By Sarah Manners on 2007/09/11
Once you have listened to the online conversation taking place across the Net with Online Reputation Monitoring and Management you'll need to actively engage in the 'talking' side of the equation to really succeed. WebPR collectively stands for the ways in which you can get your message out there.
PR has moved into a new and exciting era - it has moved online. WebPR is used to enhance brand awareness, exposure and SEO effortsusing various online channels like article directories, press release sites, industry related sites, online newsrooms, blogs, forums and Social Media sites.
WebPR Tactics
1). Online Article Syndication
One of WebPR's primary tactics is online article syndication. This involves writing articles that are in no way a direct promotion of your site (very different from press releases). They are written to provide information not as a hard sell.
For example, if you sell holidays to Cape Town, your online marketing efforts will greatly benefit if your target market considers you a leader in this field. This is where 'value-content' comes in. Articles containing information for the potential traveller are value-adding and therefore attract links naturally. And, if published on a third party site, should carry a link back to your own website. This drives visitors to the site that are automatically predisposed to the brand, and are therefore are more likely to engage and buy the products on offer.
Once the article has been written it is important to get it optimised and up on the client's site before it is published to the article syndication sites. We do this for three reasons:
- The client will reap the SEO benefits of fresh, optimised copy
- So the client's site will be regarded as the "expert" on that particular subject
- To avoid Google's hard duplicate content policies
Publishing the Articles
This means contributing articles to online article directories, from which they are picked up and republished on other sites. There are hundreds of online article directories out there but you need to be selective when choosing which ones to submit to. Here are a few examples of the better directories:
The good article directories usually allow up to 4 links to be placed in each article. Article syndication is therefore one of the best ways to aid link building efforts. Because the articles contain links and keywords relevant to your site, the benefits for Search Engine Marketing are excellent. But the strategy won't work unless people want your articles - so they need to be broad and informative, not just thinly-disguised adverts.
Each article will also contain an "About the Author" section which could contain up to three links to your site and most article directories will allow you to include a backlink in the body of the article as well.
The aim is for the article to go viral and get republished on many web and blog sites in the weeks after they are published. A bit of basic Online Reputation Monitoring will enable you to keep an eye on where your article is being republished and that it is being republished correctly - there's no use in sites republishing it if they're going to strip out all the links and the "About the Author" section which you included.
So, online article syndication not only allows you to introduce fresh, optimised content to your site but enables you to generate a type of viral backlinking as well. See an example of a WebPR article here. This particular article was published in January 2006 and has been read 2301 times (as of September 2007)!
2). Optimised Press Releases
Press Releases have been around forever and a day but they have started to make their way into serious online strategies of late. Nowadays most people get their news online via news engines like Yahoo! News; newspaper sales are dropping rapidly as people turn to the Internet to keep informed.
Online press releases should drive traffic to your site (your website is not a glossy brochure - it is a marketing tool that needs visitors to become customers). To achieve this, press releases need to be optimised to contain related key phrases and links.
Many journalists will simply reproduce the copy of a well-written press release. It is therefore essential that press releases be optimised for keywords and links, as these will come into play for search engine marketing when the story appears online. So, a well optimised press release will not can positively impact on your SEM efforts, but your brands awareness and traffic to your site as well.
The Benefits
Compared to conventional offline press releases, online press releases allow you to instantly publish your news online. Some sites take a day or two longer but the lead time is almost non-existent and the long waits to see your press release appear in print are eliminated.
A well written press release can garner top rankings in the news engines (Google News, Yahoo! News, MSN News etc). They can also garner new rankings in the SERPs (provided they are adequately optimised).
Quick syndication of your content is a major benefit of online press releases. On many of the distribution sites when you publish a press release it will be converted into RSS and it is syndicated to RSS news indexing sites (NewsIsFree and Blogdiggers). Journalists keep a firm eye on these sites, so providing that your release is good it may get picked up and get turned into an article.
Link Building: You will not only get links from the sites that publish your release but from the sites that pick them up as well. Hence, this is one of the most natural and effective forms of link building.
Distribution: By submitting a press release online you will have access to an unimaginable number of readers, including potential clients, customers, employees, investors and journalists. The reach is far greater than anything you will ever achieve with traditional press releases.
The greatest thing about the Internet is its measurability. You can track where your press release has been sent, where it's been picked up as well as how many people have come to your site from it. By using some of the ORM tactics mentioned in the previous chapter tracking your press releases will be as easy as pie.
Don't forget to publish your press releases on your own site before sending them to the release sites. You'll want to be considered as the "expert" in the search engine's eyes on the subject.
3). Blogging
A company's voice as far as the blogosphere goes can take many forms. For example, companies should have a corporate blog and employees should be encouraged to blog. But perhaps more important is listening to what other bloggers say about brands and then commenting, and responding further where appropriate. There have been numerous examples of brands cut to shreds by ignoring the blogosphere (i.e. Dell Hell).
The key to an effective WebPR strategy is balancing the two sides: 'listening' and 'talking'. The opportunity to pay intimate attention to the market, and participate in a conversation that drives perception - and ultimately determines your client base - is unique. It is an opportunity that consumer-facing companies simply cannot afford to ignore. Blogs and forums are accessible to all. This is both the root of the threat they pose to corporate reputations and the opportunity for eliminating that threat. Consumer generated media must be engaged in order to:
1). Respond to others:
Consumer generated media can and must be responded to. Web 2.0 is based around conversations, and if a company is being talked about it belongs in that conversation. By staying informed and putting solid brand building and crisis management strategies in place, a business will not go down the route of so many companies that have lost their reputations online.
2). Build your own voice:
Many companies already have a presence in the Web2.0 sphere. By establishing your credibility online, you are better positioned to respond to future criticism and establish long-term trusting consumer relationships through online article syndications, press releases, feature articles and blogs.
4). Online Media / Press Rooms
Public Relations is big business - many companies spend a small fortune on it every year yet very few are effectively embracing it online. A recent Nielsen Norman study found that 99% of journalists start researching a story online. Only 66% of them find what they are looking for on corporate websites though.
If you are lucky enough to have a journalist on your site researching a story you'll want them to have every single snippet of information that they'll need and the majority of companies don't.
Journalists, or even possible customers and investors, don't have all the time in the world to wade through sites. They need to be able to find everything they need within seconds of being the site - if they can't chances are they'll go elsewhere.
The solution: An Online Press Room where all the information they need is placed right at their fingertips. A 2007 Newsroom Survey conducted by TEKgroup International uncovered that online news rooms are actually the preferred method of interaction by journalists.
The point of the Press Room is to make finding information about the company easy for a reporter. Companies that understand this have media-friendly Press Rooms which include the following:
Must Have Content
- Company History
- Latest Press Releases
- All Media Coverage
- Story Ideas
- FAQs
- Company Background
- Company Logos And Images
- Calendars and Timelines of Events
- Executive Bios
- Clippings from Offline Coverage
- Multimedia Gallery: Video, Audio and Imagery should be easily accessible
- PR Contact Information
- Company Contact Information
Must Have Features
- Search of the Press Room by date, topic, keyword, type of file, archive or current
- RSS / Email alerts when news is added to the site
- Tagging capabilities
- Content and usability are key to a press room, remember that you are trying to give the journalists, possible customers and investors the most up to date information in as little time as possible, content should therefore be posted in chronological order.
- Offer information in a variety of formats (like PDF)
Launching an Online Press Room
- Notify your current journalism contacts
- Write a blog post on the company blog
- Make the link to the press room highly visible and easily accessible
- Hopefully you'll have taken SEO into account and your press room should climb up the
- SERPs in no time
- The golden rule: Keep the content updated
