New Media PR Master Class
Boston – June26, 2009
Instructor: Eric Schwartzman

Housekeeping
• Breaks and Lunch
• Cell Phones
• Technical Problems
• Curriculum
• Handouts are Digital
2

EPIC 2014
3

New Media Strategy: Infrastructure
4

Infrastructure: Web 2.0
Blogger, Typepad, Flickr, YouTube,
Delicious
Pros: Cons:
• Cheap or free • Less flexible
• Easy to deploy • Cookie cutter
• Simple to operate designs
• Updated • Generic URL
automatically • Not upgradable
• Indexed quickly
5

Web 2.0: Strategic Risks
1. Objectives before tools
2. Limitations of blog
software
3. Conversion leaks
4. Investing time in
technology
5. Unsupported
technology
6. Interoperability
7. Workflow management
8. Storage
6

Infrastructure: Licensed Software
Word Press, Drupal, Sharepoint,
Vignette
Pros: Cons:
• Full design control • Complex set-up
• No predetermined • Bandwidth issues
templates
• Unpredictable
• Adaptable support costs
• Distinct URL • Requires security
updates
• Community
supported • Significant upfront
investment
• No regular ongoing
7
fees

Infrastructure: Cloud Computing
Google, Salesforce.com, iPressroom
Pros:
Cons:
• No client/server
software • Ongoing
commitment
• Shorter deployment
• Hosted externally
• Global availability
• Fee-based
• Constant upgrades
• Fully outsourced
• No IT support
required
8

Cloud Computing: Benefits
Motley Fool: Business Case for SaaS
Less Expensive - Yankee Group study found total
cost of operating an on-demand software
package is less than half that for an
equivalent system bought the traditional way.
Faster Deployment - With SaaS, software can be
deployed in days and weeks, rather than six
to 18 months with traditional license-and-
install software.
Preserves Focus - Lets IT offload delivery and
maintenance of software applications. SaaS
firm invests in the technology, hardware, and
ongoing support services, freeing the
customer from those expenses.
9

Cloud Computing: Benefits
Motley Fool: Business Case for SaaS (continued)
Lower Risk - Upfront investment is significantly
less. Small and midsize companies live in fear
of the failure rates of IT deployments.
Sound Economics - In traditional model, the
supply and demand for features usually don't
match. Companies buy software loaded with
bells and whistles they don't need. IDC
surveyed 250 IT execs, finding that
companies believed they use just 16% of the
software they buy.
Healthier Relationships - The SaaS provider earns
its return over the term of the relationship,
rather than front-loading costs via a license 10

Which Platform is Right for Me?
1. What are my objectives?
2. Why am I communicating online?
3. Am I planning to communicate online indefinitely?
4. Am I planning to blog, podcast, SEO, use RSS and send
email?
5. Am I doing this professionally or personally?
6. Do I want to feature ads or promotional material in
context?
7. Am I tech savvy enough to support myself?
8. Can I rely on my IT resources to support me?
9. Will my online communications live on my org’s website?
10. Do I need a distinct URL?
11. Do I need regular, external back-ups?
11
12. Do I need immediate 24/7 support if my site goes down?

Building a Business Case: My Method
Objectives Expertise Integration Benchmark Measurement
12

Realistic Objectives
INFORMATIONAL TRANSACTIONAL SOCIAL
measured by: measured by: measured by:
• Site traffic • Ecommerce • User ratings
• Unique visitors • Registrations • Comments
• Length of stay • Insite searches • Interactions
• Return visits • Downloads • Widget usage
• HTML Usage • RSS Usage
13

Reeling In Scope Creep: Mapping Objectives to Functions
Objective Function
Listening Research
Talking Marketing
Energizing Sales
Conversing PR/Corp. Comm.
Supporting Customer Service
Embracing Development
14

Social Media: Implementation Recommendations
• Strong, committed executive
sponsorship
• Identify adoption challenges
• Set expectations to build incremental
value
15

Common New Media Communications Gaffes
1. Innovating outside core competency
2. Underestimating resources to sustain content
creation
3. Putting aesthetics before information architecture
4. Developing homegrown technology solutions
5. Not committing to SEO
6. Using inexperienced personnel
• Best Practice:
• Business Case > Wire Frames > Tech Spec > RFP
16

Twittersulting
17

Pay Per Post
18

Migrating Organizational Communications Online
“Integration is important because time is
precious. They want the tools to be as
efficient as possible. It's a way to
create value for the company, which
means it needs to effective and
efficient.”
“The more time they spend using the
tools and going from tool to tool, the
less time they spend working.”
David Berger, Corp. Comm., IBM
19

Dynamically Generated News Program
20

Wikipedia
21

Wikipedia – From Marketing Sherpa
• Getting Listed
• “Stub” articles
• Propose articles for creation
• Enlisting community member to create an
article
22

Wikipedia – From Marketing Sherpa
• Monitoring Your Listing
• Appoint a Wikipedia ambassador
• Participate in the community
• Monitoring your existing Wikipedia pages (RSS)
23

Wikipedia – From Marketing Sherpa
• Getting Errors Fixed
• Flag factual errors on discussion pages
• Handle criticism on discussion pages
• Propose new links on discussion pages
24

Wikipedia – Other Issues
• Terms and Conditions
• Conflicts of Interest
• Neutral Point of View Policy
• “Peacock Terms”
25

Wikipedia Hall of Shame
26

Monsanto Edits Michael Moore
27

US DoJ Obfuscates Bush Criticism
28

Organizational Engagement
Source: 2009 Digital Readiness Report 29

Digital Readiness in 2009
Source: 2009 Digital Readiness Report 30

Email
31

Reputation and the Web
32

Conversations are Media
33
Source: 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer

Trustworthies
Source: 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer
34

ROI of Trust
Source: 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer
35

Usage Growth
36

Discoverability and Amplification
New Media
Websites
Monitoring Email
Microblogging SEO
Content Social
Blogs/Podcasts
Networks
Pure Social
Networks
Social Media
37

Conversations Shape Reputation
R e p u ta ti on
Source: Shel Holtz
Mainstream News Media 38

Online Reputation Management
39

Identity Management
The only way to prevent
reputations from being damaged in
the process is to always "be on
your best behavior" in public.
Read Write Web
40

Google’s Strategy
41

Social Media Usage During the VT Massacre
42

Blogger Relations
43

Blogger Relations with Citizen Media
•Collective Intelligence
•Listening
•Engaging
•Participating
44

Broadcast Resistant Channel
45

Open Social Media Policy
46

Closed Social Media Policy
47

Four Steps to Measuring Blogger Influence
48

Step 1: Inbound Links
49

Step 2: Technorati Rank
50

Step 3: BlogPulse Conversation Tracker
51

Step 4: Compete.com Traffic Comparison
52

Step 5: Quantcast Demographics
53

Step 6: Quarkbase Social Barometer
54

Deciding which Blogs to Engage
55

Cory Doctorow’s Blogger Relations Tips
• Have a link
• Have a permanent link
• Have a link for everything
• Avoid flash sites
• Avoid PDFs
• Make video downloadable and streamable
• Put your URL on your images
• Linking policies are ridiculous
• Specify credit and usage rights
• Send suggestions by the preferred means
56

Blog it Yourself
57

Health Care Blogs
58

Health Care Blogs
59

University Blogs
60

University Blogs
61

Actual Social Media Gaffes
62

Press Release Search Engine Optimization
By SEO-PR
63

Citation Indexing
SEOed Site
Landing
SEOed Page
Press
Wiki
Release
News
Hit
Blog
Hit
Online
Newsroom
PR
PR
PR
PR
PR
64

Case Study: Organic Blog Optimization
65

Case Study: Inbound Links
66

Case Study: Tracking Inbounds
67

Case Study: Search Results
68

Case: Fewer Inbounds, Higher Rank?
69

Case Study: Evaluating Inbounds
70

Press Release SEO
1) Discovery and validate keywords or keyword clusters
2) Use keywords in headline and in the first 250 words, at least
3) Link keywords to an SEOed landing page on your website
4) Write an original title page and meta page description
5) Repeat steps 1-4 on a landing page on your site
6) Upload press release to your online news room
7) Distribute the release on a newswire
8) Blog the News
9) Send pitches to relevant journalists and bloggers
10) Monitor and analyze traffic on landing page
71

Step 1: Search a Potential Keyword
Search the keyword you think may be applicable and
examine the meta keywords of the top 5 results. 72

Step 1: Strategic Keyword Discovery
73

Step 1: Keyword Discovery Tools
1. Search Engines
2. Meta Keywords
3. Density Analyzer
4. Yahoo Site Explorer
5. Google Trends
6. Trellian
7. Google External Keywords Tool
74

Step 1: Review Meta Keywords of Top-Ranked Sites
75

Step 1: No Meta Data? Analyze Density
76

Step 1: Broaden Your View with Adwords
If some of the keywords in the meta keywords field
seem relevant, repeat step one with those newer
keywords. And try running the top listed sites through
Google’s External Keyword tool. If new keywords
surface that seem relevant, repeat step one. 77

Step 1: Evaluate Inbounds on Yahoo Site Explorer
Check the inbound links of the top ranked sites when
you search your intended keywords using Yahoo! Site
Explorer. Look to see if they are drawing rank from
inbounds to their sites from high profile domains, or
from .edu or .gov domains. 78

Step 1: Number of Inbound Links
Also in Yahoo Site Explorer, evaluate whether or not
you think you can collect more inbounds for your press
release. Ask yourself, “Is my press release more
relevant than the websites currently coming up first
when I search my intended keywords?”
79

Step 1: Too Competitive? Add Modifiers.
• Company • Rates • City Name
• Services • Pricing • Surrounding Suburbs
• Professional • Deals • State (including
abbreviations NYC, IL,
• Best • Affordable FL, WA, etc.)
• Top • Offers • County Name
• Leading • Packages
• Internet • Quality
• Organization • Cheap
• Marketing
• Business
• Solution
• Online
80

Step 1: Compare Volume in Google Trends
Go to Google Trends or Insights and see which of the keywords
you’re experimenting with has the most search volume. Test like
terms against each other to which ones are most popular.
81

Step 1: No Volume? Try Keyword Discovery
82

Step 1: Prefer Clusters or Want More Ideas?
83

Step 1: Prefer Clusters or Want More Ideas?
84

Step 1: Select your Keywords
Narrow down your list to three keywords, picking one
high volume term, one medium volume term and one
low volume. If you’re choosing effective keywords, the
lower the search volume, the greater the likelihood of
conversions against those searches will be. 85

Step 2: Use the Keywords in the Release
Use your keywords in the copy of your press release. Use
them, if possible, in the headline, sub-headline and at least
the first 250 words of the release, but strive for readability
over repetition. If it reads like you’re keyword stuffing,
you’ve overdone it. 86

Step 3: Anchor Link Keywords to Landing Page
The anchor text or link label is the visible, clickable text in a
hyperlink. The words contained in the Anchor text can determine the
ranking that page will receive by search engines.
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>
Poor hyperlink usage:
Today our president abstained from ratifying the North American
Free Trade Agreement. To know more, click here.
A better way of linking that keyword would be:
Today our president abstained from ratifying the North American
Free Trade Agreement.
87

Step 3: Link Shorteners
88

Step 3: Embed Tracking Links
Link at least one instance of each of your three keywords to
the web page your trying to search engine optimize. This will
a separate page from the actual press release itself, and
should also be optimized for the same keywords. It cannot be
duplicate content. It must be different, even if only slightly
so. Hyperlink the keywords and a trackable link shortening
service like www.bit.ly so you can see how many times they
keywords get clicked, and whether or not people were
referred to your target web page from your press release,
which could wind getting picked and posted to other
websites. 89

Step 4: Create Meta Data
90

Step 4: Where Title Tags Appear
91

Step 4: Where Meta Page Descriptions Appear
92

Step 4: Example of Release w/o Title Tags
93

Step 4: Example of Release w/o Meta Page Descriptions
94

Step 4: Example of Release w/Dynamic Meta Content
95

Step 4: Why Meta Page Descriptions Matter
Source: Eyetrack 3
96

Step 5: Target Your Release to a Landing Page
97

Step 6: Upload Release to Online News Room
98

Step 7: Release on Newswires
1. http://www.prweb.com
2. http://www.prleap.com
3. http://i-newswire.com
4. http://www.webwire.com
5. http://www.pressbox.co.uk
6. http://www.24-7pressrelease.com
7. http://www.clickpress.com
8. http://www.przoom.com
9. http://www.pr.com
10. http://www.marketwire.com
11. http://www.prnewswire.com
12. http://www.businesswire.com
Source: Online Marketing Blog
99

Step 7: Free Newswires for SEO
Search Engine Friendly
The winners, backlinks with anchor-text:
http://www.free-news-release.com/
http://www.freepressreleases.co.uk/
http://www.i-newswire.com/
http://www.prleap.com/
Losers, no backlinks if you don’t pay:
http://express-press-release.com
http://www.free-press-release.com
http://www.prfree.com/
Site Readability Ease of Use
Winners: Winners (direct submission):
http://www.click2newsites.com/
http://www.prweb.com/ http://www.free-news-release.com/
http://www.prleap.com/ http://www.i-newswire.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/
Losers
http://www.free-news-release.com/ Losers:
http://www.free-press-release.com http://www.pr9.net/ <-requires different
account registration for different company press
http://www.prfree.com/
submission.
Source: Cheng Soon
100

Step 8: Blog the News
101

Step 9: Get Inbound Links
102

Step 10: Watch for Traffic Sources from Shortened URLs
1. Embed tracking codes in the links from the release to the
landing page.
2. Monitor the web analytics of the site the press release links to
for referral traffic sources.
3. Setup Google alerts to monitor when the release gets picked
up.
4. Monitor blog search engines like Google blog search.
5. Monitor standard search engines for pickups and links.
6. Track conversions from press release landing pages.
Source: Top Rank Marketing Blog
103

Review: Press Release SEO
1) Discovery and validate keywords or keyword clusters
2) Use keywords in headline and in the first 250 words, at least
3) Link keywords to an SEOed landing page on your website
4) Write an original title page and meta page description
5) Repeat steps 1-4 on a landing page on your site
6) Upload press release to your online news room
7) Distribute the release on a newswire
8) Blog the News
9) Send pitches to relevant journalists and bloggers
10) Monitor and analyze traffic on landing page
104

Press Release SEO Wizard
105

Blogging SEO Tips from Matt Cutts
• Use plugins like Akismet or Math Comment Spam
Protection to protect your blog from spammy links, etc that
could hurt you.
• Place the Google Analytics code lower in your WordPress
template, preferably in the Footer.php section. Moving the
script code from the header into the footer will allow your
page to load faster. You can put it anywhere in the footer file
as long as it’s before the </body> tag.
• Replace the default Feedburner Feed with your own custom
branded feed hosted off your own domain.
• Install an SEO title plug-in that will swap the name of your
blog with the post title first. If your blog’s name is still first
and then the post title, make sure you install something like
Optimal Title immediately.
106

Blogging SEO Tips from Matt Cutts
•If you’re just starting your blog, make sure you don’t put it at
the root of the domain. Create a subdirectory called “blog” (not
“Wordpress”) and use the root of the domain as an entry point
with a link to your blog.
•Use keyword tools such as Adwords, Overture, Yahoo, etc to
find popular keywords before writing post titles and content.
You don’t want to keyword stuff, but you should at least know
which keywords are being searched for. Even only slightly
different keywords can have very different traffic.
•Make sure your categories are also good keywords, don’t just
create funky named ones.
•Dashes are best for separating keywords in URL paths. Next
best is underscores. No spaces will get you in trouble. Luckily,
WordPress uses dashes, such as mydomain.com/this-is-a-
post.
107

Blogging SEO Tips from Matt Cutts
•Do not forget to use ALT tags for images! Even more, use ALT
tags for videos, flash animations, or anything else that has the
ability to use one.
•Make sure your post dates are clearly visible for each post as
Google will be looking for that first.
•Make sure your web site is viewable on a mobile phone such as
the iPhone. If not, make it useable using a plug-in.
•Matt recommends full-text RSS feeds for your readers to get a
trusted base of loyal readers. Partial feeds get more page views,
but you want loyal readers more than page views.
108

Blogging SEO Tips from Matt Cutts
•Use the Google Webmaster console to check for problems with
your site. You can check your backlinks also easily in case you’re
moving to a new domain and need to notify people. Also, you
should decide your URL preference or Preferred Domain of WWW or
non-WWW here.
•Don’t use a sponsored theme as this will hurt you later on in most
search engines! Also, no PayPerPost on WordPress since that
violates the TOS.
•The number of slashes in the URL does not matter to Google, so
it’s fine to have mydomain.com/2007/08/13/dir/dir/dir/my-post-is-
here. The length is not important to Google.
109

Potential of Keyword Research
Google Blog
110

Call for a New Format
111

What Constitutes Disclosure?
112

Social Media Press Release Template 1.5
113

PitchEngine
114

Google Docs with Links to Audio
115

Online Newsroom Structure
116

Online Newsrooms with Social Media
117

More SEO Resources
118

Lunch Break
119

Content Strategy: Building Social Capital
120

Content Strategy: Sharing in Google Reader
121

Content Strategy: Sharing in Google Reader
122

Content Strategy: Podcast Sharing in Gigadial
123

Content Strategy: Blogs & Podcasts
124

Content Strategy: Generating RSS
125

Content Strategy: Flickr
126

Content Strategy: Flickr
127

Content Strategy: Facebook
128

Content Strategy: Facebook
129

Shooting Video: Streaming Gear
130

Shooting Video: Flip
131

Shooting Video: HD Portable Gear
Sanyo Xacti HD1000 4MP MPEG4 High Definition Sennheiser Camcorder Wireless Body-pack
1080i Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom -- $700 System with ME2 Omni Lavaliere
132

Shooting Video: High-End – Canon XL H1S
133

Video Editing Software – Windows Movie Maker
134

Video Editing Software – Mac iMovie
135

Centralized Online Video Distribution
136

Content Strategy: Live Online Broadcasting
137

Content Strategy: YouTube
138

Content Strategy: Converting Flash Video to RSS
139

Content Strategy: Tube Mogul
140

Content Strategy: Twitter
•Lingo
•Followers
•Usefulness
•Where is it?
•Privacy
•Personalization
•Apps/Clients
•@ replies
•DMs
•Favorites
•Problems
- Katie Boehret
141

Content Strategy: Twhirl
142

Content Strategy: TweetDeck
143

Content Strategy: twitpic
144

Content Strategy: twitpic
145

Content Strategy: TwitterFeed
146

Content Strategy: TweetStats
147

Content Strategy: Tweetburner
148

Content Strategy: Integrated Social Bookmarking
149

Content Strategy: Bookmarking Widget
150

Content Strategy: Widgets
151

Content Strategy: Widgets
152

Content Strategy: FriendFeed
153

FriendFeed Meme Tracker
154

Understanding Web Stats: Overview
155

Understanding Web Stats: Comparisons
156

Understanding Web Stats: Traffic Sources
157

Understanding Web Stats: Low Bounce Rate Traffic
158

Understanding Web Stats: Landing Pages
159

Understanding Web Stats: Taking Action
•Identify keywords with high/low bounce rates
•Build on existing strengths
•Fortify desirable keywords with content
•Eliminate ineffective keywords entirely
•Evaluate landing pages for relevancy and calls to action
160

Understanding Web Stats: Refresher Tutorial
161

Telling Quantitative Stories
• Numerical data is more objective
• Understanding numbers is a statistician’s job
• Great data visualizations tell great stories
• Data is boring, if you don’t know what to look for
• Raw numbers lack meaning
• A dataset is a bucket full of numbers
• There are stories in that bucket
Nathan Yau, Flowing Data and Mindy McAdams, Data Visualization
162

Data Visualization
163

Data Visualization
164

Data Visualization
165

Data Visualization
166

Data Visualization
167

Data Visualizations Since April 07, 2008
168

Indy Star: Data Visualizations
169

Data Visualization: Practical Challenges
170

NY Times Data Visualization Graphic
171

NY Times Visualization Lab
172

Data Visualization Resource
173

Data Visualization Resource
174

Rise of Citizen Journalism
175

Citizen Journalism: AP
176

Citizen Journalism: Reuters YouWitness
177

Citizen Journalism: To Reuters via Flickr
178

Media Relations Via Pro-Am Journalism
179

Pro-Am Journalism: Fox News UREPORT
180

Pro-Am Journalism: Fox News UREPORT
181

Citizen Journalism: Flickr
182

Twitter as News
183

Twitter as News
184

Twitter as News
185

Twitter as News
186

Flickr as News
187

Flickr as News
188

Wikipedia as News
189

Social Media as News
190

Obama Campaign 2.0
• Bought time on 3 major networks, with money raised online
• Facebook Group with 2.3 Million Fans
• 1,824 videos on YouTube, many localized to swing states
• 13 videos with over a million views each
• Most viewed video played over 5.5 million times
• Tina Fey’s impressions were viewed over 50 million times
191

92,178 Facebook Supporters as of June 22, 2009
192

Flickr Photo Stream
3500+ Photos Uploaded in first 5 Days vs. 1207 During the Same Period Last Year
193

Twitter Stream
194

Reactions of the Blogosphere to Iranian Elections
195

Locations of Major Protests
196

Protest Sites
197

Protest Sites
198

What’s Next
199

What’s Next: Social Media Press Release
200

Publishing
201

Social Networking: White Label Platforms
202

Social Networking: White Label PRSA Tech Site
203

Social Networking: Ning
204

Social Media Graphs
205

What’s Next: Data Portability
206

What’s Next: Data Portability
• Who owns your hotmail, yahoo or gmail address?
• Who owns your friends lists?
• Who owns user ratings?
• Securing Data Portability Means:
• Interoperability
• Open standards
• Open APIs
207

What’s Next: Social Graphs
208

Eric Schwartzman
(310) 463-4026 Phone
ebs[at]schwartzmanpr[dot]com Email
schwartzmanpr.com Website
ontherecordpodcast.com Podcast
spinfluencer.com Blog
ericschwartzman Friendfeed
@ericschwartzman Twitter
facebook.com/ericschwartzman Facebook
Copyright applies to this document – some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative
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209