Best Social PR Guides, Tips and Tools of 2010
January 12, 2011Social media marketing, online PR and SEO are three tactics that are all powerful on their own, but have far more impact when used in a coordinated, synergistic manner.
How can you amplify and extend new releases through social media? Optimize company news for SEO benefit? Effectively connect with bloggers and other key online influencers in your industry? Which online tools are most helpful for PR pros? What does the future hold for online / interactive / social PR?
Get the answers to all of these questions and more here in some of the best social PR guides, tips and tools of the past year.
Interactive PR Guides, Tips and Tools
Twitter Pitching Etiquette: What works, what doesn’t… by COMMS Corner
Noting that “Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, if used effectively, can help build relationships, identify new trends and help facilitate networking with like-minds throughout the industry,” Lacey Haines and Adam Vincenzini share a few best practices for pitching journalists through social media, such as keeping pitches short and using a DM rather than a public message when pitching on Twitter.
The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases by Adam Sherk
We’ve seen these before—meaningless, over-used goobledygook buzzwords in press releases—but here Adam Sherk provides an updated list for 2010, topped by “leading,” “unique,” “solution” and “innovator” and proceeding through “customer-centric,” “outside the box” and “peak performance.” So, if you’re stumped for an opening line the next time you’re drafting a press release, try something like “XYZ Company, the leading innovator of unique, customer-centric solutions, today announced an outside the box product which supports peak performance.” Go ahead, works for anything.
6 free online PR tactics that deliver by iMedia Connection
Rachel Hunt supplies valuable guidance on how to use social networking, award submissions, guest blogging, speaking opportunities and original research to maximize the impact of PR efforts.
Public Relations: The best press release is no press release by MarketingSherpa
The headline may be a bit harsh—drafted and used properly (which they too frequently aren’t), press releases can still serve a valuable role—but Daniel Burstein does make some excellent points here. One of the best: “Talk to me (the media) like I’m your older brother, not your mother…When you talk to your mother, she’s likely excited and proud about almost anything you have done…However, try the same pitch with your older brother and see how well that turns out. ‘Loser. You’re only in advertising because you couldn’t hack it in medicine.’ To grab the attention of your older brother, you need something really newsworthy.”
5 successful marketers reveal their favorite public relations tools by Matt About Business
Matt Mansfield interviews five PR pros including Joe Chernov of Eloqua and Lisa Ann Pinkerton of Technica to get the scoop on their favorite tools for PR management, social media and other functions. The tools, briefly reviewed, range from the obvious (e.g., Vocus and Cision) to the obscure (Butterfly Publisher).
Pitching on Twitter? Try these 8 tactics to entice the media by Ragan.com
Maya Wasserman offers expert guidance to successfully connecting with reporters and editors on Twitter, from focusing on individual journalists rather than publications and building a relationship before pitching to using PitchEngine and being brief (which is pretty much enforced by Twitter anyway).
Social Media Press Releases and Blogger Outreach
The Art of Creating a Social Media Press Release by Socialfish
After a quick trip through the history of social media press releases, Maddie Grant muses that the essential elements of a social media release remind her of nothing more than…a blog. She then makes the heretical (!) contention that “You don’t need a PR agency.” While that may be taking a good idea a bit too far, she does make an interesting argument that “If your ‘news’ is cool or important enough that when you post it on your blog, your community shares it, and tweets it, and talks about it, then the trade journalists who cover your industry will notice…Do this right and the news will find you.” Good advice even if you do use a PR agency.
The 5 Cs of Blogger Relations by prTini
***** 5 Stars
Noting (very accurately I might add) that “The top bloggers receive hundreds of pitches a day. Even bloggers with less traffic to their site are still being pitched on a regular basis. Working against us, some PR people aren’t quite so savvy and are spamming these bloggers,” Heather Whaling lays out an excellent model for doing blogger outreach right, including collaboration (“how can we provide content that will drive traffic to their site?”) and content (“before you ever think about pitching a blogger, make sure you’re offering something valuable”).
Is the Press Release Dead? 5 Tips to Revive It by iMedia Connection
“Has the press release taken its last breath?” Paige O’Neill answers “not yet” if it evolves into a social media release, and provides guidance on how to create and share one effectively.
Social PR News and Commentary
The Future of Public Relations and Social Media by Mashable
Erica Swallow interviews 14 PR experts including Jeff Esposito, Lou Hoffman and Dave Delaney to get their opinions “on the future of public relations and how they see social media changing the industry.” In short—relationships with key influencers have always been and will continue to be the key to an effective public relations strategy. Social media changes how those relationships are formed and maintained, but not fundamentally what PR pros do.
Google Launches Blog Finder for Any Topic by ReadWriteWeb
Marshall Kirkpatrick dives into Google’s expanded blog search capabilities and concludes “The search results in this new search by blog feature look pretty good to me. The ranking of those results, however, seems questionable…That said, in as much as I know about the topics I searched for, the top blogs in those fields definitely peppered the search results, to greater or lesser degrees.” PR pros shouldn’t rely solely on Google’s tool when developing an outreach list, but it’s a good one to add to their arsenal.
Update on Trusting PR Agencies without a Social Media Presence with Your Social Media Programs by PR Meets Marketing
Cece Salomon-Lee reports on the progress PR firms are making in using social media for their own business as well as their clients’—”eating their own dog food” so to speak. Among her findings: “While most agencies didn’t link to their social media channels on their website in 2009, 83% included this on their home page in 2010. Twitter was the most popular social media channel, with 80% of PR agencies having a presence. 35% had followers numbering over 1000.”
PR and SEO
Why PRs can be better link builders than SEOs by Econsultancy
Kelvin Newman contends that the skills which make PR pros successful (e.g., deep vertical industry knowledge, writing, relationship-building) also make them natural link builders for SEO. There’s no question that online PR plays a key role, in conjunction with SEO, in successful web presence optimization.
SEO Press Releases Extend Your Coverage by Adventive Marketing
5 Stars *****
Janet Killen explains in a comprehensive yet concise manner step-by-step instructions for getting maximum SEO benefit from a press release, integrating keywords, links, online distribution, social media and RSS.
Get More from your SEO Press Release by InteractMedia SEO Content Marketing Blog
Expanding on Janet’s advice above, Beth Hrusch reminds us that keeping readers in mind is critical too, and provides seven tips for optimizing press releases for both search engines and people.
Related Post
Best Social PR Guides and Tips of 2010 (So Far)
Tags: Adam Sherk, Adam Vincenzini, Beth Hrusch, blogger outreach, Butterfly Publisher, Cece Salomon-Lee, Cision, Daniel Burstein, Erica Swallow, Heather Whaling, Janet Killen, Kelvin Newman, Lacey Haines, Maddie Grant, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Matt Mansfield, Maya Wasserman, online PR, online PR tactics, Paige O'Neil, PitchEngine, pitching journalists through social media, press release buzzwords, Rachel Hunt, SEO press release, Social Media Marketing, Social PR, social PR, Vocus
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