Social Media

A Lesson from My Personal Trainer on Knowing Your Audience

Posted by Natalie Sutton on October 30, 2012   |   No Comments

I was intrigued and surprised by some of my own behaviours this week, and decided there was a small but valuable lesson to be learned about knowing your audience(s).

Like many working mums I’m sure, I was catching up on some household admin one evening in front of the TV – laptop to one side. Notably, I was reading the monthly ‘Newsline’ from my son’s senior school to check on all the important items I had probably missed! As I flicked through the final pages, my eye was drawn to a couple of ads at the back; one for the school’s beauty salon, one for a local personal trainer.

The beauty salon I’ve visited before. The ad for the personal trainer was very short, but gave his Facebook page for further information. Weird, I thought. Being a B2B communicator, I guess I was wondering why I couldn’t just go to his web site for more information? Yet, I quickly found myself looking him up on Facebook, which was already open on my laptop. There I could see his previous clients, testimonials, photos etc. Minutes later I was messaging him.

It wasn’t until I had reflected on the whole short episode, that it occurred to me what had happened from a communications and lead generation point of view. This trainer had not only understood his target audiences, but where they hang out. In this case, Facebook.

Kudos young man, kudos.

 

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Making Social Media Pay

Posted by Natalie Sutton on October 19, 2012   |   No Comments

Here at Proud Towers we’ve been fortunate enough to work on some really great campaigns this year. I don’t say that in order to blow our trumpet (!) rather, I mean that we’ve been involved with some well-informed clients, that embrace content-driven marketing, social media and experimental ideas.

We’ve created more than one heavy-weight industry report on behalf of clients in 2012. I’ve enjoyed tracking how well received they are by press and influencers, but more importantly I just LOVE being able to measure their success in the lead generation process.

I received an internal report this week from one of our clients tracking the web downloads and leads derived from one of our survey-based campaigns. We had publicised it with all of the usual PR tools, but also created an infographic and leveraged the social networks.

In the first month alone, the report had received more than 500 visitors and over 300 registrations. Roughly a third of those came directly from LinkedIn. An additional 200 visitors downloaded the infographic that had been promoted via social media and blogs. Not bad for pure PR – the proactive lead generation campaign hadn’t even started yet! And, they were quality leads, with at least five major brands ‘hot to trot’.

Not only is this feedback extremely useful for us a marketing team to take forward to future campaigns, but it serves as a useful example for conversations with other clients and prospects.

There seems to be a misperception about social media in the marketing and comms mix. Too many organisations continue to use the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as another channel to talk about themselves. Tut tut.

Those companies that take the time to step back, understand whom their audiences and/or prospects are, can specify the content that those targets are GENUINELY interested in and work it within a broader marketing strategy are far better placed to make money from social media.

To learn more, contact info[at]proudpr.com.

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Just 38% of companies have a content marketing strategy: report

Posted by Natalie Sutton on October 4, 2012   |   No Comments

While the importance of content marketing is beyond dispute, with 90% of respondents believing that it will become more important over the next 12 months, just 38% currently have a defined strategy in place. 

Econsultancy’s first Content Marketing Survey Report, produced in association with Outbrain, is based on a survey of more than 1,300 digital marketing professionals working for brands, publishers and agencies.

Here are a few highlights from the survey report…

The importance of content marketing

The increasing amount of time that people are spending online and searching for information has placed more emphasis on the importance of content marketing, especially as search engines look to provide their users with the highest quality results.

According to James Keady, Digital Marketing Manager, McLaren Automotive:

Content is the voice of your brand and it is therefore important to allocate the respect, investment and focus it requires. Creating great content is difficult and delivering great content consistently through established processes is complex. However this is what is required if you want to take your brand from good to great in today’s communication environment.

Companies have responded by paying more attention to how their content can help them achieve their marketing goals.

More than 90% of survey respondents believe that content marketing will become more important over the next 12 months. In addition, nearly three quarters (73%) of digital marketers agree that ‘brands are becoming publishers’.

Rather than treating these areas as separate functions, content marketing brings knowledge and skills together to achieve business goals relevant to the whole organisation.

As a result, content marketing is now seen as an emerging discipline it its own right by a majority of marketers. Indeed, 64% of in-house marketers agree that content marketing ‘is becoming its own discipline’.

Content marketing strategy

Despite the growth in interest around content marketing, the majority of both brands and agency clients are yet to create a defined content marketing strategy, with only 38% of in-house marketers and 13% of agencies stating that this is in place within the companies they work for (or for their clients).

According to Thomas Messett, Global Editor in Chief, Social Media at Nokia:

I find it quite surprising that the vast majority of respondents use content marketing and see it as becoming more important in the next 12 months but only a minority already have a strategy in place for this area. Maybe that is a sign that the majority of users are simply ‘playing’ in this space or testing the waters.

However, plans are afoot, with 55% of in-house respondents and 58% of agency respondents saying that they (or their clients) are working on a content marketing strategy. 

Content marketing objectives

We also asked survey respondents about the aims of their content marketing efforts. Increased enagagement (52%) was the most common objective, followed by driving traffic (42%) and brand awareness (35%).

According to Kevin Gibbons, Managing Director and Founder, Quaturo:

I find these results very interesting. The fact that SEO is only fifth on this list is great to see – you shouldn’t be doing content marketing with SEO as the primary goal, as links/organic traffic should be a by-product of great content. So it’s refreshing to see that engagement, brand awareness and sales generation are valued more highly here.

There are differences in aims between B2B and B2B marketers though. B2C marketers place a greater emphasis on improving brand perception (+16% compared to B2B), improved SEO (+15%) and increasing traffic to site (+15%).

For B2B marketers, the emphasis is more significant in the areas of generating leads (+26% compared to B2C), thought leadership (+22%) and nurturing leads (+10%).

 

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Eight out of 10 PR Professionals Work with Bloggers to Gain Coverage

Posted by Natalie Sutton on August 16, 2012   |   No Comments

More than eight out of 10 (82%) PR professionals work with bloggers to provide coverage for clients, while 98% find bloggers useful or invaluable, according to new research from DWPub.

Results of the survey of 252 PR professionals conducted in March 2012 accompany a new whitepaper called ‘The smart PR’s guide to blogger outreach’. The whitepaper, which assesses the importance of working with bloggers and offers practical tips, is written by freelance writer and blogger Sally Whittle.

Of the 18% of PRs who don’t work with bloggers, 54% find it difficult to evaluate the usefulness of a blogger, indicating the industry needs to develop measurement skills.

“The relationship between bloggers and PRs continues to provoke debate, so we decided to get the PR industry’s perspective on working with bloggers,” said Daryl Willcox, chairman and founder of DWPub. “Our survey results show an overwhelmingly positive response. Bloggers are here to stay and the PR industry is beginning to embrace them. Bloggers need to be approached in a different way to journalists – our research and whitepaper reflect this view.”

The survey looked at how PRs deal with bloggers compared to journalists – just over two thirds (67%) of respondents stated they have a dedicated approach for bloggers, with 75% of these citing they communicate with bloggers in a more informal tone.

Interaction with bloggers is on the rise – 74% said their communication is gradually increasing or has become commonplace, indicating that bloggers play a significant role in the PR industry’s daily routine.

When asked about their relationships with bloggers, 26% of PR professionals said they consider theirs to be strong. 54% said they have built a rapport with bloggers, while 20% don’t have strong relationships.

The PR industry was also asked about how they measure the importance of a blog. Interaction with readers came top, with 48% of respondents citing number of comments, followers and presence on social media sites as key factors.

Number of views on posts that feature clients is the primary way to measure results from interacting with bloggers, with 33% stating this is their main measuring tool. Clicks through to clients’ websites came a close second (31%). Just 9% believe number of comments on a post featuring a client is the best way to measure results.

“Bloggers are still relatively new when it comes to the press mix and not everybody understands the etiquette when dealing with them,” said Sally Whittle, freelance writer, blogger and founder of the Tots100. “The whitepaper shows how PR professionals can effectively work with bloggers to create successful campaigns for clients and build strong relationships.”

The whitepaper can be downloaded here.

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I Need More Likes

Posted by Natalie Sutton on August 6, 2012   |   No Comments

Caroline Weaver

So, you’ve set up your Facebook business page and now you are waiting for people to come and ‘like’ it.

Do you think they will? Yes! But, you need to tell people – just setting up a page and waiting will not work. You need to tell people wherever and whenever you can and there are more places where you can display your Facebook name than you think.

Have you got your page name on your business cards? I am amazed at the amount of business owners who do not have their social platforms listed on their business cards; this is now one of the first things that people look for when they are handed a card. On a recent survey that I conducted I found that 65% found it easier to communicate using Facebook and Twitter, so this is a must.

Have you got a link to the page on your email signature? Add your social platforms to your email signature, activate the links so that the person receiving your email can click straight through. Make it easy for them.

Have you put the Facebook icon on your website with a clickable link?
Make sure your Facebook icon is on every page of your website, the reader may not want to buy from you now but they have opportunity to follow you and join your community. You can then keep the contact warm until they are ready to buy.

Don’t forget all your other online places and profiles:

  • LinkedIn/Google+ – advertise your page regularly; tell people why they would benefit from liking your page. You can link your LinkedIn and Google+ profile through to your Facebook page.
  • Twitter – again, advertise your page regularly, tell people why they would benefit from liking your page. Don’t be afraid to ask for a cheeky RT.
  • YouTube Channel – they give you the opportunity to enter all your external links so include your Facebook link here.
  • Pinterest – if you are on it (every business should be) advertise your Facebook page.

What about all the things that you produce?

  • Your blog
  • Your on-line newsletter
  • Your ‘thank you for registering’ emails
  • Your on-line/printed brochures
  • Your leaflets
  • Your pop-up event stands
  • Your event signage
  • Your business presentations
  • Your menus
  • Your shop window
  • Your vehicle
  • Your letterhead
  • Your compliment slips
  • Your invoices

… and the list goes on.

Tell everyone you meet. Ask them to stop by and like your page. It’s a proven lead generation tool that I can guarantee will get you new business if used correctly.

So, come and like our Facebook page, tag your business name and I’ll like you back…that’s a guaranteed like for you!

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10 Tips for Improving your LinkedIn Ranking

Posted by Natalie Sutton on July 2, 2012   |   No Comments

LinkedIn can be a highly focused way of reaching key audiences, and an effective way to boost SEO too. We did some LinkedIn training with a client last week. Once they got started updating their profiles, they asked us why their company ranking was so low. Here’s some of the advice we shared.

Professional and company profiles are ranked via an algorithm that produces different results for different searchers based on data from a variety of sources. Sources include search keywords and phrases, searcher profile information, activity and connections, and profile information, activity and connections of all users who have searchable public profiles. To increase your search rank, you must improve your profile and perform actions that connect you to more people on the site.

  1. Make a list of keywords and phrases you feel best match your industry, skills and expertise. For example, if you’re a PR company, you might consider “PR,” “public relations” and “media.”

    2.  

  2. Review profiles of highly connected professionals from your industry on LinkedIn for additional keywords and phrases that apply to your business, and add these to your profile where applicable.

    3.  

  3. Fill out all of the sections available in your profile so the “Profile  Completeness” bar on the right side of the page is 100 percent blue, as a complete profile ranks higher in searches than one that’s incomplete.

    4.  

  4. Update your profile photo with one that you use on other websites so that people who see your profile on LinkedIn, or via an Internet search engine such as Bing, Google or Yahoo, can immediately recognise you and your business.

    5.  

  5. Check that your improved public profile is visible. Roll your cursor over your account name, click “Settings,” and then click “Edit Your Public Profile >”. Check that you have the “Make My Public Profile Visible to Everyone” box and all boxes for the individual profile sections selected.

    6.  

  6. Make sure you have as many genuine connections as possible, as profiles with many connections rank higher than those that have few. Take time to update your network.

    7.  

  7. Ask your connections for recommendations or to follow your company.

    8.  

  8. Join groups related to your industry. Go to “Groups” on the navigation bar, select “Groups You May Like” and click the “Join” button whenever you see a group that looks like a good match. In addition, join industry-related groups that people in your network have joined.

    9.  

  9. Update your status and activity frequently with any news about you or your business such as new accomplishments, projects, products and services, as profiles that have regular updates rank higher in searches.

    10.  

  10. Answer questions on LinkedIn, as building your reputation by proving yourself an authoritative source of information can increase your rank. Go to “More” on the navigation bar, select “Answers,” browse by categories, and then select and answer questions.

    11.  

Perhaps you have some tips to share? Let us know. If you need any quick guidance, don’t hesitate to get in touch on +44 (0) 1276 679570.
 

photo credit: smi23le via photo pin cc

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10 Social Media Mistakes

Posted by Natalie Sutton on May 24, 2012   |   No Comments

We were lucky enough to be in Germany recently running a social media workshop with a client – auditing the current comms plan. Client already has a number of tactics in play, and we wanted to review the strategic rationale behind them to ensure all activity was still relevant and deserving of the time and effort being ploughed into it.

A little pressed for time in a busy day, we managed to chunk the discussion down to just three key questions. Actually very simple stuff, yet still too many companies are approaching their social media activity with a tick-box mentality.

So…

  1. Who are your audiences?
  2. What content is of genuine interest to them?
  3. And, therefore what are the best channels to reach them?
Without understanding these things, it’s really easy to make some fundamental mistakes. Here are five of the biggest mistakes being made:-
  1. Failing to talk to a specific target group
  2. Lacking a specific goal
  3. Using the wrong channel
  4. Companies talking about themselves
  5. Not listening or following up

And five good guidelines that are all too often broken:-

  1. Prepare the user for major changes
  2. Don’t fight user behaviour
  3. Be upfront about mistakes
  4. Understand your audience
  5. Keep emotions in check

In order to leave this blog on a positive note, here are five tips to get you on the right tracks:-

  1. Find the interested people
  2. Deliver quality content
  3. Capture information
  4. Stay in touch
  5. Measure and adopt

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How Members are Capitalising on the Capabilities of LinkedIn

Posted by Natalie Sutton on March 6, 2012   |   No Comments

We saw this interesting Infographic on Twitter today, so thought we’d share it with you. We note that 76.9% of members surveyed said that LinkedIn has helped them research people and companies, and 37.2% say they’ve used it for increasing brand/marketing presence in the marketplace.

Of the top 10 favourite features, 58% rate the company information and 38.4% follow companies.

Contact us on info[at]proudpr.com if you want help with navigating this important B2B network.

 

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80% of Press Release Headlines Too Long for Google

Posted by Natalie Sutton on February 23, 2012   |   No Comments

Are you optimising your press release headlines? For the second straight year, our friends at Schwartz MSL Research Group have put together a study on the SEO of press release headlines using data from Business Wire releases. It has been previously noted that Google only displays roughly 65 characters in its search results and therefore releases with headlines 70 characters or under are best optimised for SEO.

This year’s study looked at the headlines of more than 16,000 Business Wire press releases from 2011. Of those, only 19.5% of all releases had headlines with 65 characters or fewer and just 23.7% were at 70 characters or fewer. This suggests that the great majority of press releases do not have headlines fully optimised for search.

The average headline length is 123 characters, which is the same as last year’s results. The study also looked at buzzword usage and completed a geographic headline face-off to determine which cities hosted the SEO-savviest press release headline writers. You can download the full report here.

This story was originally blogged by Amy Yen, Marketing Specialist, Business Wire Dallas
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SEO and PR – an Unrequited Love?

Posted by Natalie Sutton on January 20, 2012   |   No Comments

Posted by Natalie Sutton

We were on a ‘synch-up’ call with a client’s marketing agency the other day; we were keen to kick off social media integration to the PR programme and they are tasked with enhancing SEO on the client’s new web site.

At one point, one of the marketing agency consultants remarked that he’d never met PR people who knew so much about SEO. Now, while it’s always nice to receive a such a compliment..especially in front of a client…(!) it did leave me wondering if there really is a widespread lack of understanding of SEO by PRs, and vice versa.

Where are the boundaries? Perhaps it’s something along the lines of SEO aiming to ensure that the brand’s website ranks well in search engine results for relevant search terms.

PR on the other hand aims to ensure the brand has a positive reputation amongst its audiences.

The Blog Battle

Blogs are a potential area of conflict. A corporate blog provides an ideal opportunity to post lots of keyword-rich copy on the company website to attract the attention of search engines. PR on the other hand will want to use it to publish thought leadership pieces and news announcements.

I say the two objectives don’t have to be mutually exclusive. If the SEO team is willing to provide key phrase insights, PR can make subtle use of them.

Different copywriting styles

Content generation can be a battleground too. SEO practice is based around reach and volume whereas the PR content should be more focused on careful messaging and quality.

Take the press release for example. The first aim of a press release is to ensure the story gets picked up by as many journalists as possible; the release is designed to catch their attention. When the PR writes press releases, their first audience is the journalist… not the client and not the search engines (although there’s no reason why the latter shouldn’t be a secondary audience).

Get your SEO and PR people working in synch, the results can be wonderful; I’ve seen it happen.

In most organisations there’s no shortage of people with the right skills, so the barriers to achieving this are largely political. It’s really just a matter of getting them to work well together.

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