pro·ac·tive: anticipating change and taking action, rather than reacting to events
The Proactive Report is about the shifts in the media landscape, social media strategy and online PR Our aim is to bring you the latest research and case studies that show how technology is changing media consumption and the patterns of communication and behavior online.
Latest Post
Google Give PR Pros a Holiday Gift
In the summer of 2010 Google completed the Caffeine update, which allowed them to rapidly index fresh content across the web. This week Google announced that they had done another major update based on freshness of content to cope with the burgeoning amount of social content available online.
“Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven or cool refreshing fruit on a hot summer’s day, are best when they’re fresh. Even if you don’t specify it in your search, you probably want search results that are relevant and recent.” The official Google search blog.
The algorithm update can now figure out if a result from a week ago about a TV show is recent, or if a result from a week ago about breaking news is too old.
Why is this such a gift to PR? The content that is getting better search ranking is mostly PR related:
- Recent events
- Trending hot topics
- News
According to SearchMetrics, the winners in this new search landscape will be news sites or blogs, broadcast sites, and video portals.
If you are already working on your 2012 PR content strategy here are some items that could help you take advantage of Google’s update:
- How and where are you posting your news releases?
- Are you using the social media format for news?
- Evaluate your online newsroom. Does it have RSS news f eeds? Is it connected to your social content stream?
- Do you have an image gallery with a feed in your newsroom?
- Do you have a video gallery?
- Are you using your blog to best effect? Recruit and train a team of writers
- Do you have a calendar section that can be easily updated?
This new update has to be balanced with the recent Panda content updates. Google wants freshness, yes. But they also want quality. To be viewed as a genuine news site you need to be supplying industry news from a variety of sources and authors, not just your own content.
And give yourself another gift for the New Year: Read Rebecca Lieb’s Content Marketing: Think Like Publisher. It will help you devise a better strategy for 2012.
Make your online newsroom a news portal with images, videos and industry news. Post regularly and post great content and Santa Google will smile on you with better search ranking all year long. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Online PR
Building A Simple Social Media Dashboard with iGoogle
January 21st, 2012 | Read | Discuss
When you start monitoring social conversations it takes a while to figure out which words and phrases return the most relevant content. There are many excellent subscription tools available, but until you have narrowed down your search terms and brand terms, it’s a smart idea to use a free tool. iGoogle is one easy-to-create and [...]
Research
Social Media and Marketing Insights 2011
November 13th, 2011 | Read | Discuss
Booz & Co and Buddy Media’s recent study on the state of social media and marketing offer some interesting insights into what companies are doing now – and where they plan to invest in the future. For instance: Social media is primarily the domain of marketing. Less than half (48%) of companies have PR leading [...]
Social Media Case Studies
Social Media Trends 2012 – Analytics and Measurement
December 5th, 2011 | Read | Discuss
Today I am going back to the four social media trends Beverly Macy predicted would be hot in 2012 in the Huffington Post The rise of Social Intelligence Better use of analytics and more focus on measurement Content creation and curation Social media education and training Social Media Intelligence is a sure bet in my [...]
Social Media Marketing Tips
Google+ Reviews, Tips and Shortcuts
July 10th, 2011 | Read | Discuss
Oh No! Not another social network ! I can just hear the cries in the PR world: ” We already have too many channels to manage, why should we have to start over on a new platform?” When I first heard the rumor of Circles back in December 2010 I was excited because I thought [...]
Social Media Strategy
Social Media Trends 2012 – Content Curation in PR
December 16th, 2011 | Read | Discuss
In her post about social media trends in 2012 Beverly Macy says content curation is important because people want to know what’s important and they want to discover interesting and relevant content. “Competitive advantage goes to companies who quickly figure out how to enable effective aggregation curation. Look for rapid innovation in this field.” There [...]
Video Interviews
Why Quality Content is Important
February 19th, 2011 | Read | Discuss
This week the New York Times broke the story about how JCPenney nabbed the #1 spot in Google for a slew of search terms. For months – right through the holiday season – they were top of the rankings for phrases like “skinny jeans”, “home decor” and “comforter sets”, to name just a few. Google [...]
