Blogging gives businesses an incredibly effective and measurable vehicle to connect with consumers and build relationships online, while generating Website traffic, inbound links and leads.

And while there are more than 112,000,000 blogs published today, the vast majority of businesses have yet to harness the power of corporate blogging.

So let’s take an introductory look at the blogging tools you need to effectively monitor, participate and publish.

1) Blog Search Sites

Blog search sites, such as Technorati and Google Blog Search, give you the ability to discover blogs in your industry, and find out what other influentials are blogging about.

Simply enter keywords for your industry and/or expertise (e.g. public relations), and see who’s out there and what they’re saying.

 

 

2) Really Simple Syndication (RSS) Feeds

According to Forrester[1], only 8% of consumers use RSS feeds, so if you don’t know what they are or how to use them, then you’re not alone.

RSS feeds are sort of like wire services for Websites with frequently updated content. The feeds are transmitted from a host site (e.g. a blog, chat group, news site), and received by your RSS feed reader (see #3 for description), giving you the ability to consume enormous amounts of information from dozens, or even hundreds of sources, without having to spend hours surfing the Web, watching TV and reading newspapers.

3) RSS Feed Readers

RSS feed readers make it incredibly simple and efficient to monitor content updates from across the Web. All you have to do is create a free account on one of the leading readers — Netvibes, Google Reader, NewsGator — and start subscribing to RSS feeds from your favorite sites.

Check out a demo Netvibes site we’ve created featuring blogs from presenters at the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit:

4) Google News Alerts

Google News Alerts is a free tool that makes it possible to monitor an unlimited number of keywords and phrases. It takes 10 seconds or less to set up an alert, and then Google delivers updates right to your email inbox.

You should consider monitoring your company name with variations (e.g. PR 20/20, pr2020, PR 2020), key executives, priority keywords, competitors, events and products/services.

5) Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious and Reddit, give you the ability to find and share great content.

You’ll be amazed at the volume of Website traffic that can be generated when you create great content on your blog, and it gets shared to one of these popular sites.

Get started by creating a profile on one of these sites, then begin exploring.

6) Blogging Platforms

When you decide it’s time to join the blogosphere as a publisher, selecting your blogging platform is one of the most important decisions you’ll make, so do your homework.

Wordpress, Typepad and Hubspot offer some of the more robust blog publishing tools, so that’s a good place to start looking. Here are a few features you’ll want to be sure are included in the platform you choose:

• Simple RSS and email subscription
• Social media integration
• Technical & community support
• Search by categories
• Tagging and search by tags
• Pinging services
• Multiple authors
• Custom URL with your own domain

7) Search Engine Optimization

Sharing great content and insight with your readers is rewarding on its own, but if you’re serious about building your business too, you’ll want to optimize your blog for search engines.

At minimum, check out Google’s Keyword Tool to see what keywords people are searching for, and then try to tailor some of your posts to the wants and needs of your audiences.

For example, based on our inbound marketing software (we use Hubspot) keyword analysis, I know that a good amount of people are looking for information on “public relations trends,” so we regularly publish content related to those keywords.

8) Microblogging Platforms

Microblogging platforms like Twitter are exactly what they sound like: tiny blogging tools.  Another form of social networking, Twitter works like so: You set up a profile, find people you know (or find interesting) and follow them. You then receive each of your new friends’ 140-character-or-less updates, and anyone that follows you gets yours.
 
Since people who follow you are most likely interested in what you have to say, you can “tweet,” or send an update, when you post a new blog article.  Just another way to promote your content and drive relevant traffic from people who are clearly active in social media.


Stay tuned for more Blogging for Business posts, and check out our presentation at the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit.



[1] US: Forrester's North American Social Technographics Online Survey, Q2 2007, 10,010 respondents.

A day in the life of an entrepreneur . . .

Today started like most others. After a restless night of tossing and turning, the thought of my pre-dawn venti Americano pulled me out of bed.

I arrived at the office and got the day rolling with a quick check of email before moving on to the prior day’s Website stats. I looked at the usual suspects — page views, keywords searched and referring sites, which is when the day took a bit of a turn.

In the referring sites I noticed a domain name (which will remain nameless for now) that appeared remarkably similar to our brand name (which is a registered trademark).

Curious to see where this link was coming from, I clicked on the referring URL. Much to my surprise, I landed on a Website for another PR firm and found text and services that appeared to be copied almost verbatim from our Website.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, they actually had an active link to our site from one of their services! No joke. I clicked on Press Release, and it took me to my own site.

Now when we published our service and pricing guide in early 2006, I figured that other PR firms would eventually consider evolving to a model of standardized services and set pricing, but I never thought anyone would be quite so blatant when doing it.

Now What?

Before contacting my attorneys, I pulled a few bits of background information from the Internet:

• Checked Go Daddy for domain name registration, which amazingly enough was public with the primary contact’s email address and phone number.
• Found the president of the company on LinkedIn (same contact as I found on Go Daddy).
  

From there I contacted my attorneys and drafted an email to the firm’s president. Hopefully the story ends there.

The Moral of the Story

• Be vigilant when monitoring and protecting your brand.
• Analyze your Website stats every day. You never know what you’ll find.
• For other entrepreneurs . . . be original. There’s nothing wrong with copying a successful business model, but at least put an original spin on it.
• Keep a good business attorney on retainer.

 

 

When PR 20/20 launched in November 2005, we set out on a journey to, “lead and create leaders,” as our mission states.

My theory to grow a wildly successful and influential PR firm was to hire talented, intelligent and motivated professionals, provide them with the systems and infrastructure necessary to succeed, and then get out of their way.

We wanted to develop and retain the industry's premier public relations and marketing consultants. Professionals whose services and expertise bring immeasurable value to our clients, and directly contribute to their growth and success.
 
The Marketing Consultant Laws were originally created in August 2008 and distributed as an internal document to give us (the Consultants) direction and focus, and challenge us to become stronger and more valuable, individually, and as a team.

I’ve decided to share them here on our blog (unedited) because most of the Laws have wider application to professionals in any industry, not just PR and marketing consultants.

Hopefully the Laws provide some sort of motivation or guidance to professionals who are looking to differentiate themselves, and become leaders.

The Marketing Consultant Laws

 

Deliver Results: Tasks, milestones and activity reports are a means to an end. Our job is to deliver results.
 
Pay Attention to Details: Maintain a vigilant focus on details in all communications and projects. Never make mistakes due to lack of focus or effort. Always ask yourself, “Is this the best I can do?”
 
Be a Proactive Communicator: Don’t ever leave your clients or peers wondering. Anticipate their information needs and maintain a high level of communication at all times.
 
Challenge Yourself to be Great: Always challenge yourself and those around you to improve. There is no limit to what you can achieve in business and in life.
 
Bring Solutions: “I don’t know” is not an acceptable answer. Your clients and your peers rely on you for solutions. Use your experience and the endless resources available to you to find answers.
 
Maintain a Career/Life Balance: Your career affords you the opportunity to live a full and rewarding life, but don’t let it consume you. Maintain balance among work, wellness, relationships, community involvement, professional associations, friendships, hobbies and interests.
 
Grow Your Accounts: The life-blood of every consultant is their client base. It is your job to retain and grow your accounts by maintaining an in-depth knowledge of your clients and their industries, building relationships, delivering results and keeping a pulse on opportunities.
 
Be Creative: Show imagination in your strategic thinking, and bring creativity to every project.
 
Be an Independent Thinker and Risk Taker: Don’t get stuck in the rut of conformity. Look beyond traditional wisdom and conventional solutions. Be willing to take calculated risks and make mistakes.
 
Strive for Excellence: Set high performance standards, and always strive towards personal and professional goals.
 
Think Strategically: Challenge yourself to see the big picture. Always be analyzing —perceptions, audiences, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Find connections in seemingly unrelated news and trends.
 
Hunger for Knowledge: Don’t ever stop learning. Consume the wealth of information that is all around you, and share your knowledge for the betterment of your clients and peers.
 
Stay in the Moment: You will see and do things in your career others can only dream of. There will be highs and lows, victories and defeats. Cherish those moments, but don’t dwell on them. Your job is to stay in the moment, and appreciate it for what it is.
 
Have Fun: Positive energy is contagious. Bring enthusiasm and passion every day.

Historically, Web development firms have focused on design and functionality when building Websites. And while the sites look great and are user friendly, they are not built to drive traffic and convert visitors into leads.

If you want your Website to be a cost-effective, lead-generating tool, then it is important that you evaluate Web firms on more than just their design capabilities. Here are a few questions to ask when hiring a Web firm:

Q1: What’s your Website Grade?

If the firm you are about to hire has a Website Grade less than 70, you may want to talk to a few more firms.

Visit www.WebsiteGrader.com and see for yourself.

Q2: How will our Website be optimized for search engines?

The goal of your site should be to connect with audiences, drive qualified Website traffic and generate leads. You'll want to talk with the firm about their Internet marketing capabilities beyond design, such as: search engine optimization, social media, content publishing and pay-per-click.

Here’s a starting point for on-page optimization to get you ranking higher on major search engines:

• Conduct a complete keyword analysis. Keywords are used for both on-page and off-page optimization, including: Website content, meta data (i.e. page titles, tags, descriptions), blog topics, product/services naming, optimized press release copy, video/photo tagging, anchor text and much more.
• Identify critical long-tail keywords (high conversion rates, low competition)
• Evaluate geographic optimization for target zip codes.
• Establish landing pages optimized for priority keywords.
• Create page descriptions.
• Optimize page titles, headlines, copywriting, meta keywords and image alt text.
• Monitor your rank against competitors for each keyword/phrase, mirror competitor best practices.

Q3: What Website analytics will we have access to?

At minimum, you should have real-time access (meaning it’s available when you ask, or you can login and see for yourself) to the following information:

• Unique visitors by month
• Total visits by month
• Page views by month
• Pages per visit
• Avg. time on site
• Bounce rates
• Traffic sources (search engines, direct, paid)
• Top pages
• Top entry pages
• Top exit pages
• Top keywords

If your current firm doesn’t offer this information, ask them to install Google Analytics on your Website. It’s free, and gives you all the data you need to assess their work and your site’s performance.

Q4: Will we have the ability to change our own content?

This is not a necessity, but a content management system (CMS) that lets you login, edit and add your own content is a valuable and efficient tool for keeping your site optimized and relevant.

If you don’t have a CMS that let’s you edit the site yourself, make sure you know the process to request timely changes to the Website.

Q5: How will our Website generate leads?

Your Web firm must build the site around a desired call-to-action. When a visitor lands on your homepage, within three seconds they should know what action you want them to take (e.g. request a demo, sign up for an event, download a white paper, visit the blog, etc.). This is an essential part of the Website design.


There are probably another dozen or more questions, but asking these five will get you started in the right direction.

A sound speaking strategy can have a dramatic effect on the growth of your organization, and the impact of your publicity campaigns, while also positioning your company's experts as thought-leaders and innovators.

Here is a step-by-step guide we often use to help clients looking to build speaking strategies that deliver results.

Step 1: Identify Topics

Speaking topics establish the foundation for a sound speaking strategy.  These topics, which will evolve over time, support the identification and pursuit of venues and opportunities. 

Step 2: Select Audiences

Define, segment and prioritize target audiences. 

Step 3: Define Objectives

Establish quantifiable objectives to provide direction to the program and define success. These may include: number of appearances, leads generated, media coverage and attendees.

Step 4: Research & Evaluate Opportunities

• Identify venues for potential speaking engagements, including: colleges, trade shows, conferences, seminars/workshops, career fairs and professional-organization events.
• Establish a valuation system to rate each opportunity based on defined criteria (e.g. event organizer, audience, topic, date, location, objectives, etc.)
• Create an event calendar of opportunities at targeted venues.
• Contact venues to inquire about submission guidelines.
• Pre-qualify high-value engagements through media coverage, past speaker status and feedback, attendance history and projections, and first-hand experience with venues.
• Monitor and assess trends to identify timely opportunities with targeted venues.

Step 5: Positioning & Placement

• Create a speaker’s packet, including: biography, by-lined articles, testimonials from past organizers and attendees, demo DVD, topic list, photos, contact information, A/V requirements and rate card.
• Research and evaluate membership in professional speaking organizations.
• Build the speaker’s resume through preliminary appearances within an existing network of business and trade organizations, as well as academic institutions.
• Enhance credibility and value through publicity programs, including the submission of relevant, by-lined articles to targeted media outlets.
• Utilize the event database built in Step 4 to pursue high-priority speaking opportunities.
• Maintain communications and relationships with all targeted venues.
• Define protocol and prepare responses for declining unsolicited opportunities that do not meet defined criteria.

Step 6: Preparation

• Attend targeted and scheduled venues to assess defined criteria and support presentation development.
• Publicize appearances through targeted media outlets.

Step 7: Evaluation

• Establish a grading system to measure the return-on-investment (ROI) for speaking appearances. 
• Assess and grade each appearance and venue.

 

 

This may be one of the more absurd cases of professional misconduct I have ever seen in the public relations industry.

Apparently fueled by incompetence, 5WPR, “the nation's fastest growing public relations firm three consecutive years,” (according to their Website), is being accused of ignoring the number one rule in social media — participation must be authentic.

In a story that first broke on July 9, 2008, the powerhouse PR firm appears to have been busted for blatantly impersonating people (including a prominent rabbi) online on behalf of its client, Agriprocessors.

Take a few minutes to read the following posts, but here are excerpts from Gawker.com that provide a snapshot of the situation:

• After being hired for its Internet PR expertise, 5WPR attempts to plant fake comments from both supporters and (most deviously) critics of the kosher slaughterhouse on various websites.
  
• This scheme unravels because the company doesn't bother to leave its office or mask its IP address when posting.
• PR firm blames an unnamed, unpaid "intern" for the fraud. Says this "intern" has been fired.
• This story starts to unravel because, as blog Failed Messiah notes, the first two impersonation posts appeared in February, "well before any summer interns were working at 5W."
  

Scheme To Blame Intern For PR Fraud Unravels — Gawker.com (July 11, 2008)

5W faces accusation for blog misconduct — PR Week (July 10, 2008)

5WPR Scares Holy Man With Sock Puppet, Blames Intern — Gawker.com (July 10, 2008)
 
Flacks for Agriprocessors Admit Online Impersonation of Meat Company’s Critics — Jewish Daily Forward (July 10, 2008)

5WPR Flacks Get So Freaking Busted Impersonating People Online — Gawker.com (July 9, 2008)

5W PR Illegally Impersonates Hechsher Tzedek Founder Rabbi Morris Allen — FailedMessiah.com (July 9, 2008)

Less than a week after the Tribune Company announced plans for significant cuts to staff and page counts at its 12 papers, RealNEO blogger Roldo Bartimole broke the news that big cuts are in the plans for The Plain Dealer, Cleveland's major daily newspaper.

According to Roldo, "the paper plans to cut 35 pages a week from its news pages and 20 percent of its workforce." And that's in addition to the 17 percent of its editorial staff lost to recent buyouts.

Read more about the planned changes at major dailies across the country:

RealNeo.com — June 10, 2008
Big Cuts in Planning at Plain Dealer 

Chicago Tribune — June 9, 2008 
Tribune Co. faces big cuts, fast 

The New York Times — June 9, 2008
Tribune Co. Plans Sharp Cutbacks at Papers

Los Angeles Times — Feb. 14, 2008
Tribune Co. to cut staff by 2% 

 

The public relations industry is rapidly evolving. Technology is redefining the profession, and Web 2.0 — the new online world of mass collaboration and consumer-generated content — has given unfiltered access to the opinions and perceptions of target audiences (i.e. employees, customers, prospects, competitors, media, etc.).

Plus, through the use of blogs, optimized press releases, podcasts, videos, forums, social networks and other Web 2.0 tools, companies now have the ability to connect with their audiences in a more authentic, human voice.

For the PR industry, which traditionally has relied on pitching stories to mainstream media (i.e. TV, print, radio) in the hopes of landing editorial coverage and generating impressions, Web 2.0 has given us the ability to consistently produce a more measurable outcome — inbound links.

Through social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and self-publishing, wired PR firms are building inbound links, driving qualified Website traffic, generating leads, directly influencing consumers and having a measurable impact on the bottom line.

Here’s a snapshot of three public relations trends changing the industry:

1) Social Media

This is the most obvious and talked about trend in the public relations industry. PR professionals are communications specialists, and blogs, forums, online video and social networking offer the ability to communicate more affordably and efficiently than ever before.

2) Search Engine Optimization

Placement of targeted keywords throughout your Website, as well as generating inbound links to your Website, play an essential role in how your site ranks on major search engines, and in turn, directly impacts the quantity and quality of Website visitors. While SEO is not a traditional public relations practice, PR firms that don’t quickly integrate SEO principles into their services will become obsolete.

3) Self-Publishing

Press Releases, blogs, eBooks, white papers, by-lined articles, newsletters and online magazines are now being written with keyword-rich content and distributed with the goal of building Website traffic, inbound links and leads.

 

Web 2.0 has leveled the playing field for many organizations. It’s no longer about the size of your marketing budget, or how many impressions you can generate, rather it’s about how intelligent and innovative you can be in adopting emerging online technologies.

By concentrating on the activities that build inbound links, drive Website traffic and convert visitors into leads, your organization can grow smarter and faster than the competition.

Underdogs and innovators are looking beyond traditional, outbound marketing (e.g. mainstream media advertising, trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail) and discovering the ability to influence consumers through inbound marketing (e.g. search engine optimization, pay-per-click, blogging).

One of the most powerful inbound marketing activities is optimizing your Website for local search, also referred to as geographic keyword optimization.

In his May 30 blog, “Winning the Local Search Battle,” Gregg Stewart of Search Engine Watch says that, “. . . consumers are becoming better and smarter searchers, moving from simple one- and two-keyword searches to more specific four- and five-keyword searches.”

Stewart goes on to say that, “. . . the more specific a consumer is in the search query, the higher propensity to purchase. The consumer is shifting from 'what to buy' category searches (e.g. plumbing, drain cleaning) to 'where to buy' phrases (e.g. draining cleaning in Austin, Texas).”

Getting Started with a Keyword Analysis

The foundation of every successful inbound marketing campaign, including those built to drive business through local online search, is a highly targeted keyword analysis.

It’s important that the software used (by you or your Internet marketing firm) to build your keyword database goes far beyond search volume. Keywords should be graded and prioritized based on relevance, search volume, competition and difficulty.

On average PR 20/20 monitors 300 - 500 keywords at all times for each client, but concentrates keyword optimization activities on 25 - 50 favorites that are the most relevant. These keywords are segmented into four categories for tracking and reporting: Brand, Product/Service, Industry/Division and Geographic.

Generate Website Traffic and Increase Leads 

Once your keyword analysis is complete, it's time to start generating qualified traffic and leads. Keywords should be continually evaluated and used for both on-page and off-page optimization, including:

• Website content
• Landing pages
• Meta data (i.e. page titles, tags, descriptions)
• Blog topics
• Product/service naming
• Optimized press releases
• Pay-per-click campaigns
• Social media tagging
• Anchor text
• Content publishing (e.g. by-lined articles, case histories, white papers, ebooks)

Define Your Internet Marketing GamePlan 

Request a complimentary Internet Marketing GamePlan from PR 20/20 to learn more about keyword optimization and how to grow your business online.

Welcome to crisis communications 2.0.

For those corporations and professionals who have not figured it out yet, everything you do online, whether under a real or fake name, is traceable.

As we continually reinforce to our clients, social media can be a powerful communications and branding tool, but your participation must be authentic.

Those who don’t adhere to this basic principle will eventually get "flame broiled."

Burger King is the latest example of a corporation failing to grasp the power of social media. A May 18 Miami Herald article, Burger King's virtual missteps `a cautionary tale', tells the story two employees fired for ''unauthorized activity'' on public websites that didn't “reflect the company's views.''

Plus, according to the Miami Herald, a Burger King Vice President posted comments under his daughter's screen name attacking the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farmworker advocacy group. The comments accused the coalition's leaders of pilfering pay increases they had negotiated for migrant workers and “reaping millions in cash from unknowing or duped supporters.''

According to a May 13 Associated Press story, “Burger King is in a public relations feud with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers over how to improve wages and working conditions for Florida's tomato pickers.”

So what can we learn from Burger King? Every business must take social media into account when building its crisis communications and management strategy, starting with the Big 3:

1. How can social media create crisis situations?
2. How can social media be used to manage crisis situations?
3. What actions should we take to understand & integrate social media?
   

Then, drill down to the primary social media channels, and consider their potential impact on your organization. For example:

Blogs & Crisis Communications

• How can your business utilize corporate blogging - both internal (private) and external (public) - as a crisis communications tool?
• What damage can be done to your brand if you are not proactive about monitoring and contributing to blogs?
• How can influential bloggers impact perceptions about your business?

Social Networking & Crisis Communications

• What new crisis scenarios may arise as a result of employees, customers and businesses participating in social networks?
• What are employees doing, saying on social networking sites? Is it even your business?
• How can social networks be used to manage crisis situations?

Online Forums & Crisis Communications

• What forums should you monitor? Participate in?
• What’s being said about your business in forums now?
• When your organization chooses to participate, who has the authority to be the “voice?”

Relevant Links:

Associated Press: Burger King fires 2 after blog controversy
Miami Herald: Burger King's virtual missteps `a cautionary tale'
PR Junkie/Ragan.com: Is Burger King the new Wal-Mart? Let's count the ways