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.

 

(This is part 4 of a 4-part blog series on Managing Your Online Reputation.)

The beauty of public relations in Web 2.0 is that you create your own content, and you can publish it yourself.  No more hoping on a middleman to get the word out about you, your company or your service.  Isn’t that exciting?  It should be!

The key, though, is your content has to be good.  Some argue that everyone is an expert at something.  You should be an expert on your business.  Think about what your customers want to know about (hint: use some of that research from part 1 of this blog series) and create content that they will find valuable.  Package it for them in ways they want to see it.  Write press releases, eBooks, white papers and case histories (and distribute/publish them online).

Now… how to get the information out to others? 

Tell your new friends in the forums, blogs and communities about your awesome stuff that you know they’ll want to read about.  Share your knowledge. 

Think your email signature is already long enough?  Think again.  Throw in a link to download your new eBook, a link to your blog, a link to your LinkedIn page… whatever you think the people you send emails to will actually care about.

Include RSS feeds on your blog, so that people don’t have to come to you to get your content.  Instead, you send it out to them.  Put share tags on your blog posts to encourage people to submit your content to sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Sphinn and del.icio.us.

(If you want some tips on why it’s not a good idea to always submit stuff yourself, check out this blog post on the unspoken rules of social networks.  I really can’t do it justice.  Seriously, Daniel Scocco has included charts and everything.)

In short:  Be genuine.  No one likes a braggart, but if you have good content, share it, and encourage others to do so as well. 

 

Managing Your Online Reputation Blog Series Links

Part 1 - Managing Your Online Reputation

Part 2 - Are you listening?

Part 3 - Join the conversation

Part 4 - Web 2.0 is like kindergarten.  For people to like you, you have to share. 

 

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)

(Part 2 of a 5-part blog series on Selling to the Future)

Tools such as search engine optimization, pay-per-click campaigns, online ads and viral marketing are important elements of a company’s Internet marketing strategy. 

However, the emergence of social media, including forums, blogs, social networking, wikis and more, has given businesses the chance for dialogue — in the figurative online sense — with both current and potential customers. 

But for your voice to be heard with online generations, first understand whom you’re talking to.

GENERATION X (Born 1965-1982)

• The MTV generation of divorce, social problems and economic strain
• The generation between the baby boomers and their children
• Digital adaptives — technologies began to emerge (in a mass sense) largely during the teen years of Generation X 

GENERATION Y (born 1980-1994)

• The Net Generation, The “Millennials” of the work place
• Represents more than 70 million consumers in the U.S.
• Peer oriented and seek instant gratification
• Heavy users of Internet forums, email, Wikipedia, search engines, social networking sites, etc.
  

  

 

In a survey of 7,705 college students:

• 97% own a computer
• 94% own a cell phone
• 34% use websites as their primary source of news
• 28% own a blog
• 44% read blogs
  

Generation Y is a prime target for Internet marketing. According to the online article, “Why Gen Y is going to Change the Web,” Generation Y doesn’t care about advertising: they care what their friends think.

The article continues: “Because they are immersed in media, both online and off, Gen Y'ers are marketed to left and right. But when it comes to making decisions, Gen Y tends to rely on their network of friends and their recommendations, not traditional ads…They're also somewhat distrusting of ads, which is why grassroots efforts can also work.”

Source: Wikipedia reference - Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students, Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa (2007).

GENERATION Z (born 1995-present)

• Today’s children and students, and tomorrow’s employees and leaders
• History's first 21st Century generation
• The digital natives, the dot com kids, Generation Media
• The 'Multichannel Teens' — super-communicators who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends
  

Sources: Wikipedia.com; Marketingvox.com, Marketingcharts.com

Where the wealthy are

According to The Luxury Institute’s latest WealthSurvey, “The Wealthy and Web 2.0,” the participation of wealthy online consumers (average of $287,000 income) in social networks dramatically increased to 60 percent in 2008, from 27 percent in 2007.  The wealthy average membership in 2.8 social networks, with an average of 110 connections.

Selling to the Future Blog Series Links

Part 1 - Connecting with Younger Audiences

Part 2 - Learn your XYZs

Part 3 - Facebook is life for college students and beyond (coming soon)

Part 4 - Blogging in business (coming soon)

Part 5 - Don't call us, we'll text u (coming soon)

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% 

 

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

As Internet marketing consultants, we hear from a lot of clients who are on LinkedIn, but aren't sure what to do once they have a profile and a few contacts.

Well Chuck Hester, corporate communications director at iContact, has found a creative way to drive traditional (face-to-face) networking through social networking on LinkedIn:

 
Posted to LinkedIn Answers on April 30, 2008

Coming to Chicago next week (May 6-8) for the Ragan Corporate Communicators Conference.
Want to meet for dinner?

And check out the LinkedIn blog for additional tips on how to grow your business and career.

8 LinkedIn Tips for a More Productive 2008

In the headline of a March 27 NYtimes.com article, technology columnist David Pogue poses the question: "Are You Taking Advantage of Web 2.0?" As public relations and marketing consultants, this question has become the starting point for many of our discussions with clients and prospects.

Regardless of the industry, Web 2.0 - the new online world of mass collaboration and consumer-generated content that is replacing static, Web 1.0 sites - is redefining public relations, marketing, communications and branding.

Never before have organizations had such unfiltered access to the opinions and perceptions of their audiences (i.e. employees, customers, prospects, competitors, media, etc.). Plus, through the use of blogs, podcasts, videos, forums, social networks and other Web 2.0 tools, companies have the ability to connect with their audiences in a more authentic, human voice. 

According to Pogue, ". . . We all know, intellectually, that no matter what image a corporation tries to project, it's made up of ordinary people with personalities, insecurities and lives. But because the marketing and P.R. teams work so hard to scrub, control and package a company's image, the public ordinarily sees none of that human side."

"When a company embraces the possibilities of Web 2.0, though, it makes contact with its public in a more casual, less sanitized way that, as a result, is accepted with much less cynicism. Web 2.0 offers a direct, more trusted line of communications than anything that came before it."

It's OK if your organization has yet to explore the possibilities of Web 2.0, but with every day that passes, innovative competitors are tapping into the power of social media and widening the gap. So act now, and discover how your organization can take advantage of Web 2.0.

Getting Started in Web 2.0 

Here are three easy steps to dip your toes into the Web 2.0 waters:

1. Conduct social media searches of blogs, forums and social networks relevant to your company. Google and Technorati are both excellent resources.


2. Monitor news, trends, blogs and forums through RSS feeds & Google News Alerts. You'll want to set up an RSS Feed Reader such as Netvibes, Bloglines or even iGoogle.


3. Become a part of the community.
   
   • Read and comment on blogs and forums.
   • Launch a blog.
   • Join a variety of social networks.
   • Use social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.icio.us & StumbleUpon.
   
   

More than 600 professionals from corporations, non-profits, agencies and academic institutions converged on the luxurious Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas this past week (March 6-7), seeking the knowledge and tools to harness the power of social media.

The Social Media for Communicators Conference, presented by Ragan Communications and the Public Relations Society of America, featured social media innovators such as David Pogue, Shel Holtz, Steve Crescenzo, James Ylisela, John Spagnuolo and Angela Sinickas, and included 18 seminars, three keynotes, and a series of pre- and post-conference workshops.

After attending six seminars, plus the keynotes, and having a couple extra days in Vegas to digest what I heard – thanks to the winter blast that shut down Cleveland – here are a 5 Things I Think I Know About Social Media:
 

1) Ignore Social Media at Your Own Risk

 

It’s not just coming . . . It’s here!

The social media revolution is reality, and if you haven’t taken steps to integrate it into your career and your business, then you are in danger of quickly becoming obsolete.

Don’t delay any longer. Get started now! Check out our archive of social media blog posts to learn more.

2) I’m Tweeted Out . . . and I Haven’t Even Started

 

I still don’t get Twitter. This wasn’t a featured topic at the Conference, but it’s just one of those social media tools I struggle to grasp. I mean, I understand the technology (for the most part), but I just can’t figure out how business owners and professionals find the time to remain productive while constantly “tweeting.”

This is just a personal opinion from a guy who has yet to test the technology, but between email, phone calls, social networking sites and instant messaging, I’m about as connected as I want to be.

3) We’re Still Waiting for the Social Media “Experts” to Emerge

 

There are few, if any, true social media “experts.” There are, however, many pioneers who are leading the revolution, but it’s too early to classify many of these professionals as experts.

What is obvious, after two days with some of the industry’s leading minds, is that social media is still very much in its infancy. The technology that drives social media evolves at a mind-numbing rate, and the experts will be those professionals and organizations that display an uncanny ability over time to consistently integrate and innovate ahead of the masses.

4) It’s a Foggy Future for Mainstream Media

 

Mainstream media is not going away, but it is fighting an uphill battle to remain relevant as the Net Generation (born 1977-1996) exerts an ever-growing influence on business, news, the economy and society.

Net-Geners inject a culture of openness, participation and interactivity into workplaces, markets and communities. They rely heavily on peer-to-peer opinion and social networks, rather than traditional wisdom and conventional media channels. They spend their time online searching, reading, collaborating and socializing.

As a result, the print and television media landscape will change drastically over the next three to five years, as organizations continue to pour marketing dollars into social media channels, which offer unmatched reach, tracking, analytics . . . and potentially ROI.

5) Anyone Who Tells You They Know What’s Coming Next in Social Media is Lying

 

No one knows where social media is taking us, or what organizations will emerge to completely alter everything we thought we knew about communications and business. Just think:

• When Technorati, a leading blog search engine, launched in November 2002, it counted less than 13,000 blogs. Today, it is tracking more than 110 million and more than 1.4 million blog posts per day.

• Social networking on MySpace and FaceBook was a phenomenon known primarily to high school and college students, that is until LinkedIn made it in vogue for more than 17 million businessmen and women.

• Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia created entirely by its users, has more than 75,000 active contributors working on some 5,300,000 articles in more than 100 languages.

• Five of the top 10 Websites (in terms of site traffic) in the United States are social media sites.

The time to get engaged with social media is now. Stay tuned for more timely insight on social media news, resources and trends; and contact us any time if you can use a helping hand navigating into this new and exciting world.

As a PR professional, I tend to hear and read a lot about the battle of traditional media vs. social media.  Agencies and individuals are constantly re-evaluating where to focus their efforts – should a release be sent out to targeted media contacts, or optimized for search engines and distributed to online newsrooms?

Last night during the democratic presidential primary debate, we had an opportunity to see what, in my opinion, is the more realistic example – that our work with media isn’t either/or, but must combine both old and new.  Social media and traditional media are influencing each other, and working together, to create a rich pool of information that people can access, and participate in, as much or as little as they desire.

Not only were news reporters from traditional outlets on hand for the debate at Cleveland State University, so were members of the Cleveland blogging community. The Cleveland Plain Dealer also had some of their own journalists blogging live from the event.

Local NBC-affiliate, WKYC, had correspondents speaking with professionals in the spin room immediately following the debate, as would be expected.  But they also went in to chat with the live bloggers, who were able to provide real-time insight into what the general public thought about each candidate’s performance.

Smart, forward-thinking PR professionals across the board are (rightfully) stressing the importance of social media in today’s world for successful PR campaigns.  This new outlet is fun and exciting, but must be viewed as a complement to the tried and tested services PR firms have been offering for years – not a replacement.  

It’s becoming quite apparent that the traditional media outlets aren’t going away, they’re just adapting to new technology, and evolving with the Web 2.0 world.