5 Tools for Your Digital PR Toolbox

來自 Online Marketing Blog Lee Odden 著

The transition from old to new technology creates both challenges and opportunities for communications professions. The field of public relations is directly tied to the publishing industry which of course, is directly connected to business and consumer information discovery and consumption. The migration from offline to online has left these industries in a state of flux and traditional PR becoming increasingly digital is no exception.

There are tactical challenges as well as strategic. For example, the shift towards digital communications means a new set of tools must be learned in order to accomplish today’s PR goals. Now more than ever, public relations professionals need to familiarize themselves with a new arsenal of tools to adjust and thrive in a digital world.

Which tools and tactics are most effective for online PR? What are the best practices and guidelines for using each tool appropriately? Here are five tools every digital PR practitioner should have in their online PR toolbox.

Search Engine Optimization – Search is the top method for finding information online. Keyword optimizing news content is a key device for digital PR professionals. News content that is ripe for optimization ranges from press releases to media coverage to digital assets such as images or video. Optimizing news content for relevant and popular phrases can help that content rank well in the search engines. Improved search visibility helps marketing efforts, online reputation and it can attract analysts, journalists and bloggers researching your industry.

Social Media – Understanding social media relations is an important part of a digital PR effort. The audiences a company is trying to reach or influence are spending time on and being influenced by social media. Social participation in a digital PR program means connecting with and engaging influentials and customers to perpetuate a positive brand image as well as identifying and empowering brand ambassadors. Proactive content optimization of social media content and building relationships with fans helps dispel negative brand attention and accentuate what’s positive. It is essential to be open with and useful to social communities and to adhere to both implicit and explicit ‘social rules’ rather than just dropping links to what you’re promoting.

Digital Assets – ”If it can be searched on, it can be optimized”. The video, audio, podcasts, images, and many other digital assets hosted on most company websites represent many opportunities for pull based PR. Optimizing digital assets with relevant keywords and either promoting or submitting to vertical search engines like YouTube and Flickr can provide additional exposure to media that conduct online research as well as end customers. In a survey of journalists and reporters conducted by TopRank, 91% of respondents indicated they frequently use search engines to do their job. Optimizing more than standard text content for PR creates additional entry points to news content and can improve search based discovery.

Blogging – When done right, a company blog can be an incredible PR asset. A company blog is an opportunity for a brand to create and publish its own content to a relevant online audience of content creators. Well-optimized and linked blog posts can rank well in the search engines making them easy to find for journalists and bloggers researching stories. Blogger relations is often more successful when the company being pitched has it’s own blog to point to.

Search and Social Media Monitoring – With so many content creators online, the chance for both negative and positive brand mentions increases dramatically. Yet many tools exist to help the online PR pro effectively monitor brand reputation. Companies can set up free alerts using tools like Google Alerts, Social Mention or Twitter to watch for mentions of their brand name, competitors’ names, industry news, and important key names. Social media monitoring data can be used to mine new ideas, keep tabs on competitors, identify brand ambassadors and address any negative press quickly and directly. Monitoring search engine rankings of news content can provide important feedback for news optimization efforts and provide insight into search traffic effectiveness.

A well-stocked PR toolbox should at the very least contain these five tools and the skill sets to get the most value from them. Whether it’s to identify and build relationships with influential bloggers or making it easy for journalists to find your company/client when researching stories, standard PR tactics can no longer be relied upon. Creating and promoting content on the social web in addition to leveraging keyword optimization can provide PR practitioners substantial advantages over their legacy minded peers who continue to rely on press releases, email and phones as their sole tools for gaining media coverage.

What digital PR tools would you add to this list? How are you using blogging, social media and SEO in your online PR efforts?

轉貼 Social Media Measurement 的新會意義

來自 廣告101‧Be Always Convinced! ad101hk 著
近日一連串熱烘烘的社會討論，針對日益嚴重的青少年問題，例如濫用藥物/毒品的人數上升與校園驗毒計劃、少女援交等。當大家都頭痛如何辨別問題少年好讓社工跟進，香港一些志願機構其實已經透過互聯網平台，進一步利用網上各種工具進入年輕人最常流連的網絡世界。

友人傳來一篇報導，讓我開拓了網絡media measurement的新思維。

據報導指出，天主教香港教區設立的社會服務機構明愛社工服務將會在9月開始利用CMRS (本港一間數據服務供應商) 的social media monitoring services ，透過data mining技術了解問題少年的網上活動。先講media monitoring，媒體監測服務並不是甚麼新事物，自從媒體內容數碼化後，廣告商可以利用訂閱媒體監測服務，隨時了解品牌/ 公司管理層/ 產品被報導過和在不同媒體上被討論過的統計資料；而social media monitoring 的概念雷同，特別指廣告商監測網上社交媒體的討論內容。

除了廣告商要利用social media monitoring services掌握其品牌和產品的exposure外，社工服務團體都可以掌握其服務對象的的討論內容。例如一些濫用藥物或提供援交服務的年輕人在網上是非常活躍的，他們甚至會在網上討論區進行交易安排；以前社工僅僅利用search engines搜尋題目，未必能夠有效尋到目標，也比較費時失事。這個social media monitoring services 目的建立keyword profile，裏面包括年輕人在forum討論毒品的相關題目或常用的俚語；再透過數據分析以偵測有最多相關討論的地部，期望可以更容易發現一些隱性濫藥者再作跟進。這個另類外展服務不用親身落街，而是可以24小時，甚至在網上進行深宵外展服務，接觸高危青少年。不知道社工如何在網上與target建立互信關係，會不會要成為無間道，深入討論區再進行輔導行動。

這類應用於品牌監測網上討論的工具十分商業化，但商業產品背後其實有重大的社會責任。因為網絡是年輕人的第二個家，要接觸新一代，透過網上各個接觸點 (無論是網站、討論區、blog、facebook，還是instant messenger)，都可以跟他們進行互動，這實在是我們所有非網絡成長的一代不能忽視的。

十分歡迎非單純賺錢的social media monitoring services，利用科技提供社會服務是一股有意義的網絡新力量。

人生(一)

已經很久沒有靜靜坐下來，想想「人生」這回事，想不到工作了一年後的今天，我又好像以前一樣再次思考「人生」這個命題。

 

剛才在浴室利用潔淨身體時的時間，開始重新思考......

 

重新思考我的人生，等於重新規劃我的人生嗎？計劃我的前途？計劃我的家庭？計劃我的死亡？計劃這樣，計劃那樣真的有用嗎？經驗告訴我，我的人生沒有安份地照計劃進行，它喜歡拐彎，從我計劃的另一端走去。我面對的是一次又一次的疑問，這條路走對了嗎？沒有人可以告訴你正確的答案，也許到了死亡的那一刻，我才會知道這個答案。

 

命運掌握在你手中？還是你掌握在命運手中？

 

當你很悲觀地選擇了後者，似乎你可以做的真的有限，順其自然，走到那裡便在那裡，不用想太多，因為這個邏輯是若天要你成為人中龍鳳，你便是人中龍鳳，若天要你平凡無奇，你便平凡無奇，再多努力也沒有，但是，若天要你相信命運掌握在你手中？那麼到底是你認為命運掌握在你手中？還是天要你這樣認為呢？說到最後開始語無倫次......

 

開始睏了，先睡一覺，明天續......