Don’t Delete Your Google+ Profiles Just Yet: The Network Still Provides Benefits for Brands

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Everyone seems to have an opinion on the future of Google+.  A quick Google search of “Google+ is dead” nets several articles debating the future of the social network. The headlines read:

  • “Google+ Is Walking Dead.”
  • “Is Google+ Really Walking Dead?”
  • “Google+ Isn’t Dead. It’s Just In A Coma And On Life Support.”
  • “Google+ Isn’t Dead. Long Live Google +!”

In 2011, when I got an “invite” to join the new exclusive social network, I was excited about the possibilities. Would it replace Facebook as the social network du jour? Would Google finally launch a successful social media platform (RIP Google Buzz)? I was disappointed when, within a few short months, Google+ seemed to lose its luster.

Speculators have been hemming and hawing over Google+’s longevity since just after its launch, but those questions increased last month when Vic Gundotra, head of Google+ social efforts, announced that he was leaving the company. To add to the PR firestorm, Tech Crunch published an article citing a “source” that claims that “Google+ will no longer be considered a product, but a platform — essentially ending its competition with other social networks like Facebook and Twitter.” Google denied the claims.

(W)right On’s conclusion: Don’t delete your Google+ profiles yet.  While the future of the social network isn’t clear, it still provides a number of benefits for brands:

SEO: Google is a search engine, so it makes sense that Google+ provides significant SEO advantages. Google+ content itself – meaning content you post to your page – can rank in search results in instances where your website may not. Google+ also allows for near-instant indexing, whereas simply putting up new content and waiting it out usually takes a few days.

According to Forbes, “linking your Google+ page to your content via Google Authorship markup will cause the headshot and stats from your Google+ profile to show up in Google’s search results pages next to content you have written. This includes a your profile picture displaying within search results next to your content, which has been shown to draw user’s eyes and significantly improve click-through rates.”

Further, when someone follows you on Google+, it is much more likely that your content will appear higher in their search results. And when other Google+ users give a link multiple +1s, the pages shoot up in the search rankings.

No Pay for Play: Facebook has more active users than Google+. But with the latest change to its algorithm, Facebook has recently become “pay for play,” which means it’s difficult for posts to gain traction unless the page owner pays money to “boost” them. This means that “free” Facebook marketing may no longer a viable way for businesses to reach consumers.

[RELATED: Pay for Play: Will Facebook Get In Trouble?]

Quality Visits: According to a recent report from Shareaholic, Google+ actually has the second highest social media post-click engagement. YouTube took the #1 spot and Facebook is down at #5. So although Google+ drives fewer referrals compared to its competitors, it turns out the traffic it does drive is actually quite high on the quality scale. Google+ users spend more than three minutes diving into links shared by their circles, view 2.45 pages during each visit, and bounce only 50.63 percent of the time.

For these reasons alone, we recommend that brands include Google+ as one part of a comprehensive social media strategy. What are your thoughts on Google+? Is it dead, alive or maybe just sick? Join the debate in the comments.

Ideas Worth Spreading: 5 TED Talks to Inspire Your Work & Stir Curiosity

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It’s no secret that I love TED Talks. When I’m facing a tough challenge at work or need inspiration, they’re a fantastic resource. I even listen to them in the car on the way to work or on long runs. Here are a few favorites:

Simon Sinek: Start With Why

This TED talk not only changed the way I approach PR and marketing campaigns, but it changed the way I approach life. In this talk, Sinek unveils a simple but powerful model for how leaders inspire action, starting with the question “Why?”

Arianna Huffington: How to Succeed? Get More Sleep

In a world where most people are overworked, overstressed and under-rested – and wear it as badge of honor – Arianna Huffington’s mantra is refreshing. Huffington shares a small idea that can awaken much bigger ones: the power of a good night’s sleep. She believes we can sleep our way to increased productivity and happiness — and smarter decision-making. This is a short talk – only four minutes long and well worth your time.

Seth Godin: How to Get Your Ideas to Spread

This talk is 11 years old but is every bit as relevant today as it was back then. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.

Madeline Albright: On Being a Woman and a Diplomat

“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help women”

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talks bluntly about politics and diplomacy, making the case that women’s issues deserve a place at the center of foreign policy. Far from being a “soft” issue, she says, women’s issues are often the very hardest ones, dealing directly with life and death.

Olivia Fox Cabane: Build Your Personal Charisma

OK, OK – this one isn’t a TED talk. But it’s close! This talk helped me learn a lot about active listening, eye contact, warmth, body language and presence. Olivia Fox Cabine teaches us that charisma isn’t purely innate or magical. Instead, it can be something that one cultivates.

Social Media and Media Relations: Like PR’s Peanut Butter and Jelly

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How many times did you check your favorite social media channels today? I’m willing to bet it’s definitely more than one, and if you’re anything like the average person, it’s probably more around 14 – and that’s just Facebook. Even if you haven’t reached the point of constant connection, social media is a big part of everyday life.

In the professional world, social media is a great resource for info gathering. Most of us are on at least a network or two, and given the time we spend on said networks, we leave a trail of facts and tidbits about ourselves that can be useful for taking care of business. Competitors can suss each other out, business development pros can track and connect with leads, fashion influencers can gauge the style tendencies of the season – the list goes on. It’s stalking, really. I don’t mean this in the literal, creepy sense, of course; it’s a jargon-y terms that explains how we employ Twitter and the like to learn about the people around us.

In PR specifically, social media is an invaluable tool when it comes to connecting with members of the media and building strong relationships. While excellent for tracking down specific contacts, media databases like Vocus and Cision don’t always give us the robust and ongoing information on journalists their own social channels can. Social media is also a fantastic way to talk with consumers and efficiently manage communications – any good PR strategy should include social media presence, after all. Social Media Today reports that between 2012 and 2013, brands using social media to respond to customers increased by 143%, and 71% of consumers are likely to view a brand in a positive light and recommend it to peers when they receive satisfactory communication through social media. With that in mind, platforms like Twitter – definitely the holy grail of making media connections – are indispensable resources in a successful PR pro’s box of tricks. Here are a few key best practices to keep in mind:

  • Spot trends: Twitter has easy trends to follow on its sidebars, which can be tailored to your city, the location of key influencers– wherever you’d like. However, that’s just the beginning when it comes to your ability to track trends and current events on the network – plus, the “suggested” trends are often dominated by non sequitur topics. Follow news organizations from hyperlocal to international, sync up with journalists you’ve worked with or have collaborated with in the past, connect with fellow publicists and look to movers in shakers in industries relevant to your clients  – these people will be on their game when it comes to current events that matter to you.

Once armed with this information, think about how you can pull together a creative and impactful pitch that piggybacks on current events and will be all the more likely to catch a journalist’s eye. Is a writer at a big fitness publication talking about gluten-free foods that actually taste great? Did the health food brand you work with just roll out a new line of GF treats? Bingo.

  • Make friends: Journalists are people, and people are more likely to work with others they know and trust. So, use Twitter to “make friends” with media people you’d like to collaborate with. Understand who they are, what interests them both inside and outside of work, what they like to write about, and even their “voice.” Engage with their content and ask questions – genuinely, of course. Don’t pretend you’re an expert on nuclear fusion because you want a writer to cover something in Scientific America.
  • Do your research: Continuing on the trend spotting component of Twitter, it’s important for PR pros to have a handle on what’s going on in the world. However, PR being an extremely busy profession by nature, it can be hard to stay on top of news. Twitter is perfect for quick updates – its snackable content gets to the point, and if something piques your interest, you can choose to take additional time to read more.
  • “Listen” and learn: Targeted “social listening,” or monitoring social channels for topics that relate to your industry, is a great way to track sentiment. Social listening can help you out when:
  1. You’re dealing with a cool launch, a big announcement or a crisis comms situation. It’s a quick and direct path to connecting with the consumers talking about your brand or product. Simply type a search term, or better yet, a hashtag, in your Twitter search box and voila – hundreds of conversations at your fingertips. From there, you can plan responses and next steps, build a social sentiment report, or plan for a follow-up campaign.
  2. You’re running a social media campaign or contest with a special hashtag, this will give you an easy rundown of how quickly the Twitterverse is picking up on your content.
  3. You’re trying to build a quality follower base. Use social listening to find conversations that make sense to become engaged in – give opinions, retweet good points, and ask your community for their input. As like-minded users see you sharing their content, it’s likely they’ll return the favor somewhere down the line and earn you a new follower. For more advanced brands, this is a great way to find brand advocates – bloggers, industry leaders, and the like. If a conversation takes off or they tweet something that indicates they’re the perfect match for a brand or product, a publicist can take that cue and make a connection outside of social media.

PR pros, how else do you use Twitter and other social networks to enhance your skills and effectiveness?

What Makes PR Nearly as Stressful as the Battlefield?

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What’s nearly as scary as battling a wall of flames, navigating your way around IEDs in a warzone or crash-landing a plane on the Hudson River?

Apparently, it’s being grilled by an irate newspaper editor, explaining to a client why their competitor is on the front page and not them or organizing a press conference where no one shows up.

After soldiers, generals, firefighters, airline pilots and event coordinators; PR executives have one of the most stressful jobs.

That’s according to the rankings of the most stressful jobs released by CareerCast. (See list below.)

CareerCast says: “Jobs such as public relations executive, newspaper reporter and event coordinator are among the most stressful because of tight deadlines and scrutiny in the public eye.”

I would like to put my own explanation forward. You can control many things in this world–your physical fitness if you’re a firefighter, your altitude and heading if you’re a pilot, your own expectations if you’re doing just about any kind of task–but you cannot control other people.

All you can do is influence them.

Will the reporter accept your pitch? Will the Facebook fans engage with your promotion? Will the assignment editor send a camera? That’s just the media side of the equation.

Will the client approve the release in sufficient time for you to pitch their news? Will he or she deliver the messaging during the interview? Will they keep their cool when they get a tough question?

Will the big, creative idea you talked your boss into meet expectations? Can you manage the crisis and get the facts out before it blows up into a media or social media sh*tstorm? (Editor’s note: That’s industry jargon, which I normally advise clients to avoid. ;-))

You can do a lot to ensure successful outcomes – develop tough questions and practice them in advance with your client, draft messaging and make sure your client reviews it, set a project timeline that incorporates client reviews and revisions, build strong media relationships and a reputation for accuracy and responsiveness, have a monitoring program that alerts you in real-time when bad news hits, etc.

But it’s up to other people to make the final choice, adopt the desired behavior or change their mindset.

The stressed out PR executive is basically walking through a minefield of human relationships, watching for that spark of backlash that becomes an inferno or that updraft that has them soaring high one minute and then a wind sheer bringing them crashing down the next.

So, how does a good PR exec stay cool? They seek to control the only thing they truly can, and that is themselves. Develop sound strategies and a plan for implementation, get buy-in from the plan’s closest stakeholders and then work the plan. A healthy dose of paranoia will also help – expect the best but always prepare for the worst-case scenario.

The right attitude becomes your ‘flak’ jacket. You get used to understanding what you can control and what you cannot while always being upfront and clear about that in your dealings with news media and clients. You also look at lists like the top 10 least stressful jobs and say to yourself, “No thanks. Where’s the challenge and creativity in that?”

Here’s their full top 10:

1. Enlisted military personnel (84.72 stress score)
2. Military general (65.54)
3. Firefighter (60.45)
4. Airline pilot (60.28)
5. Event coordinator (49.93)
6. Public relations executive (48.52)
7. Corporate executive (47.46)
8. Newspaper reporter (46.75)
9. Police officer (46.66)
10. Taxi driver (46.18)

The Perfect Press Release, 2014 Edition

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I have a New Year’s resolution for business owners: Embrace the changing role of the press release and how it affects your company’s bottom line. Rethink the perfect press release.

Gone are the days where press releases were a one-and-done pass to securing media coverage – with new channels popping up every day and more businesses competing to be heard amidst the noise of their respective industries, it’s rare that a journalist reads a release and writes a story as a direct result of a traditional wire distribution service alone. But despite their changing role, press releases can still be an important part of making sure your story gets the attention it deserves – they’re just evolving a bit. Here are five essential components any modern press release must have to make it through today’s media storm:

1. Keywords are key: I always tell clients that nowadays, the main benefit of sending a press release over the wires is for SEO ranking. However, that one benefit is crucial for businesses and makes the effort entirely worth it. It’s the right keywords that will set your brand’s page or news above the rest and lead customers to you instead of your competitors. Google and other search engines index new content based on the quality of keywords contained, so take the time to do some research on what people are searching for in relation to your press release. Google AdWords  has a great keyword tool that is simple to use.

Note: Wire services can still be great and offer lots of benefits (including SEO help), but as they can get quite pricey, we recommend picking and choosing which releases you pay to distribute vs. which you do through free wires.

2. Make it newsworthy. Although search engine visibility is a paramount goal, the perfect press release must contain content that is interesting and truly newsworthy. We’re all biased toward our own businesses’ interests – it’s human nature – but take the time to think about what other people will care about outside of your office. Did you hire an experienced, Fortune 500-level CEO who will be implementing a whole new customer service program? Go for the press release and broad distribution. Did an associate VP get promoted? Post the press release to your website.

3. Location, location, location: Even if they’re interested in your story, most journalists are extremely busy and will not take the time to read your entire press release, whether it’s included in a pitch or they stumble upon it through web search. That being said, think strategically about how you’re placing information. Have an important main point and call to action (CTA)? Place it in the first or second paragraph – think a 30-second read at the most – and the last. This is where people are most likely to look for a summation of key content. That way, even a glance can catch a journalist’s eye and leave them wanting more.

4. The eyes have it: Photos, infographics, and video are increasingly important additions to any modern press release. New media in general is catering to a visually-driven consumer, and placing visual storytelling aids in your release is basically guaranteed to amplify your views. According to PR Newswire, a press release with even one photo will get 14% more reads than a text-only release. A release with a video and no photos will get 20% more views than text-only, while a release with both a photo and a video will garner 48% higher consumption. If you really want to maximize the power of visuals, interactive components like infographics and charts will skyrocket you to 77% more views when combined with a photo and a video. If you really want to get creative, make your whole press release an infographic. These are hugely popular and very impactful, and a graphic designer can easily whip one up to stay on budget.

5. Check yourself: Even if your press release covers the most groundbreaking, compelling news of the decade, readers – especially journalists – won’t take you seriously if it’s not well-written. Keeping your punctuation, grammar, and clarity on point will help you better hold consumers’ interest and respect your brand; prompting them to want to learn more and, with any luck, further engage. A poorly written release will leave readers assuming you and your company are unprofessional and will take the same care with delivering a service or product as you did with your writing. At the very least, have a trusted coworker who understands editing proof your work. However, working with a PR firm will guarantee your press release is not only written well, but contains messaging primed for connectivity.

6. Make a connection: Another thing that a successful press release should have is well-thought anchor links. The words you choose to anchor link can make a definitive impact on your press release’s search engine ranking, as well as its general “clickability.” For example, say your release is discussing your coffee shop’s award-winning lattes. For your intents and purposes, you’d be much better off using “best lattes in San Diego” to link to the award site or your company website over something like “award.” When people search for “best lattes in San Diego” in Google, your site and release will be associated with that term.

Press releases aren’t the only thing that can make a business successful on the web and in the press, but when combined with a careful strategy and solid media relationships, they can be a fantastic tool when leveraged properly for today’s consumer. To learn more about how the perfect press release and other PR and communications services can help your business stand above the rest, visit www.wrightoncomm.com.

Top Marketing and Communications Trends for 2014: Part Two

 

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Curious about what new marketing and communication trends 2014 will bring? In part one of this post, we identified three key trends for the New Year: social media becoming pay-for-play, branded journalism, and wearable technology and the Internet of Things. Today, we’ll discuss three more trends.

Collaborative economy:  Crowd sourcing, crowd funding, crowd storming: Fab, AirBnB, Uber, TaskRabbit. These are all examples of the collaborative economy. Recent advances in technology like mobile, social, 3D printers and the Internet of Things are empowering people and businesses to share existing resources with each other rather than buy anew or reinvent the wheel. It’s a simple, but revolutionary concept. The collaborative economy was a huge trend in 2013, but is likely to grow in 2014 and marketers should challenge themselves to think about how they can leverage it. ‘My Starbucks Idea’ is a good example of how a brand creatively harnessed the power of crowdsourcing, not only for marketing, but to innovate their business.

Anticipatory computing – This is the act of serving up information a person wants before they even know to ask for it. Mobile users have been checking into their locations, listening to music on their phones, and updating ical events for years. Now, companies like Foursquare and Circle are using the data from these mobile interactions to tailor suggestions specific to the user, which effectively means that your smartphone could dictate your preferences and purchases.

For example, Foursquare is rolling out push notification recommendations to help users find what’s happening in their area. People who opt-in to the push notifications will get suggestions on where to eat or what to do in their neighborhoods. I predict that this idea will proliferate in 2014, and will have a significant impact on advertising and marketing.

Super fans as marketers: The idea of engaging an audience that is already passionate about your brand isn’t new, but social media makes ‘super fans’ even more valuable. It’s easier than ever before to find and reach super fans, and they have a menagerie of tools at their fingertips to evangelize their brand affinities.

A recent Mashable article stated that a Facebook friend is now worth about $174, which 28% higher than 2012, and that figure is expected to increase. Online friends are clearly valuable, but if recommendations from Facebook friends are worth almost $200, what’s the value of a recommendation from a real-live friend? Super fans can be a brand’s secret weapon, not only because of their power online, but also offline.

As we progress through the age of the ‘super fan,’ marketers will enlist these ‘assets’ to market and sell for them, both online and in-person. Here’s an example: Pepsi rewarded selected Beyoncé fans who created videos based on the singer’s latest commercial with the chance to appear in a video made with her choreographer, as well as a trip to her concert in Brooklyn. Smart.

What do you think will be the major marketing trends in 2014? Tell us in the comments.