PR professionals and agencies need to get trained
A recent report from Hitwise revealed that one in twenty web visits is now to the top social media websites. And these sites are not only driving traffic to Google and other search engines, they are sending visits directly downstream to sites like travel, banking and telecom.
"Social networkers" spend less time viewing traditional media and have more discretionary income and agreater penchant for online shopping than non-social networking site users, says the s-commerce report.
Jupiter Research says that companies are adding RSS feeds to their sites due to customer demand. IE 7 now has a reader in the browser and adding feeds is really as simple as 1,2 3.
Social media and online PR actions like optmizing press releases and syndicating web content should be an integral part of your Internet marketing startegy
Yet talking to PR agencies and inhouse practitioners, there is still a vast lack of understanding about online PR, and how to blend these new techniques into tried and tested PR activities. But as soon as there is a crisis online – or a blog attack – guess who the company is going to turn to? PR!
It is way beyond time for every PR practitioner to wrap their wits around online PR and social media. For too many years we have seen online PR hijacked by SEO firms. And it shows. There is a definite dearth of good PR trained folk who are also SEO savvy.
David Berkowitz of 360i, and columnist for Search Insider, recently commented that the use of standard PR and positioning in tandem with SEO in the Skin MD Case Study – using known search terms to draw in the traffic and using well written persuasive content to change consumer behavior – was very innovative. It shouldn’t be. It should be a given that PR people know how to do this.
When you use standard PR and you learn the finer points of SEO, web content syndication and social media, online PR is a breeze.
Put SEO PR training at the top of your 2007 Internet Marketing wish list.
