SEO PR TIPS

A story doing the rounds at the moment is the news that social networks are bad for our health.

As the BBC says: “Britons could be jeopardising their health as they spend more time in virtual worlds than the real one, according to the psychologist Dr Aric Sigman.”

This story will “have legs” (as they say) – not only is it about the latest geek / media topic (social media), but it is also science (a subject that it can be difficult to find stories with mass appeal about).

The story is given credibility by Dr Sigman’s impressive credentials. According to his own website, he is “a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Member of the Institute of Biology” etc.

To summarise the health issue exposed, according to the journal Biologist, lonely people are more susceptible to strokes, high blood pressure, dementia and are more likely to die early.

This has been extrapolated into a warning that people who depend on virtual networks for their social contact are at risk of the same health problems.

So far so reasonable and you can’t blame Dr Sigman for the subs creating scary headlines like: “Virtual worlds are damaging our children’s health”.

The simple, practical warning that spending too much time alone can lead to isolation and, in turn, to poor health is now lost in a big old moral panic.

Hmmm, now here comes the science bit…well not really. I did a quick Google search for Dr Aric Sigman and in the first page of results there were some familiar stories.

19th Feb 2007: The 15 ways in which too much TV wrecks your child’s health (The Mail)

7th Aug 2008: How seeing movies like Batman can turn our children violent (Also The Mail)

Also 19th Feb 2007: Turn off TV girls or risk early puberty (The Times)

Oct 1st 2005 : How TV is (quite literally) killing us ( Whale)

It’s clear that Dr Sigman is a passionate campaigner for his subject, but the re-spinning of this original story to piggyback the wave of stories on social networking ultimately weakens the scientific statement.

This is not a bashing of Dr Signman! I would like to point out that, we are undoubtedly in agreement on the following points.

Too much TV is bad!
Watching violent TV / films at an early age is bad!
ONLY having virtual friends is bad!

However, virtual networks do offer an outlet to create friendships for people who have difficulties dealing with “real life” social situations – and therefore, they must be a good thing – providing the attendant health benefits.

What do you think about this and bad science stories in general?

Read Oscar Carreras on the negative reputation campaign against social media

Lee Odden of Top Rank log has posted the latest list of the top blogs about search marketing.

They promise “a mix of new and old, funny and serious” and there are over 400 blogs included on the list.

You won’t find us there, but WebCertain’s Managing Director has been on the list for some time with his news site about international search marketing, Multilingual Search.

Other favourites of mine include -

Mikkel deMib Svendsen:  Mikkel is one of the most recognisable people on the conference circuit (he’s the guy in the orange suit!) and more than that is one of the most knowledgeable people around on Reputation Management issues.

Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing:  Forrester are the market leaders on digital research.

Hubspot:  Home to some of the best tools in the industry

Some basic SEO tips for PR’s who are venturing into the online world:
Search engine rankings are an important factor to consider when building or developing a website, as well as the use of links, keywords and content. The need to use such information is to ensure the site achieves high rankings, for example, a good selection of links and the more links you have related to your site equals more traffic, plus, search engines are more likely to like the site.

Many larger corporations and anyone who can afford to use SEO companies and/or multilingual SEO organistions, are there to improve or enhance your site in order to gain better search rankings, however there is no guarantee that an SEO company will improve your site rankings. Search engines tend to keep you in the best position for your site, and unless you suddenly produce the best possible site there is a limited possibility that you will drop your position.

Consider the following factors to enhance your search results:
• Content – ensure the quality is good and contains plenty of keywords to maintain visitor numbers, to further your content make the use of niche words. Also bullet points in content will always be picked upon, try to add them in your content.
• Design of the site and software used to build it can also make a difference as to where you rank. Text is important in helping the visitor get to the information they have searched for, whether the content is written on your page or there is a link to whatever the visitor is looking for. If you have any images on the pages, ensure they have alt tags and title tags. Important Note: alt and title tags should always differ.
• Title of your site should contain no more than 12-14 words (include keywords in the website title). The header of the post must contain keywords also in order to attain higher page rank.
• Navigations should always be created using text, the use of images will deplete any page rankings you have. The keywords used in the navigation menu should always be the same as they are general web standards.
• Any links which are on your pages should relate to your site, to increase the chance of high search engine rankings, any external links should relate to your sites niche.
• An up-to-date site and an eye on your competitors will ensure you stay ahead, keep an eye on current SEO news and use the techniques to your advantage.

Oscar Carreras, Sales Strategist at WebCertain kept us up-to-date throughout the Search Engine Strategies Conference in London via Twitter and has now most helpfully provided us with a round-up of the key messages.  Interestingly, all of his points relate to SEO-PR…

•    Video is the future

Not only there were several sessions about video but it was mentioned in at least 3 non related sessions. YouTube is already the second biggest search engine in the world and internet users across the world spend 30 min at least by average watching videos, not to mention the rising appearance of videos in blended or Universal search.

•    Online PR = Strategic Link Building Strategy

Online PR seems to be utilized by most of agencies as their main tool for strategic link building. In addition, blogging, social media, etc are all supported by online PR teams. Content creation should be a must.

(Jenny – my italics.  As I mentioned in my post yesterday about the boom in social media, the role for PRs to play is to create original content to support these activities)

•   The challenges and opportunities of Social Media

Social media pervaded all the sesssions at SES London, but it seems to be difficult to build a business model around it.

The way most of the agencies are approaching it is by leading by example and make it an integral part of their marketing toolset for lead generation and then show off that knowledge and results to provide with consultancy to clients or support in the way of apps generation, widgets, video creation, etc.

They don’t seem to offer to create profiles and handle them on behalf of their clients since it is not cost effective and not very useful since clients know more about their products that an agency will never do. Conclusion: walk the walk and don’t talk the talk.

(Jenny – yes, this is the major issue with these types of campaigns – who does what?  It’s all about user-generated content, but it needs a push – and imagination combined with technical / web know-how)
•   Reporting and analytics

Automation, analytics driven processes, etc seem to be the ways for agencies to scale services. The most important skill for both SEO and PPC, and maybe Social Media too, should be analytics expertise to reach conclusion out of empiric data.

(Jenny – and analytics is the main focus for the technology team at WebCertain)

Any more thoughts on SES London?

I’m a bit late noticing this post about PR in the Czech Republic, from PR Blogger.

Always keen to share tips on international PR strategies.

We’ve been doing some work in the Czech Republic recently and found a good number of online press wire services – after putting in some leg work and doing some digging around.

So far, I would  concur that -

“In the Czech market it seems there is a lack of exploitation of new media. Blogging and social media in general are perceived as ‘something for the geeks’ by the general public.”

What is the ideal length of a headline when writing for online impact?

Last year I made a new friend who is a chief-sub on the Daily Record, one of Scotland’s biggest selling newspapers (maybe the biggest selling – sorry Katie). We have very different experiences of writing, especially headlines. Katie is working to a restricted space on the printed page, whereas I have no restrictions – which sounds great until you consider the different criteria you are trying to fit into.

It’s the limited space that has created “tabloidese” that peculiar language of abbreviations, wit and hyperbole. The nature of the beast means that these headlines are pretty devoid of keywords, so a high impact newspaper headline (such as the Sun’s infamous “Gotcha!” front page during the Falklands War) would have little value in SEO terms.

How does your headline affect Google News placement?
Google, of course, won’t reveal their algorithm for the News channel and it is still something of an enigma for search experts.

I looked for an example to try and understand more. Last night’s big entertainment story here was the Brit Awards. Why does Hello get the top link with their slang heavy headline?

Well, obviously, the headline is only a small part of the algorithm!

Having read around, there is conflicting advice. Here are some of the basics.

• Get your most important keyword / message near the start, so if your headline is cut off it still appears
• Shorter is better, even if it means sacrificing some keywords – your introductory paragraph is just as important
• Think about people (not robots) reading your story – will your headline be of interest to them?
• If you aren’t using a re-direct / url shortening system, your headline will probably dictate the url of your story (as works with this blog). If you then want to “tweet” your story on Twitter, you need to consider how the link eats into your 140 character limit

Have you got any advice to share?

Here’s a recent quote from Daryl Willcox, chairman of DWPub: “There are tons of people out there blogging about how important online PR is, but there is very little in terms of actual guidance – especially for those who have limited online PR experience.   (Source)

Mr Willcox is promoting a white paper he has written about online PR – and this campaign is pretty successful.  I’ve come across references to it several times accidentally – and the quote above annoyed me enough to repeat it!  Great campaign management…

SEO-PR-Tips Absence of advice about online PR?

We are trying to offer practical advice, along with adding our own personal spin on what’s happening right now. 

I’m sure the DWPub is full of great advice (they are a good company and we use their press wires), but you will get widely differing views on this subject from people, depending on their background.

Daryl Willcox is from a PR background and understands the value of targeted campaign management, use of key contacts, the human reaction to content.

I’m constantly dealing with people who view our work from an SEO perspective only – they see the “link farm potential” in our international news network, or they are only interested in reports that can prove direct referrals.

The boom in social media (and it seems to be all that clients and the search industry alike are talking about at the moment!) is actually proving to be a good thing for the way PR is perceived.  Creating a buzz, trying to build up word-of-mouth interest, devising events / issues that will make people care – suddenly these are becoming important again – almost as important as keyword density…

I’m watching this space with interest…please share your thoughts on the latest online PR developments

EDIT – Please note the clarification in the comments.  Thanks for the feedback Andrew.

The use of social networks and micro-blogging is growing faster than ever, with many business joining in to enhance their services, improve internet rankings, reputations, any campaigns and much much more.

Recently the first official “Twisitor Centre” was launched in the US by Travel Portland, where travellers can connect to the Twisitor Centre to find out holiday / travel information, just like a walk in visitor centre, which relies on Twitter technology, so travellers can plan holidays to the city etc etc.

The use of codes to transfer the “tweets” to the Twisitor Centre is essential to get the correct feedback, visit Travel Mole who reported on the tweeting city.

Twitter and other micro blogging / social networking sites are great to find out local information, like places you are visiting on holiday etc, keeping your Twitter, Facebook, Myspace etc profile public may be risky if you declare too much information, however if you are following people from all over the world, information will be far more accessible, just remember to be careful!!

It started with a drumming gorilla, a Phil Collins old song from the 90s and the most successful advert of 2007. The video “went viral” on the internet, as users posted it on video-sharing sites, blog the all concept and e-mailed friends.
According to the Times, it even turned again Collins into something of a cult hero as the advert placed him again into the music charts.

Thanks to that viral campaign sales of Dairy Milk have been boosted by 9 per cent helping the brand to reverse its fortunes after the confectioner had lost market position for years.

Now Cadbury is about having the same success with is brand new campaign “Eyebrows “featuring a brother and sister preparing themselves for a family portrait.

Watch up the video – that’s hilarious!

You may not be immediately aware it is a Cadbury campaign (although I don’t know if the violet t-shirt of the small girl could refer in somehow into the color of the brand…) but the goal is still the same : “make the consumers smile so that they enjoy the product better”, explains Phil Rumbol, Cadbury’s marketing director in Britain.

And it keeps working!! The brand is creating the same buzz over the web than the previous campaigns edging up already to one million views on Google and YouTube (1,387,643 to be exact) besides having also delighted posts from fans. E.g: “Completely stupid – I love it,”

The response to the Eyebrows ad looks moreover phenomenal than it is taking straight to number three on YouTube behind clips of Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.

A perfect piece of viral marketing…what do you think??

Lingerie brand Agent Provocateur has launched an online social media campaign to promote its Hello Agent Provocateur blog using Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.

HelloAgentProvocateur.com was created by StrawberryFrog and includes blog posts, updates and news revolving around relationships

Originating in the US, the website’s launch coincides with a steamy new ad campaign designed to remind men to remember Valentine’s Day.

With the slogan ‘Love me tender… or else!’, the ad is appearing on the company’s website as well as the new HelloAgentProvocateur.com blog page.

Both campaigns come as UK-based private equity house 3i hosts a men-only party in collaboration with Agent Provocateur, inviting London’s bankers to a preview of the lingerie brand’s latest lines over drinks and canapes…and those misters can follow the all updates on Twitter @msprovocateur

More info in here