How
Social Networking, Web 2.0, New Media, SEO Is Changing PR
By
Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency
Jerusalem
---- March 9, 2010 . . Classic, professional public relations
(PR) is about to go through a revolutionary change. The days of
faxing out and or emailing multiple press releases with glossy
photos attached to journalists are numbered.
For decades,
when one had a special message to deliver to a B2B, B2C, governmental
or non-profit market, they would type up a news release, mail
it, messenger it and or fax it out. Today, email has become the
weapon of choice, unless the news release is especially sensitive
and or time dated.
But even these
practices will soon become extinct due to social networking, Web
2.0 and SEO optimized new media Blogs and Websites such as Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace and Meetup.com.
One of my
high tech clients asked me to explain today exactly why he needed
to be on Facebook.
I responded: "When TIME Magazine, CNN and FOX
News try to contact me - it is no longer through email - they
are tracking me down through Facebook or LinkedIn and using Facebook
and or LinkedIn mail."
This speaks
volumes for how governments, corporations and non-profits are
now contacting the media today. Working in reverse, if one is
seeking to get news out, especially with regard to crisis communications
management and reputation public relations, online social media
has become the potent channel to use with Facebook and LinkedIn
leading the pack.
Using
embedded video with your PR news releases and or
news stories increases both interest and traffic.
Facebook
today has over 350 million members and is climbing fast in reaching
up 500 million people from the US, Canada, UK, Australia and France
to Israel, Germany, Japan, India and China within the very near
future. What once started out as a Website from a Harvard dorm
room as a means to meet girls, has grown to become the Web's number
two ranked entity, behind search engine Google.
And Facebook
is no longer limited to those under 25. The number of Americans
over 35, 45, and 55 on Facebook is growing at a rapid pace. In
the last 60 days alone, the number of members over 35 on Facebook
has nearly doubled.
The PR professional
needs not only to be on Facebook but to learn how Facebook works.
He or she needs to spend perhaps months learning Facebook culture
and Facebook terms of service. If one does not respect the rules
of Facebook, they will find that their Facebook account and the
account of their client disabled within days.
One can also
get disabled from Facebook by revealing too much information to
the masses, giving hackers an opportunity to attack your hard
drive or thieves breaking into your office to deactivate or redirect
your Facebook, email and or other Web 2.0 accounts pretending
to be you.
New media,
social networking, Web 2.0 Websites and Blogs are now killing
conventional print media with average daily circulation falling
more than 10 percent in the April-September 2009 period compared
with the same period last year, accelerating a slide that has
led to thousands of bankruptcies, closures and cutbacks in newsrooms
from New York, Washington and Los Angeles to London, Paris and
Tel Aviv.
Average Sunday
circulation for 562 US newspapers was down by more than 7.49 percent.
When seeking
to reach the masses today through established, accredited media
outlets which have online news departments, the new form of public
relations or NPR (New Public Relations) is found on social networking
sites where one only needs one news release sent out into a viral
marketing spin. Rather than advertising an upcoming special event,
trade show or exhibition with 3 or 4 news releases, one only needs
one SEO - search engine optimization - PR news release to create
a group on Facebook, an announcement on LinkedIn,
Twitter and a paid announcement on MeetUp.com.
This news
release (or PR) should contain all of the 5 w's - who, what, where,
when and how. It should contain as many relevant keywords in it
as possible which associates to the event. And one should strive
to get this news release placed on Google News as a news
release or as a news story. In the hierarchy of Google News
- aim for a news story, rather than a news release which is not
considered as a prime source.
For those
who are seasoned, professional journalists and PR, media consultants,
this represents major changes to what you have learned and practiced
from the AP Stylebook!
Not all SEO
PRs are created equally. There are many inexperienced, so-called
SEO PR experts who have nothing more than training in hair dressing,
cosmetics or construction who have found SEO as quick and convenient
means to make money, as most people and companies do not understand
anything about HTML, page titles and META tags. But the truly
successful PR professionals today will take their journalism experience,
push the envelope and integrate his or her creative writing skills
with SEO to reach the largest possible audience.
In addition,
you may find a really good PR consultant who has recently taken
SEO, new media, social networking, Web 2.0 courses or an SEO consultant
who has just spent three months learning creative writing and
media placement but they will not always get all they need from
an academic course or 2 hour seminar.
Getting the
PR message out today demands having a news and or PR channel that
was established years ago and has an abundance of back links coming
into it. It must have the organic ears and the eyes of Google
News and backed-up with paid for Google Adwords and Facebook
ads.
Lastly, as
soon as that story appears on Google News, the PR pro now
needs to push that story out through social media, Web 2.0 outlets
such as Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube and Blogs. What we are looking at here is integrating
professional creative writing with SEO HTML optimized copy with
online news aggregators such as Google News, Yahoo News
and DIGG.
News distribution,
targeting, monitoring and online PR, branding and marketing solutions
today demand an ocean of knowledge in several new digital disciplines.
Without knowing the new social networking, Web 2.0 forest, one
will never find the trees that they are seeking to target.
So how can
you tell if your PR news release is truly reaching millions for
real estate, politics, entertainment, food, high tech, sports
and or reputation crisis communications management rather than
just a few dozen people?
Copy and paste
the headline of the news release into Google Web and place quotation
marks at the beginning and end of the head. Click on search and
then count on how many Websites are carrying your story. The higher
the number that the PR organization can secure for you becomes
the real acid test of which PR SEO firm of 2010 that you want
to retain for you and your organization.
The author
of this news story, Joel
Leyden, is an Israel public relations, new media, social networking
SEO pioneer. He is credited for having co-created Israel's first
commercial Website - NetKing in 1995, the first Website for an
Israeli prime minister, co-created the Israel Defense Forces Website,
was the first SEO - search engine optimizer in Israel and serves
today as both commercial and crisis communications PR / SEO consultant
and publisher of the Israel News Agency, Israel's first on-line
news organization which is indexed by Google News.
Leyden, who is now opening offices in New York, recently returned
from Haiti where he was responsible for demonstrating the humanitarian
efforts of the Israel Defense Forces, and several Israel humanitarian
aid relief organizations including Israel Flying Aid. Leyden has
worked as an international media, branding and social networking
consultant for the Israel Prime Minister's Office, the US State
Department, the Israel Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the IDF,
Mayor's Office of New York and hundreds of commercial and nonprofit
organizations.
The
Israel News Agency,
which is accredited by Israel Government Press Office, was the
first on line news organization in Israel. The INA reaches up
to 60 million readers through Google News and Internet social
networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from
New York, London, Moscow and Paris to Toronto, Los Angeles, China
and India. Leyden is presently launching the United
States News Agency using the INA as a successful working model.