Previously only available to advertising partners, Twitter analytics is now available to all users! Stacey Miller at PR Daily released a “cheat sheet” to guide the less analytics savvy through the important new feature. Continue Reading →
Archive | PR for Businesses
New York Times and other Media React to Anthony Weiner’s Latest Scandal: Too Much Bad Press to Run?
Mayoral candidate and former congressman Anthony Weiner is once again in the middle of an embarrassing sex scandal. After taking a break from politics and public life to let the last scandal blow over, this second indiscretion could be the nail in the coffin for his public support and career. Matt Wilson’s article on PR Daily about Weiner’s PR woes questions whether the politician is working for the good of the people, or just his ego. Continue Reading →
Paramount PR Launches Paramount Digital, a New Social Media Marketing Division
Paramount PR Launches Paramount Digital, a New Social Media Marketing Division
Paramount Public Relations announces the launch of Paramount Digital, a new social media marketing division, to compliment the traditional PR services that we have been offering clients for more than a decade.
Paramount Digital can help meet your organization’s marketing goals if you are looking to:
- Develop a strategic social media marketing plan
- Set up social media accounts
- Utilize your current social media accounts to increase brand awareness by engaging current followers
- Increase your organization’s following
- Use metrics to analyze your social media campaign’s success
For more information regarding Paramount Digital, contact Jessica Prah at jessica@paramountpr.com or 312-544-4190.
"Who is Running this Magazine?" Rolling Stone’s PR Nightmare
After Rolling Stone magazine released its August cover featuring Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the legendary magazine was met with a storm of backlash. Retailers are boycotting the issue and musicians are expressing their distaste, while social media is overflowing with outcry.
The cover of Rolling Stone magazine has long been a determining factor if a musician has achieved pop icon status. Alongside its commentary of the music industry, the magazine also has a tradition of serious reporting on the current cultural landscape. However, it isn’t an article about Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s descent into radical Islam that is offending people, its Tsarnaev’s rock star looking cover photo. Continue Reading →
6 SEO rules every PR pro should live by
Here is an excellent article from PR Daily every PR person should read as a reminder of the importance of SEO in any PR campaign.
6 SEO rules every PR pro should live by
Search engine optimization (SEO) determines where and how businesses rank on search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. As the competition for online real estate continues to heat up, B2B and B2C marketers have planned to increase their SEO budgets by 43 percent and 45 percent, respectively.
With marketing departments increasingly seeing more value in digital services, PR professionals must understand how to best incorporate SEO tactics into their service offerings. Become your client’s trusted SEO consultant with these six rules to live by:
1. Take advantage of Google’s free tools. Claim your business’s location on Places for Business, and suggest that your clients follow suit. The same goes for Google+, which can and does influence Google Search. A +1 is similar to link-backs and Web traffic, in that it helps Google determine which sites people deem important. Last, identify the top search terms in your client’s industry for which they’d like to “own” a top spot in search results, and then use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to find which phrases are searched most frequently. Sprinkle these words throughout your news releases and media advisories.
2. Always link to your client’s homepage in an email pitch. News outlets’ websites can generate some of the strongest link-backs for your clients. To increase the chances that your client’s name will be hyperlinked in a reporter’s story, always include it in your email correspondence with media contacts.
3. Never distribute a hyperlink-free news release. Take every opportunity to drive traffic to your client’s website, whether it’s through a release that crosses the national newswire or one that’s simply emailed to a media list. The rule of thumb is to use three to four hyperlinked keywords per every 400 words. Anchor text should direct clicks to pages within the company website that are most relevant, such as a page where a study’s full report can be found, where people can download an infographic, or where a particular service offering is described in detail.
4. Make the most of your news release’s lead paragraph. Search engine results often display only the first 75 to 100 characters of body text. Start with the most important, keyword-rich information to ensure that’s what Google uses to describe the release.
5. Start blogging. A company blog is one of the best ways to continually update your site with strong keywords. Blogs can be shared on popular social networks, thus creating a channel to increase site traffic. Plus, guest blogging opportunities may arise, and these can generate powerful link-backs from other sites. Map out a content strategy, know which keywords you want to target and stick to a publishing schedule. Blog posts published on Monday and Tuesday mornings often do best, traffic-wise.
6. Become the Web developer’s best friend. If your client is launching a website, you will likely be brought on to write the copy for each page. Take this project a step further by working closely with the developer to see how the site is being built to accommodate strong SEO. Meta title text—the page title you see in search results and at the top of your browser—is extremely important for SEO. Suggest title text for every page on the site by using Google’s Keyword Tool and your client’s Google Analytics account, which will show you how they’re already being found online.
What other SEO tactics have you embraced in your PR work?
Kathleen McFadden is an account executive as Buchanan Public Relations and co-chair of the PR Committee for the Public Relations Global Network. Follow her on Twitter @kathleenmcf. A version of this story originally appeared on the agency’s blog.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/14753.aspx
Want Your Press Release Picked Up? Always Follow These Six Guidelines
photo credit: ragemonthly.com
In public relations, a single error can make or break whether or not your press release will be picked up by an editor. Mickie Kennedy of PR Daily provides six essential tips to keep in mind when writing a press release, specifically following the Associated Press grammatical guidelines:
1. Set your objective in the introduction. Set your goal at the beginning of the release. If a journalist reads the first line or two of your release and doesn’t find the objective, he’ll toss your release and move on to the next one. Continue Reading →
The 3 Biggest Social Media Takeaways from Election 2012
With the Presidential election shortly behind us, the media is already analyzing how this election has differed from those previously. Regardless of party politics, social media and the internet played a substantial role in the 2012 election—from viral sharing to a wider access of political content. Although some praise it and others curse it, the social media landscape no doubt will shape the way people view their candidates in the future. PRDaily.com sheds some light on the three biggest social media takeaways from the 2012 election:
1. Tumblr is a viable platform to activate a younger demographic.
Obama’s team was active on the microblogging platform, taking advantage of memes and celebrity endorsements—highly shareable social elements. A look at his Tumblr (barackobama.tumblr.com/) shows gifs, a Lady Gaga tweet, and a kitty cat graphic. Was Tumblr the reason Obama won and Romney, whose Tumblr wasn’t nearly as interesting, lost? Probably not. But it certainly leads us to our next point.
2. Strong, shareable content may be becoming as effective as advertising.
Just as with companies, politicians have to fight through a ton of noise to be heard in social. Battleground states were inundated by TV ads, and they became white noise, blending together and inspiring people only to resent the election.
However, a well-timed graphic, such as the Obama team’s response to Clint Eastwood’s Republican National Convention appearance, titled This Seat’s Taken, can break through this clutter. The proof is in the numbers: The Eastwood image drew 63,000 retweets and 25,000 favorites—and that’s just on Twitter.
For brands all times—corporate and political—it comes back to the content. Strong content is highly shareable and will take on a life of its own. Weak content becomes part of the noise.
3. We may never have another ho-hum election.
Check your Facebook News Feed from the last 24 hours. Look at the latest offerings from your friends on Instagram. And Twitter? Fuggedaboutit.
Political opinions used to be something you kept to yourself—one of the big three topic you’re supposed to avoid at a dinner party. If social media is the world’s daily dinner party, we’ve thrown that rule out the window. Perhaps you unfriended those whose opinions were, shall we say, a bit extreme. Maybe you were sick of it all by the end. But one thing is certain: The chatter was insanely contagious, and we may never escape it as social media appears here to stay.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13113.aspx
Newsweek to End Print Publication by the End of 2012
After over 80 years of service, prominent print magazine, Newsweek will end all print publishing by the end of this year. According to NYTimes.com the news came from the Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown in an online message posted on The Daily Beast. The Daily Beast and Newsweek made headlines in 2012 when the two merged. In her message, Brown stated that staff would continue to publish a digital magazine called Newsweek Global, which customers would pay for and The Daily Beast would continue to be a free website.
Although the news of a print publication going under is hardly surprising, Newsweek is a major publication and the fact that it will no longer be available in print speaks volumes for the ever changing landscape of digital media. More and more publications are choosing to eliminate their print editions entirely because of the severe amount of money they are losing. For example, Newsweek has an estimated $40 million in losses annually. Something they hope to turn around with the elimination of printed editions.
In its heyday Newsweek would often compete with Time magazine weekly for breaking stories and eye-catching covers. Now that Newsweek’s print has been given the ax, the biggest question to be asked now is what will become of “Time” print editions?
50% of Consumers Value a Brand’s Facebook Page More Than Its Website
It is apparent more than ever that social media plays an important role in society, even for businesses. A recent article by Mashable announced that 50% of consumers value a brand’s Facebook page more than its website. While websites are commonly created to drive traffic and entice online shoppers, it seems that consumers are also turning to a brand’s Facebook page for information as well.
Possible reasons for this statistic could be that Facebook pages often make a brand seem more reachable and personable. According to the study, 75% of participants feel more connected to a brand on Facebook. Also, Facebook offers businesses an outlet to showcase discounts that reach a large audience. Mashable reports that as a result of liking a brand on Facebook, 77% have saved money.
Although stores may hang “50% off” and “Final Sale!” signs in their windows for those passing by to notice, the sales world is changing. While in-store sale signs may go unnoticed, with social media, sales as well as other information is available with an easily navigated click of the mouse.
Social Media: The New Recruitment Frontier
In an increasingly digital world, job recruiters are turning more to social media to find potential job candidates. In an interview with Smart Blogs, Monica Pons, head of executive recruitment for NBCUniversal, discussed how vital social media is for NBCUniversal’s recruitment. According to Pons, NBCUniversal uses their social media to engage with possible employees and ultimately draw them to their career websites. NBCUniversal has posted videos of what is like to work at a particular business (such as Bravo) and has even gone as far as to tweet job openings.
They don’t only utilize their own personal social media tools, though. Pons relayed a story of finding currently hired employees solely through a search on LinkedIn. While Pons did not comment on whether or not NBCUniversal utilizes Facebook for recruitment, she did note that recruiters are using it more as a screening tool.
“We are witnessing the blurring of boundaries between professional and personal through social media,” Pons said. “Potential candidates need to acknowledge this new branding of the self that social media generates and adapt their profiles to the new reality.”
To put it simply, if you’re applying for jobs consider who is viewing your Facebook page and move those bar crawl photos to a separate folder.
For the full interview with NBCUniversal’s Monica Pons visit: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/10/31/social-media-powered-recruitment-how-nbcuniversal-builds-its-employerbrand-online/
