Dana Todd and Doug Hay discuss the evolving landscape of public relations (PR) and marketing, emphasizing the need for a strategic approach amidst changing consumer behavior and media dynamics. They highlight the integration of various media platforms in PR, the importance of storytelling, and the necessity of optimizing content for search engines to reach diverse audiences. The document also outlines the transformation of press releases into 'news releases' and offers insights into measurement and distribution strategies in the digital age.

1. Dana Todd, Chief Marketing Officer Newsforce 619-459-3603 [email_address] The PR R/Evolution Has Begun! Doug Hay, Principal & CEO Expansion Plus 626-793-4911 [email_address]

2. Quick Cred Slide: Dana Todd I’m not a PR professional . But I started life as a journalist, and racked up 13 years in interactive marketing and advertising since Co-founder of Newsforce Chairperson of SEMPO, semi-famous search engine marketing geek Newsforce Network mashes up Advertising, PR and News into an always-on communication platform My hair color is “Cherry Bomb”

3. Quick Cred Slide: Doug Hay Been there, done that. With some 40 years of business experience I have seen it all. Great time to be in PR. We are experiencing an amazing evolution with consumers now in control of the media which is scaring the ‘ell out of a lot of executives. Requires clever marketing/PR to succeed. Co-founder, Expansion Plus, an internet & PR consultancy for Web 2.0. Speak at conferences and do online webinars My degree is in accounting but I left that as quickly as I could. Love the creativity of marketing/pr.

4. The more things change, the more things change.

5. A Few Things Haven’t Changed PR IS NOT THE SAME AS MARKETING Foundation of PR is to “influence public opinion” Typically reach mass audience via media influencers Public relations is not just media relations Strategy and goal-setting is often overlooked in all the digital noise, but is incredibly important Listen > Strategy > React > Measure

6. A Lot of Things HAVE Changed Definition of “public” now includes search engines Online real estate is measured in eyeballs, not column inches; unlimited potential views Historical news is as accessible as breaking news Strategy is storytelling in many media forms, to many different audiences Even the structure of the press release itself is changing

7. What Is Influencing Your Audience Today? Search Engines News Engines Other Websites Blogs Peer Reviews Comments Syndicated Content Podcasts Video Social Networks Tagging What is Influencing Your Audience Today?

8. Let’s Talk about PR Strategy Don’t employ tactics before strategy Your PR goals may look more like communication goals than sales goals Micro-influence and Macro-influence It’s a sequence that’s very similar to Marketing: Research Plan/Strategy Execution Monitor, Adapt

9. The Press Release: It’s Not Just for the Press Anymore

10. Press Releases Online News Engines Search Engines Journalists Buyers

11. The "New" News Release: Marketers Are at the Gates! “ Marketers have ‘hijacked’ the news release”, - ROI of Online Press Releases , Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) This is why it's no longer a "press release," but a "news release"— it's not just for the press anymore Taken further, it’s ultimately about a content strategy that supports your communication goals (including breaking news and other news)

12. Intended Uses of News Releases Expands Online source: “ROI of Online Press Releases,” a 2008 report by the Society for New Communications Research

13. 3 Types of Press Releases Traditional media Internet focused Social media release

15. Multimedia Add unlimited multimedia Videos: Powered by YouTube Link to your own video channel or distribute to YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo! Video using Marketwire channel

16. The New Media Relations

17. Who Are the Media Gatekeepers Now? The newsroom as we knew it is going away Mid-tier news and vertical sites can eclipse masthead news in traffic and importance Bloggers are incredibly important but are a little tricky to handle sometimes Lots of freelancers, and more on the way – highly fragmented Search engines are inhuman/e gatekeepers

18. HARO: Help a Reporter Out

19. Social Spark & Pay Per Post

20. My PR Genie – DIY Press Lists

21. Direct-to-Consumer PR Sometimes, YOU get to be the journalist and publish an article nearly verbatim Be a good storyteller for the public – write the way a journalist would, NOT the way a PR person would! The public will judge you, and vote with their clicks and comments (or lack thereof)

22. SEO for PR

23. How Do I Improve My Natural/ Organic Search Presence? Post quality content to the Web on a regular basis via multiple vehicles (e.g., news releases, blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) Optimize the content in your articles and news releases – just like you do your website Use keywords and keyword phrases religiously, liberally and relentlessly; just make sure the content is of high quality and relevant Include links with keyword anchor text

24. Make a PR Keyword Plan Use historical research (Newsforce keyword research tool, Google Trends, http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com, etc.) Use editorial calendars from trade and general pubs to “predict” demand Seek commonalities and assign priorities Plan to write and post at least two significant pieces of content a month to target keywords in some way Use a variety of outlets

25. Google Trends Free tool to track seasonal keyword volumes: http://www.google.com/trends

26. Syndication & Distribution

27. Distribution: You can reach the public directly Via news search engines RSS & other feeds Mobile newsfeeds & digital newsrooms Direct placement (Newsforce, mat releases) Social media (Twitter, blogs, Facebook) User generated/social news (iReport, Newsvine, Digg) Approach with care! Digg and Newsvine hate PR flacks

28. Achieve Parity: Display alongside similar news from big-name sources Press Release right next to CNET story!

29. Mashing Up PR and Advertising Bypass the editorial chain altogether – buy your way into the premium news!

30. Where Do I Post News Releases? On your company newsroom (as RSS and/or HTML, not a PDF) Free and paid wire services or PR ‘portals’ BusinessWire, PR Newswire, Marketwire, Prime Newswire are major wire services Lots of cheap online-only distribution services Not all services distribute to search engines and “news search engines” such as Yahoo News

31. PR Portals

32. Web Syndication Services Make sure they regularly get picked up by Google News—this is key ExpertClick.com allows for HTML formatting and the liberal use of links TransWorldNews gets picked up by Google News pick-up and also runs its own search engine PRWeb distributes to Yahoo News, allows links Newsforce Network is a paid placement network, but customer content is also submitted via RSS to Google and others

33. Free Portals: Some are better than others, but use them PR-USA.net is one that enjoys regular Google News pick-up 24-7PressRelease.com, ClickPress and openPR.com sometimes see Google News pick-up and always improve universal Google Web visibility List of 50 free News Release Portals: http://www.avangate.com/articles/press-release-distribution_69.htm

34. RSS & SEO Each syndicated press release or article would have one or more links to selected pages on your web site RSS content is vital for SEO as the syndication builds back links

35. Measurement & Metrics

36. Easy to Track, Hard to Measure Go back to your goals: what did you want to accomplish in terms of influence? Decide upfront how you’ll measure success Lots of new social media tracking tools: Buzz Metrics Radian6 Techrigy SM2 (has a free version) Use cookies & tracking tags wherever possible, plus unique phone numbers RSS & wire services may strip hyperlinks, tags

37. Free for social media tracking: Techrigy SM2

38. Not Free: Radian6 [drool-worthy dashboard]

39. Search Engine Ranking

40. Other Measurement Feedburner tracks RSS subscribers and reads Most paid syndication and wire services provide tracking and reporting Use a unique phone number for your PR, too! Look in your web analytics for referral information

41. Thank You! [email_address] Follow me: Twitter.com/danatodd Become a Newsforce fan on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Newsforce/43140934618 [email_address] Give me your card or email us for free whitepaper www.expansionplus.com Some of the slides in this deck were authored by and used with kind permission of Brent Skinner from STETrevisions www.linkedin.com/in/brentskinner Thanks, Brent!