Connect
Articles
PR.com - Abigail Harrison, thebluedoor
INSIGHT ARTICLE
Abigail Harrison is managing director of thebluedoor
During 2009 search engines such as Google as well as the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) sector declared that they were officially focused on ‘brand reputation'. For PR companies yet to understand, embrace and integrate digital into their offerings this should have been a chilling moment: until now brand reputation has always been fundamental to the discipline of PR.
For too long, certain PR agencies have either bought in digital expertise as and when it is deemed to be part of a campaign, or set up specialist digital divisions (even digital companies) to specialise in this offering. Digital should not be an add-on, nice to have, that will cost you extra, stand-alone: instead digital must be seen as just another media to reach a target audience - no more, no less.
As eConsultancy's recent online PR report demonstrated, too often digital knowledge is ring fenced with an individual, rather than ensuring that each practitioner understands the role digital has in most campaigns. By building ivory towers of expert knowledge, digital PR is being turned into a dark art within an already much misunderstood industry.
Yes digital does take time to understand but it's the responsibility of PR managers and directors to ensure that the digital knowledge gap is plugged. Digital shouldn't be seen as something that the techie types do using unfathomable techniques and algorithms.
In 2009 consumers consumed 34% of their media online (Forrester) and 85% of all business and
consumer procurement commenced online (Google). This clearly indicates that digital has to be embedded into a company's communications strategy from the beginning.
Since the dawn of time, well the dawn of PR, our sector has long ‘owned' two-way brand reputation; the move into digital is just one step along from where we already stand. So with Google now citing ‘brand reputation' as the most important factor in determining search results, PR agencies have a fantastic opportunity to use their expert knowledge and reach to maximise the opportunities available online.
Google has been moving toward increasing the importance of brand reputation for a number of years. Moves such as banning paid linking and giving webmasters the ability to not pass ‘worth' from comment spam with the No Follow tag are just some examples.
In June 2009, Google's brand update publicly put the focus firmly on brand reputation. The update focuses on a business's reputation, using Page Rank measurements as indicators of how much authority a business commands - considering the very things that PR professionals see as the nuts and bolts of our jobs. This means looking at a brand's ‘authority' factor in detail by counting mentions in mainstream media, links from mainstream media, brand mentions and buzz as the priorities for those likely to rank highly in search.
The factor here for SEO's is of course links, from trusted, relevant third party websites. News sites are some of the strongest for this and their links are very valuable when determining a website's rank for a given keyphrase. Links are the currency of SEO, and PR has a huge impact in lifting this ranking.
In simple terms, no longer can a business website exist and compete in a vacuum. How it ranks in search results will depend upon how it performs, maintains its image and communicates with its audience through both online and offline activities.
A recent evolution for Search Engines is real-time search. This enables news and social media activity to be indexed as they happen. The impact of this is significant, but it is important to realise that such blended search results will mean a less predictable search results page. This, and 2010's predicted focus on ‘hyperlocal' in making Search relevant, are further examples of Search becoming another mainstream channel for PR.
This change away from algorithms and back to the core functions of PR is one that our industry should embrace. To date, the majority of the sector has only responded to the challenges of digital to a point, keeping that knowledge separate and silo-ed off. It's now time to seamlessly integrate digital into our offerings to ensure we reach our target audiences in their online and offline lives.
Far from thinking that digital should be kept at a distance and treated cautiously, we should welcome, analyse and understand each new technology in order to enhance our capabilities and enrich our client offering. It's our business to engage the target audience - online, offline, face-to face - wherever they reside.
Social platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, blogs, Flickr, all increase our reach and enable us to talk to people - offline, online - on their terms. In our increasingly connected world, it's vital that we ensure we chose the right tools for this job, even if that means some initial time, investment and training for all our employees.
Not surprisingly, SEO agencies are beginning to focus their time on conversations and transparency by adding a PR skill set to their offering. In order for the PR industry to ensure that our role in brand reputation doesn't become diluted, we must up-skill in digital knowledge as a matter of urgency.
As PRs, we have a passion for crafting creative concepts, writing credible content, ensuring robust messaging, protecting reputation and producing excellent results. Traditional PR has always placed emphasis on gaining strong mainstream media mentions, forging strategic links, ties and partnerships, and of course, creating buzz.
It's therefore gratifying to know that these are now being recognised as key indicators of corporate reputation by companies such as Google. As an industry, we should enjoy this recognition and ensure that we not only use all opportunities available but are also able to help steer these technologies for the future.
- ENDS -
1
http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-and-online-pr-report November 2009
During 2009 search engines such as Google as well as the Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) sector declared that they were officially focused on ‘brand reputation'. For PR companies yet to understand, embrace and integrate digital into their offerings this should have been a chilling moment: until now brand reputation has always been fundamental to the discipline of PR.
For too long, certain PR agencies have either bought in digital expertise as and when it is deemed to be part of a campaign, or set up specialist digital divisions (even digital companies) to specialise in this offering. Digital should not be an add-on, nice to have, that will cost you extra, stand-alone: instead digital must be seen as just another media to reach a target audience - no more, no less.
As eConsultancy's recent online PR report demonstrated, too often digital knowledge is ring fenced with an individual, rather than ensuring that each practitioner understands the role digital has in most campaigns. By building ivory towers of expert knowledge, digital PR is being turned into a dark art within an already much misunderstood industry.
Yes digital does take time to understand but it's the responsibility of PR managers and directors to ensure that the digital knowledge gap is plugged. Digital shouldn't be seen as something that the techie types do using unfathomable techniques and algorithms.
In 2009 consumers consumed 34% of their media online (Forrester) and 85% of all business and
consumer procurement commenced online (Google). This clearly indicates that digital has to be embedded into a company's communications strategy from the beginning.
Since the dawn of time, well the dawn of PR, our sector has long ‘owned' two-way brand reputation; the move into digital is just one step along from where we already stand. So with Google now citing ‘brand reputation' as the most important factor in determining search results, PR agencies have a fantastic opportunity to use their expert knowledge and reach to maximise the opportunities available online.
Google has been moving toward increasing the importance of brand reputation for a number of years. Moves such as banning paid linking and giving webmasters the ability to not pass ‘worth' from comment spam with the No Follow tag are just some examples.
In June 2009, Google's brand update publicly put the focus firmly on brand reputation. The update focuses on a business's reputation, using Page Rank measurements as indicators of how much authority a business commands - considering the very things that PR professionals see as the nuts and bolts of our jobs. This means looking at a brand's ‘authority' factor in detail by counting mentions in mainstream media, links from mainstream media, brand mentions and buzz as the priorities for those likely to rank highly in search.
The factor here for SEO's is of course links, from trusted, relevant third party websites. News sites are some of the strongest for this and their links are very valuable when determining a website's rank for a given keyphrase. Links are the currency of SEO, and PR has a huge impact in lifting this ranking.
In simple terms, no longer can a business website exist and compete in a vacuum. How it ranks in search results will depend upon how it performs, maintains its image and communicates with its audience through both online and offline activities.
A recent evolution for Search Engines is real-time search. This enables news and social media activity to be indexed as they happen. The impact of this is significant, but it is important to realise that such blended search results will mean a less predictable search results page. This, and 2010's predicted focus on ‘hyperlocal' in making Search relevant, are further examples of Search becoming another mainstream channel for PR.
This change away from algorithms and back to the core functions of PR is one that our industry should embrace. To date, the majority of the sector has only responded to the challenges of digital to a point, keeping that knowledge separate and silo-ed off. It's now time to seamlessly integrate digital into our offerings to ensure we reach our target audiences in their online and offline lives.
Far from thinking that digital should be kept at a distance and treated cautiously, we should welcome, analyse and understand each new technology in order to enhance our capabilities and enrich our client offering. It's our business to engage the target audience - online, offline, face-to face - wherever they reside.
Social platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, blogs, Flickr, all increase our reach and enable us to talk to people - offline, online - on their terms. In our increasingly connected world, it's vital that we ensure we chose the right tools for this job, even if that means some initial time, investment and training for all our employees.
Not surprisingly, SEO agencies are beginning to focus their time on conversations and transparency by adding a PR skill set to their offering. In order for the PR industry to ensure that our role in brand reputation doesn't become diluted, we must up-skill in digital knowledge as a matter of urgency.
As PRs, we have a passion for crafting creative concepts, writing credible content, ensuring robust messaging, protecting reputation and producing excellent results. Traditional PR has always placed emphasis on gaining strong mainstream media mentions, forging strategic links, ties and partnerships, and of course, creating buzz.
It's therefore gratifying to know that these are now being recognised as key indicators of corporate reputation by companies such as Google. As an industry, we should enjoy this recognition and ensure that we not only use all opportunities available but are also able to help steer these technologies for the future.
- ENDS -
1
http://econsultancy.com/reports/social-media-and-online-pr-report November 2009
