For a while now Google and Bing have been busily experimenting with various ways of incorporating social media signals into the way they determine which web pages rank highly in searches. One school of the thought says that if a page (link) is shared heavily on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc, it should rank higher. After all people must think it’s of a better quality right?
If you are a digital PR person that has racked up thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook fans while working for an agency, who owns them – you or the agency? And er…even more importantly, does the size of your following immediately ratchet up your moving on salary?
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.
Last month both Google and Bing revealed in an interview that social media activity on sites such as Twitter and Facebook can help specific web content to get listed higher in search engine rankings. An example being that if a page is shared on Twitter by 'authoritative people' then that can help its performance in organic search results 'to a degree'.
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.
Today it's fast becoming the rule that PR agencies should never bother journalists by phone. But is it really possible to handle all your communications with editors purely through email and Twitter? I'm not so sure.
The growth of digital and social media means negative news or a full blown PR crisis has greater reach and can potentially (via search engines) stick around for much longer than it used to. So I was interested to come across a really useful webinar last week in which Microsoft UK marketing manager, Cedric Chambaz, outlined a seven step guide for addressing a social media PR crisis.
Last week I attended the CIPR Social Summer ‘LinkedIn Special’ talk presented by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications (who I’ve had the pleasure of working with in a past life). Wadds (as he likes to be known) made plenty of great points, but here are three key ‘takeaways’ that got my attention: 
Steve Earl, joint-MD at Speed Communications, provided some great advice in his post on how to 'survive and thrive' in PR today. But what about some helpful hints for those PRs who couldn’t care less about doing well in the business? Here are a few choice nuggets for those seeking a PR career nose dive:
As a technology PR person I’ve inevitably been involved in discussions with clients about whether they should consider using the micro-blogging site Twitter to support their PR and marketing. And to be honest many of them are still quite sceptical.
