SEO PR TIPS

Just look at that tag cloud…

When my then-colleague, Mademoiselle Mondon and I started this blog last year, Twitter was just one of the crowd of social networking sites that we paid cursory attention to.

Continue Reading »

The opportunities and threats of marketing through Twitter

At the Social Media International Search Summit hosted by WebCertain in London on Thursday 14 May, I gave a presentation on the use of Twitter as a marketing tool.  Twitter is definitely a “marmite” concept – it divides people.  There are some who have embraced it with almost religious zeal and it provokes red-faced rage in others.

Continue Reading »

The fourth International Search Summit hosted by WebCertain is taking place at the moment.  This conference is focussed on Social Media.  Whether you weren’t able to attend, or just want a reminder of what was said – here’s an overview…

Also follow #isslon on Twitter for live updates.

Continue Reading »

Although this blog is dedicated to sharing positive, cheery advice on how to get on in the online PR field, the first thing that anyone in communications needs to learn is think about what you’ve written before you press ’send’!

One hapless PR (not that she deserves any sympathy) has discovered  the troubles that can be caused by a thoughtless pun – especially when bloggers and tweeters can make a mistake big news in minutes.

The excellent Lost in Showbiz blog (not connected to the Guardian blog as far as I know) keeps us all our toes, correctly highlighting the pretentiousness, deceit and general, unconvincing uselessness of many press releases.

They’ve got a humdinger today.  Once of the most thoughtless headlines imaginable has destroyed a harmless release about a supposed poll on the best war films of all time.

Here’s the intro, can you spot the obvious error?

From: libby@swns.com [mailto:libby@swns.com]
Sent: 21 April 2009 10:51
To: NationalNews
Subject: SCHINDLER’S LIST IS GREATEST WAR MOVIE

WOULD JEW BELIEVE IT

NEWS COPY

Schindler’s List was yesterday (Tue) named the greatest war movie of all time.

Read more at Lost in Showbiz

Thanks to Twitter and other social networking sites, this story is flying around quicker than you can say “viral marketing”.

Do share more howlers here, or at our Global Social forums - and chat about it on Twitter…

Internet PR and Marketing investment continually rises, while offline spend is in decline, marketers are continually looking for new methods and approaches to suit business needs. The current climate of the economy has forced many companies to re-strategise in many areas, where spend is minimalistic and productivity potentially maximised.

With virtual social networking taking the world by storm it’s no wonder marketers have already jumped on the band wagon promoting their businesses and colleagues, for example, the use of Twitter has totally entranced our colleagues here @ WebCertain, follow: @globalppc @starbuck8 @jennysimpson @davidsegal @davidecorradi @ballueder @WebCertain @J__9 @YorkSEO @globalseo @andyatkinskruge @seoprtips @newscertain @WebCertain_DE @AnaVLeckenby @oscarcarreras, for updated information on specialised areas of multilingual search!

Promoting the latest international search summit, general information about PR, SEO, link building, PPC etc… has developed a wider knowledge on each subject, by sharing and re-tweeting relevant data to enhance the specialised knowledge arena WebCertain hold.

Many businesses and organisations are using online facilities and companies such as WebCertain not only for English articles, as we are multilingual; multiple languages from across the globe play a large part in how they operate, especially for clients. Online PR is a great way of getting your company, news / press releases / data, relayed around the world, especially using press release sites with an overseas domain, rather than the traditional offline methods. This however, does vary upon client needs; everyone wants something different and to be unique, so be adaptable and knowledgeable on your subject arena to create the best possible service for your company and your clients!

Social media is a concept 2 years ago I wasn’t really interested in, I knew it existed, yet I didn’t really know anything about it and I didn’t really want to. I reluctantly joined Facebook to view my friends photo’s from her travels around the globe, and then got hooked! Over those 2 years in which I have been interested in social media, I think it has been catapulted into the limelight (from my perspective anyway, you may disagree), and now there is no escaping it!

The development of design, content, links, networking and media coverage of social media has improved enormously, it’s well documented and new innovations are continually being introduced. Social networking is a phenomenon I never thought I would get into, never mind checking my profile and searching for friends regularly, this was more so when I first signed up.

Online profiling on such networking sites as, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter or any type of blogging sites will enhance and develop your profile across the web, depending of course on your privacy settings. Content quality and use of keywords all effects how you rank in search engines, such as Google.

The following selection of tips may enhance your visibility and optimization…
1. Include good quality content
2. Utilise any links to other sites you blog on etc
3. Update your blog / social networking site regularly
4. Use keywords to enhance ranking capabilities.

Over the past few months my colleagues have been talking about Twitter, I didn’t really want to join another social network, (having one I thought was enough work for me), and a couple of months ago I decided I had had enough and finally gave in.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I have benefited from joining Twitter – from a work/industry perspective anyway. As I mentioned in an earlier entry I am fairly new to the world of PR and SEO, following people on Twitter who have much experience and sharing links / articles on related topics has helped me immensely.

I often find with social networking some can people become obsessed over it, depending on whether it’s used for social or business purposes…. Is it ok to be obsessed with it? What do you think? Am I alone with this perspective? And have you tried typing your name in Google to see where / if you rank?

What are the “Golden Rules of Social Media and Internet Marketing”

1) Listen: listen and observe, see what’s being said online and how you can participate

2) Participate: join in, share stuff, be helpful

3) Give first, ask later. The best rule of thumb is to give more than you take.

4) Dialog: communicate, remember the cocktail party example

5) Don’t try and do everything: it’s not always a great idea to have 35 social networking sites. Get only as many as you can manage

6) Leave your wallet at the door: don’t show up online wanting to make money. Show up ready to share and enlighten. This will take you much further.

7) Don’t be afraid to share your opinion.

Be honest: it’s tempting for some to embellish or lie. Who’s gonna find out about it, right? Wrong. The Internet has a way of sifting out the fake stuff and embracing the real messages.

All credit to http://amarketingexpert.com for the article – great summary

Accidental good timing for a seminar on blogging last week which led to a good old discussion about journalistic standards (or the lack of) amongst bloggers.  A big row had just blown up between a blogger and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) because the blogger had published of allegations against an NUJ official, based on data retrieved from their email server. 

The controversy escalated when a senior member of the NUJ posted short-tempered comments reacting to the blogger’s activities, in the process, outing the full name of the colleague being accused of unprofessional behaviour.

The Guardian took the story up in a big way and the controversy continued as the writer of The Guardian’s think-piece is actually married to an NUJ member who was also posting comments on the original blog post (this was stated on his article). [Edit - see clarification in comments, she is actually an ex-member]

Hope you are following this…

NB – let me declare my interests in this (limited though they are). Our blogging seminar leader was Martin Belam, another employee at The Guardian. Also, a few years ago I had an NUJ training course arranged for me by someone right at the heart of the scandal. Yes, yes, I do move in the right circles…

To a career journalist working for a serious publication / outlet there are complex rules and standards about reporting, such as – never depend on a single source for information, don’t publish opinions as facts etc. etc.

Should bloggers follow the standards of reporting as employed by organisations like the BBC and Reuters? 

Here’s my twopennorth –

Blogs are not reports
From the very earliest days of blogs, there has always been the understanding that a blog is somewhat personal – in other words an “op ed”, or “opinion piece”.
(NB, the word “blog” is an abbreviation of weblog, meaning a journal)

Are the navel gazing “In my life” columns that feature in all our major newspapers subject to the rigorous fact-checking processes that a news report is subject to?  No, I don’t think so. In fact, I would guess some of them they have pretty obviously been dashed off in the last half hour before deadline with only the slightest bit of thought!  (Yes, that is professional jealousy…)

However, of course some standards should be met and many bloggers are completely unaware of even their most basic responsibilities.

I am a journalist by training, over the years working primarily on features and marketing content.

Nevertheless, I still have a hazy memory of McNae’s Essential Law for Journalists and therefore do my very best not to libel anyone, make wilful mis-statements (no matter how riled I am) or affect the proceeding of active court cases. 

Everyone blogging should adhere to these basic principles, but they don’t.  Yes – I’m looking at you Perez Hilton!

Basics

1. Don’t publish immediately after writing. Take a break, walk away and ideally get someone else to take a look at what you’ve written.
2. Don’t call Mr So-and-so down the road a paedophile, whether because you think it’s a funny thing to say, or if you really think he is one (if so, go to the police!). Furthermore, don’t even hint that someone on your road is a paedophile – technically anyone who fits your vague description could sue you.
3. Don’t panic if someone contacts you to argue about what you’ve written and don’t respond immediately! Take another look, ideally with a second pair of eyes, and see if you think you were fair.

   There are lots of ways to deal with complaints – valid or otherwise.  Often giving a complainant the right-to-reply suffices. Almost always, a friendly response is the sensible option and if your correspondent turns out to be irrational – end the conversation immediately.

4. Never, ever steal information…

There are lots of other legal considerations.  If you think there are any that bloggers should regard as a priority, please add a comment.  Thanks.

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