. Loren Baker contends that the best way to generate links is to think beyond the one-off pitch and build relationships with key bloggers in your industry. Following his strategy and the steps he lays out in this post, “one can cut past the boilerplate emails and link requests, and build not only a business relationship with a publisher, but also a long term friendship.”
To Succeed Small Business Marketers Must Unlearn Traditional PR by Content Marketing Today
Newt Barrett expands upon the core idea presented by David Meerman Scott in his invaluable book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR: that PR and marketing professionals need to shift from writing company- or product-centric press releases to customer- and market-centric content that has real value to the company’s prospective clients. In Newt’s words, “if your PR strategy is driven with a customer focus that is backed up by a rich set of customer-centric content, you will generate news.”
Brave New World of Media Pitching: LinkedIn by PR Meets Marketing
PR 2.0 expert Cece Salomon-Lee follows up on her post about Twitter pitching by explaining how LinkedIn can help with PR, such as through forging new connections and researching reporters.
Online PR – Is there any value beyond the links? by Search Engine People
Search marketer Jennifer Osborne answers the provocative question posed in her title with a resounding “Yes!,” detailing six ways to measure the impact of interactive PR, from links and increased traffic to SEO rank and increases in offline inquiries.
Optimizing Press Releases – It All Starts with the Lead by StraightUpSearch
This brief but valuable post offers several simple tricks to help get your news releases not only found but actually read online.
How To Pitch To Bloggers by Pick Me!
The tireless Laura Moncur, author of a half dozen blogs, gives PR practitioners priceless advice on how to effectively pitch bloggers, such as doing some research first, understanding how bloggers differ from traditional journalists, proiding review copies when applicable, and being “prepared for the truth.”
Words to Write By: SEO Tricks for Press Releases by Speak Media Blog
PR strategist Jennifer A. Jones recommends using SEO keyword tools to discover the most popular current keywords when writing news releases. At the time she wrote this post, “sex,” “money,” “secret” and “trick” were among the top attention-getting words (it’s not clear if that means used separately or in combination…hmm) while gobbledegook words like “solutions,” “leading” and “cutting edge” are pretty much worthless.
Social Media Newsroom for How Best to Avoid Dying
This is the social media newsroom page for the book How Best to Avoid Dying
Press Releases and Search Engine Optimization by Search Engine Watch
SEO and web design expert Mark Jackson offers step-by-step guidance on how to maximize the value of press releases for SEO, from writing the release through distribution and publishing.
Facebook Connects Your Brand Across the Social Web by PR 2.0
Brian Solis, principal of Silicon Valley-based PR firm FutureWorks, reviews a presentation by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and cites the platform as key to online reputation management, noting that “With just a bit of code, Facebook Connect enables seamless integration between Web sites, pages, communities, and networks and the Facebook identity system.”
Tags: Brian Solis, Cece Salomon-Lee, FutureWorks, gobbledegook, Harry Hoover, Jason Kintzler, Jennifer Osborne, Laura Moncur, Loren Baker, Mark Jackson, Newt Barrett, PitchEngine. Lee Odden, PR 2.0, social media relations, Social PR, social PR
