SEO PR TIPS

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.

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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.

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The use of social networking and blogging is growing increasingly popular every day, with more and more people looking to find reviews and true product knowledge on all topics. From finding what a specific holiday destination is truly like from real life experience of a blogger, to using Twitter for recommendations of restaurants and cafes in a certain city. The use of online networking has escalated to new heights, in a positive way; this will continue to rise in the future.

Blogs and forums are used to promote products / services and to inform people about issues which you may need to research about a product, or for example, DIY to give you up-to-date information. Many people use forums to get information they need, not necessarily to join one. News stories from bloggers aren’t always dependable, although many people do find blogs for product reviews.

Social media is also advantageous in real life experiences, i.e. following selected people on Twitter can be beneficial, as Jenny, our online news and PR manager discovered. Also, the news on the Hudson Plane crash posted on Twitter was passed around the world faster than any of the media coverage on satellite or cable TV.

With social networking you tend to build your own portfolio and web presence, creating links to people you know or people who may be of interest to you, generating a network, whether personal or professional.

Blogging is all about giving your opinion on a subject and can be more educational, unless you have your own site you’re not going to be building a web presence. Blogging can go from giving your opinion on a subject matter to reviews of products or services.

Both blogging and social networking are very different, yet can offer the similar routes to problem solving and product knowledge, getting you the information you need.

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!

While Twitter membership rapidly grows and endless column inches a day are devoted to the phenomenon, marketers have been scratching their heads about the best way to use this new tool.

The obvious appeal is the ability to immediately reach out and create two-way communication with a wide audience, giving you the opportunity to sell yourself – and to handle customer service / reputation management issues.

The concern so far as Twitter is still largely populated by early adopters and members of the web marketing community – can you communicate with the right people?

Here’s a little anecdote to illustrate the marketing potential of Twitter.

My colleague (@davidsegal) has a friend who works for Sarah Coggles (@coggles_com) – an independent fashion retailer.

We have another colleague in our London office (@ballueder) who maintains a personal blog, posting pertinent and sometimes esoteric content.  This content is sometimes included in his Twitter posts.

We noticed that @coggles_com had linked to something @ballueder had posted – probably completely coincidentally, but this led to me tofollow @coggles_com and take a look at some of the clothes on their site.

I found a dress that I love and cheekily asked for a discount as a Twitter follower – which I have been given!

The end result is that I am seriously tempted to ignore the credit crunch and splash out on a new dress – all because of Twitter…

More info to add to my presentation on the opportunities and threats of marketing through Twitter that I’m giving at the International Search Summit later this year.

Getting quite excited here as the plans for the WebCertain International Search Summit on Social Media are really coming together…

There will be speakers from Plaxo, Bebo and LinkedIn.

Also, yours truly will be talking about the threats and opportunities of marketing through Twitter.  That’s a huge topic and there’s no shortage of information and opinions out there – the challenge is sifting through it.

Take a look at the full social media search summit programme

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

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