PR and the internet

How PR pros can win with SEO and analytics by Vincent David Is there a point of convergence between public relations and SEO?  Long before social media disrupted communication and gave organizations direct access to consumers and their target audiences, PR practitioners played the all-important role of crafting the appropriate message for public consumption on behalf of organizations.  This role is still relevant in the modern business environment, and many organizations still rely on ...

Capitalize on the power of blogging

Blogging is a key part of our digital environment: more than half of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. Key blog trends for individual bloggers Andy Crestodina from Orbit Media conducted a survey of 1001 individual bloggers (not companies or brands [groups]) in 2019 to identify blogging trends. Overall view: The average blog post takes 3 hours and 57 minutes to write …up 65% from 2014 The average blog ...

Interesting facts make web pages compelling

Web design and writing expert Jakob Nielsen has unearthed many important facts from his research about website visitors. His latest study shows that users hunt for facts online, so factually rich content will attract readers and keep their attention. Here is his summary of findings: Emphasize facts There's so much corporate jargon and waffle in websites that straight talk stands out. Journalists - the ultimate fact seekers When journalists used corporate websites in the ...

Ensure your ‘About Us’ website page is helpful

For some reason, informational web pages about organizations can be difficult to find or they give only minimal or formal information. It should be easy for visitors to your website to find out the basics of your organization, large or small. But surprisingly often, this important information is hard to find or is even missing. An 'About Us' or 'About [the name of your organization]' page should give concise summary information (but not just ...

23 great digital tools for PR pros

(This article was written in 2013, and therefore some of the digital tools may be out of date.] Mike Lizun of Gregory FCA wrote a good article in PR Daily about some great digital tools that are available to PR practitioners. He showed there are many digital tools and services PR pros use to stay on top of the news, identify trends, research the right media for targeted story ideas, and manage accounts. Mike ...

How to write for the internet

Reflecting today's more complex issues, today’s search engine results pages can have many possible complex layouts, and users don’t always process search results sequentially. Their attention on a page tends to jump around more across the page than in the past, and has been compared to the pattern in a pinball game. A traditional pinball machine arcade game (left in the image) is a glass-covered cabinet using an angled play field with various bumpers, ...

10 top web-based tools for measuring PR

There are a lot of things to consider when you’re figuring out which type of PR measurement to use: your budget, the business outcome you want, what social channels you want to measure, how many tools you want to use, the insights you want to get, how broad the scope is, and the list goes on. Then there’s the question of what to measure: page views, followers, website visitors, average time on a site, ...

Make it easy for journalists to find information in your website

Traditional media relations activity has consisted of a ‘push’ approach to providing information to the media. The internet provides a ‘pull’ approach in which a journalist obtains information from your website only when they want it. Many journalists use the web as a basic research tool. They start their research on your organization by accessing your website directly. Others start their research by using a search engine such as Google. This creates a need ...

How to verify content from digital sources in a crisis

Corporate communicators and journalists can find it difficult to confirm the facts about an emergency or crisis. In these days of proliferating 'fake news' and wild claims made on social media, a 'crisis' report could merely be sensationalism or could even be completely untrue. Often communicators need to identify the source and truth of such claims so they can understand and communicate the facts. Verifying facts before publishing a news story is one of ...

How easy is it to start a blog?

Starting and maintaining a blog - while definitely worth the effort (and fun, too!) - isn't as easy as it looks. Blogs take time! Almost all blogging experts say the actual writing is the hardest part about keeping a blog. Blogs need fresh content - constantly. Developing that content - and making it pithy and relevant - is not something you can do in your "spare" time. Blogs forge connections. You need to read ...