Tag Archives: content

Strive for Diversity in Your Content Consumption

Public Relations Professionals should strive to consume diverse content
Some rights reserved by ItzaFineDay

Years ago, I had a job working the front desk at my local YMCA and it afforded me the opportunity to truly understand just how important it is to appreciate cultural diversity in the world around us. Over the 10+ years working there, I interacted with a host of different ethnicities, races, and cultures, all with their own unique perspectives, ideas, and opinions. Living in a country founded on the principles of multiculturalism, I often felt privileged that at a young age I had the opportunity to view life through a cultural prism, respecting ideals and beliefs that may have been contrary to my own but helped to mold the way I related to others. Continue reading

Is Your Web Content a Marketing Liability?

Distracted by all the social media buzz, it’s easy for a company to lose sight of the fact that their website remains the mother ship of brand expression and commerce. The standard marketing approach – particularly among B2B firms – is to create a brochureware-esque “Who We Are / What We Do / Why You Should Select Us” web presence, which forever serves as a handy repository for press releases, case studies, white papers and other expressions of thought leadership. For many firms, “build it once & fill it with stuff” is considered effective website management.

What often happens – soon after LAUNCH COMPANY WEBSITE is crossed off the corporate to-do list – is that companies don’t apply the same standards of excellence or levels of scrutiny to the content generated post-launch that were applied during development of the website’s original core content. For a host of political and practical reasons, inappropriate and ineffective web content gets posted; sorely outdated content is granted lifetime tenure; and assorted layers of information…in WORD documents, PDFs, YouTube videos, podcasts, webinars…all obscure the company’s core messages and brand positioning goals.  With apologies to poet Robert Browning, when it comes to website content, less is absolutely more.

If the brand police were to issue citations for website content-related abuse, some of the most common violations might include: Continue reading

2011: The Blogger Revolution

Can you hear that sound? It’s the sound of a blogger revolution ya’ll! That’s right the blogging world is changing and I predict that this year we will see some things really come to surface. From money to marketing, bloggers are savvier than ever before and we all need to get with the program.

I spend quite a bit of time reading tweets, blog posts, etc. which are all about the blogger/public relations dynamic. After covering this territory for years, here’s what I think will go down in 20-11: Continue reading

Content vs Relationships – It’s not a monarchy…

Low angle view of the statue of Emperor Augustus, Faraglioni rocks, Monte Solaro, Capri, ItalyI’d been bouncing around a post on this topic mentally for a few weeks, but as usual things get in the way.  But when a post from superstar Chris Brogan declaring not content, but rather relationships “King” and a counter-post (though not referencing Brogan’s) appeared on Chris Illuminati’s blog declaring content King it was time to, as they say, open a vein and bleed on the page.

Declaring either content or relationships as King implies that either can stand alone.  After all, in a monarchy the King rules — his will is law (and in some cases religious doctrine).  This is certainly the exception, not the rule.  It’s a triumvirate folks. Continue reading

Gray Hat SEO

berto-eric-webHaving your blog or Web site rank high in search engine is essentially a guaranteed way to convert sales. But as a PR person, how can you help your clients achieve number-one ranking nirvana?

While at the recent BlogWorld Expo, I sat in on a session that proposed the creation of a network of blogs with content specific to the various products or services your client sells. Relevant key words in the blogs’ titles and content will help it rank so that it does not dilute the keywords in other articles. The strategic use of keyword specific anchor text and linking structures will help as well. Continue reading

The Industry That Cried Wolf—Is the ‘evolve or die’ rule universal?

The press release is dead. The media is dying. It’s beginning to feel like we work for the industry that cried wolf.

While I am by no means saying PR pros shouldn’t be concerned about and keenly aware of the intricacies of the media’s evolution, it’s time we stopped panicking and took a look at the facts. Or more importantly, a look at the newspaper industry’s proposed solution—a new and improved online product. Can it work? Is it a universal solution?

Continue reading