Todd Defren (@tdefren) kicked off the second round of Inbound Marketing University yesterday with a topic that didn’t get much coverage the first time around – public relations.
With free and available technologies that allow anyone to publish their information, significant reductions in the ranks of professional journalists, and the public’s seemingly insatiable desire for news that is weirder and wilder than ever before, PR folks are fighting an uphill battle to get their information out there.
But as most companies know, you can’t live on advertising alone – it’s too expensive (and often doesn’t work that well) – and having a well-executed PR strategy can produce real results (Newsweek estimates that media prominence accounts for 25% of brand value.)
This isn’t your parent’s PR, though. The days of boring, corporate-speak-gobbledy-gook press release with little or no news or entertainment value are over.
Instead, here’s how Todd defines PR:
Public Relations is not just about “hits” – it’s about frequently distributing relevant content via the right channels to boost credibility and findability.
This means that you need to be part of the dialogue every day – creating a blog post, commenting, pitching a new idea to a journalist or blogger, twittering, etc. You consistently have to stay in front of your audience – enough so they stay interested, not so much that they become annoyed.
You also need to create content that is concise, relevant, and easy to find. Instead of creating a 10 minute video about your product, create 10 one-minute videos for each of its features.
Make it easy for people to consume and share your content – then look at your stats to see how it resonated with your audience. Are your raw traffic stats improving? Are visitors sharing your information? Are they converting? If the answers are no, then it may be time to reconsider your content (was it relevant?) and how it was presented (was it relevant, but too hard to consume?)
And, don’t forget your SEO basics. (For a refresher, take a look at Blogging Basics and SEO Fundamentals and Advanced SEO Tactics (IMU).)
But even with relevant and timely content, have you to sent it to the right places. Do you know what publications have the most traffic and authority (Technorati, Cision, etc.)? Do you know where the top bloggers are active (hint: it’s not just on their own blog)? A positive mention or retweet by the right blogger can have a great impact; just pasting a press release on your own website – not so much.
Distribution is also where you can leverage your PR agency’s network of contacts (and their credibility). Ultimatley you want a self-reinforcing cycle — a hit in the New York Times article about your company gets the reader to your company’s own content-full site which continues to provide useful news/information to the New York Times, etc… It’s not an either or situation, you need traditional media relations plus content creation and distribution to maximize your results.
I was very impressed by Todd’s presentation and learned some great new stuff about PR. I’ll post a link to his slides later this week, until then you can find Todd at Shift Communications or PR Squared.
And, for more about Inbound Marketing University, you can read my reviews of the first round of presentations and watch the IMU classes yourself.
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- How PR and Bloggers Can Help Each Other (myventurepad.com)
- PR for Inbound Marketing (pr-squared.com)
