While I agree that press release wire services are no substitute for sending tailored PR content to journalists and bloggers you know and engage with regularly, I believe they can and do provide added value in five ways: 

1.) They can generate news coverage in niche media or those you  might not regularly target
On numerous occasions I’ve seen  a wire  generate unexpected coverage in surprising places. These include niche websites or blogs and  publications based overseas… and titles I don’t regularly target because they are a bit…well…tangential for my clients. 

2.) They can help you reach target audiences directly
Any distribution/wire service worth its salt will have its content indexed by Google and the other search engines. So provided you have done your keyword research right, there’s a chance it will hit some of the target audiences you want to reach directly. I know this is true because of  the countless times I myself have ended up finding a useful press release hosted on a wire site when I have been researching a topic via search.

3.) They can trigger social media mentions   
Every time I put a release on a wire I notice that it generates some social media mentions – normally retweets on Twitter.  Many of the wire services include social media insertion as part of the package.  And on the odd occasion I have seen this lead to my stories being re-tweeted by ‘power tweeters’ with thousands of followers.   

4.) They can generate backlinks to help your SEO…possibly
Many press release wire services allow you to insert links (to pages on your own or your clients’ web sites or landing pages) within the press release.  The hope is that as the release gets published and republished in various places across the web, this generates  multiple back-links.  As the search engines use the number and quality of backlinks to determine how highly web pages should rank, then in theory the wire services should be able to help your SEO. This is not a cut and dried case however;  I’ve had some SEOs tell me that backlinks from newswires do convey some ‘link juice’ to help rankings, while others pooh- pooh them as a waste of time because they believe these poor quality links are useless .      

5.) They can sometimes provide a safety net
Your target media  is changing constantly, with new titles coming out, being acquired or closing.  Journalists move between titles, change their beats on the same titles, or go freelance.  It’s difficult for you as a PR to keep track of every change as soon as it’s happened.  So a wire service might just provide a little bit of extra insurance that your story will get in front of someone that you should be targeting but have missed.

(Image curtesy of  UWMadArchives http://flic.kr/p/aqEfGi)

Obviously visibility on social sites such as Facebook is important because it can potentially drive traffic.  But – with Google and Bing beginning to look at popularity on social networks as a factor when judging the quality of web pages and how they should be ranked  - it could also be playing a role in improving search visibility, and hence traffic.

So there’s a good case for news and other web sites building and monitoring social visibility.  And one way of tracking this is analysing how often their content is shared.  Our client, search and social analytics company, Searchmetrics , studied this recently for 12 UK newspaper sites, collating data about the total average weekly links shared on Facebook (shares, likes and comments), Twitter, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, Google+ and Delicious over a ten week period. Here’s what they found out:

 Average Social Links per Week of UK Newspaper Web sites

1. www.dailymail.co.uk  (2,908,779 links/week)

2. www.guardian.co.uk   (2,587,258 links/week)

3. www.telegraph.co.uk  (879,783 links/week)

4. www.independent.co.uk (617,148 links/week)

 5. www.thesun.co.uk  (195,311 links/week)

 6. www.ft.com (83,382 links/week)

 7. www.dailyrecord.co.uk (82,151 links/week)

 8. www.mirror.co.uk  (54,881 links/week)

 9.  www.heraldscotland.com (13,063 links/week)

 10. www.express.co.uk (9,600 links/week)

 11. www.dailystar.co.uk  (702 links/week)

 12. www.thetimes.co.uk  (256 links/week) 

So the Daily Mail and Guardian sites are most visible – unsurprisingly perhaps as the Mail is rating as one of the busiest UK newspaper web sites  and the Guardian is well known for its impressive social media strategy. Those sites with paywalls obviously tended to have fewer links shared.

Social spread analysis

Searchmetrics also looked at the ‘social spread’ of the top two sites ie how visible they are across the six social networks. They compared the total links generated on  different social sites over a six month period.  TheDailyMail.co.uk generated over half of its links (50.78 per cent) on StumbleUpon, with Facebook activity (likes, shares and comments) accounting for 45.87 per cent and links on Twitter 3.21 per cent.

For Guardian.co.uk, more than half (56.77 per cent) of the links came from Facebook, with StumbleUpon accounting for 31.35 per cent and Twitter 10.98 per cent.

Searchmetrics suggested thatbecause StumbleUpon is a very popular site globally, the large number of  links it generated for UK sites could have been generated throughout the world from English speakers who use it. 

Most frequently shared content

The most frequently shared content on Dailymail.co.uk was shown to be an article (with images) about the Japan earthquake which had been shared 392,521 times on the monitored social sites. Guardian.co.uk’s most frequently shared content was a cheeky quiz discussing quotes from Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen. 

Dailymail.co.uk’s top three most frequently shared articles

1.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365318/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-The-moment-mother-nature-engulfed-nation.html (392,521 links)

2. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2018020/Amy-Winehouse-dead–Found-dead-London-flat.html (253,561 links)

3. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013870/Robber-broke-hair-salon-beaten-black-belt-owner-kept-sex-slave-days–fed-Viagra.html (252,650 links) 

Guardian.co.uk’s top three most frequently shared articles 

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/quiz/2011/mar/01/muammar-gaddafi-charlie-sheen-quiz  (363,938 links) 

2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit (210,468 links)

3. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks (187,987 links)

The data for this study was taken from the global social media database that Searchmetrics operates to power its online software tools.  This is a regularly updated store of data points related to web sites and their visibility on social networks. 

BTW, if you’d like to have a demo and trial of this software, let me know.

Searchmetrics also analysed the spread of social networks on which Dailymail.co.uk’s pages were shared over a six month period (see underneath), revealing that the site received over half of its links (50.78 per cent) on StumbleUpon, with Facebook activity (likes, shares and comments) accounting for 45.87 per cent and links on Twitter 3.21 per cent.

More than half (56.77 per cent) of Guardian.co.uk’s social links came from Facebook with StumbleUpon accounting for 31.35 per cent and Twitter 10.98 per cent according to the study.

Social Spread

“Some people we have shown this data to have been surprised at the volume of links generated for UK newspapers on the StumbleUpon social bookmarking site.  This is a very popular site globally and the links could have been generated throughout the world from English speakers who use StumbleUpon,” added Dr Joepen.   

The most frequently shared content on Dailymail.co.uk was shown to be an article (with images) about the Japan earthquake which had been shared 392,521 times on the monitored social sites. Guardian.co.uk’s most frequently shared content was a humorous quiz discussing quotes from Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen. 

Dailymail.co.uk’s top three most frequently shared articles

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1365318/Japan-earthquake-tsunami-The-moment-mother-nature-engulfed-nation.html (392,521 links)

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2018020/Amy-Winehouse-dead–Found-dead-London-flat.html (253,561 links)

1. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013870/Robber-broke-hair-salon-beaten-black-belt-owner-kept-sex-slave-days–fed-Viagra.html (252,650 links)

Guardian.co.uk’s top three most frequently shared articles

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/quiz/2011/mar/01/muammar-gaddafi-charlie-sheen-quiz  

(363,938 links)

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2011/jan/02/photography-detroit

(210,468 links)

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operation-social-networks

(187,987 links)

Is your PR agency getting a bit irritating? Are they starting to get on your nerves?  Well good for you…cause you might just have got yourself a really good PR agency. The truth is a good agency won’t be worried (too much) about pushing you and your team team a bit harder to support them, or being a little annoying… if it means getting better PR results for you.  So here are five legitimate ways that a PR agency should be annoying you….

 1.) They try to grab your time…even when you’re busy with other stuff
Sometimes PR opportunities come up at the most inconvenient of times – when you and your team are busy on other projects (such as that big sales conference or exhibition…or trying to get everything done before heading off on leave).  But a good PR won’t be afraid to let you know if there’s an opportunity you should be pouncing on (even if they know you’re frantic) – and working with you to maximise the outcome while helping you manage your time.  

 2.) They won’t say ‘yes’… just because it’s easier
Of course it would be easy for a PR to just agree when someone on the client side suggests a PR tactic they don’t think will work (especially if the suggestion is made by a CEO or other head honcho type with a big ego). But you’ll want them to stick to their guns and say it won’t be a success – even though this might ruffle some feathers.

3.) They push you for opinions…even when it isn’t easy
When it comes to PR, strong opinions based on sound rationale are what gets quoted in the media and generates interest in blogs and social media.  So your PR agency should be constantly working with you to come up with interesting opinions about what’s happening in your industry. 

4.) They encourage you to plan ahead….even when you’re more focused on the ‘here and now’
Good PR takes planning and thinking ahead, so you should forgive your PR if they are trying to get you to focus on what appear to be the minor details of a campaign or idea that isn’t going to be executed for many months…even though you’ve got plenty of current priorities that are  competing for your attention.

5.) They keep digging for new ideas, news angles and suggestions to try…and all of them might not come off
Most good PR agencies know that getting the right PR campaign idea takes effort and grind. Along the way they’ll come up with some ‘duds’ that won’t work.  But don’t let this get you down, as this is part of the process.  If they keep going, the agency’ll also hopefully uncover some gems that hit the highs you’re looking for. 

 Photo Credit: flyspy123

Wrong? Not necessarily.  And a recent Tweet from an ex-colleague of mine @CMRLee  (Chris Lee) provides a  great example of why. Chris Tweeted that his site analytics showed that more people had RT’d (shared on Twitter) a link to a page than had actually viewed it.  Assuming his data is correct, this means lots of people shared the page without even knowing what was actually on it (I’m sure nobody who’s reading this page has ever done that).  And that’s a strong reason why shares on social networking sites may not be a good indicator of quality and should not be counted as much of a ranking factor. 

In fact, a CloudNine PR client, Dr Horst Joepen of search analytics company, Searchmetrics, describes the situation quite nicely in a couple of points he made in this article from late last year: 

“First, social media sites are overly influenced by crowd behaviour and the celebrity factor. This is why a link or page posted by a famous pop star or influential blogger gets shared indiscriminately by thousands. Second, some social networkers will happily share or retweet the next reasonable link they stumble upon, just to stay visible on the site or because they’re concerned they haven’t shared anything for a while.”

To get over these issues, my understanding is that Google and Bing have been developing ways in which they identify those Tweeters and Facebookers with high authority – and giving their shares and RTs much more influence.  Presumably because those trusted authorities are less likely to share pages indiscriminately like all of us other ‘plebs’.

These are some of the questions that struck me when I read this FT story about  Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s chief political correspondent who has been poached by ITV News, taking her loyal Twitter following of more than 60,000 people with her.

According to legal bods quoted in the FT: “unless the BBC had incorporated social media into her (Kuenssberg’s) contract, there is little the broadcaster could do to claw back the lost audience.”

Obviously it’s fascinating pondering the potential bun-fights this could create between media owners.  But how likely is it that a similar issue could surface between online PR agencies.

I would imagine that if I had an employee who had a following of 60,000 followers, I’d be quite keen to keep them.  And there are probably agencies out there who would pay good money to poach them from me.  As social networking gets even more embedded into PR practice this has got to become a hot issue. I’d be surprised if it isn’t already a factor in PR recruitment decisions to some extent.

After reading what various SEO experts are saying on the subject, I think PR agencies should be giving a big hand to Google for its latest algorithm update – because it creates more demand for PR services.

The update – variously called the Farmer and the Panda update – is part of Google’s drive to clean up search results by reducing the search visibility of sites with low quality and duplicate content.  It is mainly understood to be targeted at  content farm sites which churn out masses of low level content in a bid to achieve high search rankings (and then to sell ads).  Links from article and directory sites – which are often used in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies – are also expected to carry less value.

It seems to me that by penalising less valuable content and low level link-building sites, Google is by inference rewarding those sites that generate good, useful content and have links from credible, trustworthy sources.  This is good news for PRs whose skills are enshrined in helping clients produce high quality, original content (blogs, articles, case studies, e-zines, white papers etc) and generating media coverage (which can include backlinks from high ranking news publications).

Image attribution: frozenchipmunk

Why is that important for PRs? Well most PRs are offering social media services these days (erm…along with everyone else), but plenty are finding it hard to measure and justify the value they’re providing.  If links to pages that are shared on social sites are starting to have a direct impact on search rankings, then there’s another tangible benefit that social media activity can drive.

While most search engine optimisation (SEO) experts seem to agree that social media links such as these currently have only a minor SEO effect, you’d expect their importance to increase as the search engines find ways to build this additional factor into their algorithms.

But there are already a number of good reasons why PR agencies can and should support SEO.  Kelvin Newman, search guru and creative director at SiteVisibility provides some useful advice to PRs who want to get into SEO in a guest post on Wadds’ PR and Media Blog :

‘you understand what pitches work with which journalists, use that experience and get some high quality links pointing at a client site’

The links he’s talking about here are traditional (ie not social network) links from news sites and blogs.  If you can get authoritative sites such as national newspapers or high profile bloggers to write about and link to your clients’ sites then this provides real SEO value which can quickly raise their profile in online searches.

Even if clients don’t seem interested in these links at the moment, Kelvin urges PR agencies to keep track of the links they’ve generated:

‘clients are coming round to natural search and if you have an ongoing record of achieving links you’ll stand a good chance of getting any work as and when it does come to pitch’

Take heed.

Do you listen to podcasts?  Apparently 58 million people around the world do.  And according to the speakers at the LDNpod event I attended last week, podcasting is a growing trend and a tactic that PR agencies can use to reach new audiences.

The speakers at the event included several successful podcasters such as Kelvin Newman who runs the UK’s most popular internet marketing podcast.  Creative director at SEO and digital marketing agency, Site Visibility, Kelvin is also a well known blogger and pointed out that few of the subscribers to his blogs also listen to his podcasts  – they’re different people, so podcasting really does extend your reach to totally new targets.

Browse through iTunes’ podcast library and you’ll see that the breadth of topics for podcasts is now enormous; from established media brands such as national newspapers and radio stations getting in on the act, to organisations such as the British Museum, VisitBath and a host of language learning companies, most of whom are trying to increase the uptake of their services and products by reaching out to new people.  Although there are also plenty of podcasters, such as Gary Andrews who runs football podcast, TwoFootedTackle (also one of the event speakers), who appear to be in it just for the sheer love of it.

Another speaker – regular podcaster and freelance PR and social media consultant, Chris Lee (who I have the pleasure of working with) – pointed out in his presentation that PR agencies who already focus on building relationships with journalists and bloggers shouldn’t forget podcasters;  try to identify and reach out to relevant podcasters and suggest clients they can interview – or develop sponsorship opportunities.

And if you feel that creating your own regular podcast might help you to further your or your clients’ businesses, then experts such as Andy White of podcast production company WireWorldMedia (another speaker)  can help you.  But provided you put in the time in planning and research and use the right kit (which you can probably buy for under £200, according to the event speakers), it’s not too difficult to producing podcasts yourself.

Image courtesy of topgold on Flickr creative commons.

Just last week a phone call I made to a features editor who hadn’t replied to several of my emails resulted in her asking me to prepare an article for her magazine. She admitted that she’d ‘filed’ my email to look at later, but “the truth is I often never get round to looking at those mails, so thanks for calling to nudge me.”

So there you have it: proof that relying totally on email or social networks can mean lost PR opportunities.

The problem is that journalists regularly request PRs to contact them only be email – because trying to deal with 100s of PR calls a day would be simply unmanagebale.

On the other hand, a high profile technology journalist and blogger revealed to me at an event recently that while he publicly discouraged PR phone calls, he often appreciated the odd call if someone had a genuinely good story or idea.  And I’ve come across  some journalists who say they deliberately cultivate a ‘gruff’ phone manner for PRs as a way of filtering out the less dogged ones.

So it’s difficult to judge whether to pick up the phone or not.  But my experience is that many journalists get so many email pitches these days that sometimes a short, well timed phone call with an appropriate story or feature idea can be a good way to get noticed. And often a phone call can actually save time and prove more effective for both PR and journalist: you can thrash out an idea between you, agree the finer details and deadlines and have everything agreed within a single call.

Using the phone is a bit of dying art in PR.  But used effectively – and sparingly – it can and does produce results that you might otherwise miss.

Photo credit:Michael Pujals

I’ve prepared a summary below and noted the significance of SEO in many of the points – underlining the need for PRs to have a good grasp of SEO basics.

Step 1: Make sure you’ve already done your desk research.  This is about making sure you know where people are talking about your company, products and industry online. Use the search engines and investigate any relevant social networks and forums.

Step 2: ‘SEO your CEO’ or spokesperson.  In other words, build legitimacy for them around the Internet.  They need to have up to date social networking accounts (Twitter , Facebook, LinkedIn etc) and should already be vocal on the networks and forums, as well as online media.  So if someone is searching for your brand on search engines or appropriate networks or forums, they should quickly come across your spokesperson – which basically means they’ll be ‘heard/seen’ on searches when/if they have to respond to a PR crisis.

Step 3: Have a social charter in place which includes guidelines on how long you should wait before responding to negative issues within social media. It is tempting to react straight away, but there is  a danger that this could just inflame the issue further.

Step 4: Assess what’s actually happening before you act: there might be negative voices, but check to see if people are already saying positive stuff to defend your organisation.  Obviously, it is much stronger if somebody else – not connected to your organisation – is responding to the criticism

Step 5: If a crisis occurs and you want to publish a reactive statement, it obviously needs to be search engine optimised – signposted with the right key words ie the words that people will actually be using to search for info related to the crisis.

Step 6: Consider using pay per click advertising around the key words that are being used in searches.  With PPC you can react quickly  and top every relevant search result (providing you fork out the money) with a link to your web site where you put across your response to the negative issue.

Step 7: Ensure you do the post crisis digital ‘cleaning up’.  This last step – which is sometimes forgotten – is  all about making sure you create some SEO optimised positive stories (around the key words relating to the negative issue) to push down the negative story in search engine listings.

If you want more info, it’s worth listening to the full webinar (see link above) which covers the wider issue of the way Social Media and SEO interact and is hosted by New Media Age magazine.

Photo credit: Jim Linwood