Archive for February, 2008

I am speaking on the PR University audio conference today on writing web content. (10 am Pacific) 

This post is my supporting material about media usage (stats from the recent Hitwise News and Media Report) and some tips about writing good content for the web.

Writing for the Web

Over the last ten years there has been a significant change in the way people access information and news. The Internet changed the way we communicate, the way we buy and the way we interact with content and other people.

Over the last ten years there has been a significant change in the way people access information and news. The Internet changed the way we communicate, the way we buy and the way we interact with content and other people.The old methods of marketing and PR have to be re-evaluated and new media strategies need to be understood and incorporated into our business plans. Your audience is online, and if you want to be in touch and part of the new participatory marketing and PR model, there are some key elements of the new technology you need to grasp and implement.

PR Week points out that having your release at the number one spot on Google and Yahoo! News is the same as a front-page article in print. And what makes it even better than front-page coverage is the ability to track how many people see it and what they were searching for at the time.

The Shift in Media Consumption

Over the last six years search engines have gained popularity. The Newspaper Association of America (NAA) studies show that the number of newspaper site visitors jumped by nearly one third during the second quarter of 2006, compared to Q2 2005.

Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper websites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007.  37% of the total Internet population visited newspaper websites in Q2 of 2007–a 7.7% increase over the previous year.  These visits generated nearly 3 billion page views. Unique visitors in the fourth quarter represented a 9% increase over the same period a year ago (57.6 million).
 
“Newspapers continue to successfully transform themselves into multimedia companies, offering unparalleled content that reaches an audience growing in both size and sophistication,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “Newspapers’ expanding print and digital portfolio offers value to advertisers by providing a targeted, comprehensive menu of choices for today’s discriminating consumer. As our industry’s transition accelerates, it is clear consumers recognize newspapers as their trusted source of information in an increasingly digital environment.”

The audience for newspaper websites is growing at nearly twice the rate of the overall online audience – and newspaper website visitors have higher incomes and are more likely to shop online than other internet users.

In contrast, Pew Research Center for the People and the Press News cautions that overall newspaper readership continues to dwindle. Recent studies show that the advent of News Engines has changed the face of the media significantly. The Internet is the number one choice for news in the 18 – 54 year age group. Source: Nielsen/Net Ratings

A Yahoo! study revealed that even loyal newspaper readers go online more often than they pick up a paper, and their reliance on the Web is changing the way they view advertising in both media.

According to the study, over 70 percent of “newspaper loyalists” access the Internet daily, while fewer than 42 percent read a printed newspaper every day.

Among Yahoo!’s interesting findings is the fact that the instantaneous, on-demand nature of online news has turned newspaper reading into a more relaxed pastime than it was.

“The way they use the newspaper has changed because of the Internet,” said Michael Schornstein, category development officer for retail, Yahoo! “They’re looking to the Internet for timely news, and reading the newspaper has become more of a leisurely pursuit. By the time the population gets home in the evening, they’re already up on the news.

One in four media jobs have disappeared since 2000. 39 percent of journalists indicated that they write, on average, 10 or more stories per month. So these layoffs have cut the amount of news stories printed each month. Sources: I Want Media and Bennett & Company.

Almost forty percent (39.77) of Internet users regularly log on for news, up from 31 percent two years ago. When people conduct a news search, they often find recent and relevant press releases along with articles from thousands of other news sources and a report from Outsell found that press releases have leapfrogged over trade publications to become the top news sources of knowledge workers. (One who works primarily with information or one who develops and uses knowledge in the workplace.)

According to the Hitwise News and Media Report 2008, released February 15^th, news aggregators (such as Yahoo! News, Google News and Drudge Report), search engines and portals have long been the leading sources of traffic for news websites
Search engines, particularly Google, have grown in importance as sources of traffic for Broadcast Media and Print category websites. Print news websites received 29.7% more traffic from Google in March 2007 than in March 2006, and Broadcast Media sites received 35.9% more traffic from Google in the same time period. The report further examines other sources of traffic, but does not include this chart, which illustrates Google’s growing impact on these categories.

With News and Media sites receiving 17% more traffic from search engines in March 2007 versus March 2006, search engines are now more likely to be the first step for Internet users in their search for information about breaking events.

The share of traffic leaving News and Media websites and going directly to Entertainment – Multimedia websites increased by 196% from April 2006 to March 2007.  Relevant results from video sites and blogs now appear high in search results, thus exposing new users to these non-traditional sources of news and spurring the growth in online video consumption.

Yahoo! News is stil top of the leaderboard for news and media websites, followed by CNN, MSNBC and Google News. The NYTimes.com and FoxNews.com are also in the top ten.

Google Grows as a Source of Traffic

Search engines, especially Google, are responsible for more News and Media category website traffic than ever before, according to the report. Print News websites received 29.7 percent more traffic from Google in March 2007 than in March 2006, and Broadcast Media sites received 35.9 percent more traffic from Google in the same time period.

Search engines accounted for 23.3%, 17.0% and 41.6% of traffic to the websites of the Print Media, Broadcast Media and IT Media subcategories, respectively.

How Micro Content Can Make the Most of Search

The search engines are constantly ‘tweaking’ their algorithms from time to time and  SEO gurus will tell you that meta tags are no longer really important for search optimization.  That may be so. However, from a PR perspective, title tags and description worth their weight in gold.

Getting qualified traffic to your site is a two-step dance. Showing up on page one in the search engines or the news search sites like Yahoo News and Google News is only the first part of the equation. Eye tracking studies show us how important it is to be listed at the top of a search results page. But being listed at number one or two for a search term will not guarantee that people click your listing and visit your site.

People read the ‘headlines’ and the ‘blurb’ on the news search result page. That ‘headline’ is your title tag. The ‘blurb’ is most often the description tag. So while meta tags might not be of great value in your SEO efforts anymore, they are vital pieces of persuasive content. In fact, they could well be the very first touch point a person has with your company.
If you go to Yahoo News today and type in health care you’ll see that the first results are images and videos.  Then each result has its headline and ‘blurb.’  Readers will not necessarily click the number one result – they read what catches their interest.
The same applies to web search:
Here is the result on Google web search for Aloe Vera Cream
 

Never have dry skin again – Corium 21

Dry skin: Corium 21 Aloe Vera Skin Cream. So effective, we offer a 100% guarantee of satisfaction. www.aloeveracream.com/ – 8k – Cached – Similar pages Â

Aloe Vera Skin Care:Aloe Vera Gel,Aloe Vera Cream,Aloe Vera Acne …

Aloe Vera Skin Care:Aloe Vera Gel,Aloe Vera Cream,Aloe Vera Acne,Aloe Vera Lotion,Aloe Vera Oil,Aloe Vera Cosmetic,Pure Aloe Vera,Buy Aloe Vera,Aloe Vera … www.ihealthtree.com/aloe-vera-skin-care.html – 171k – Cached – Similar pages Â

Amazon.com: Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Cream 4oz + 4oz Jars …

Amazon.com: Fruit of the Earth Aloe Vera Cream 4oz + 4oz Jars: Health & Personal Care. www.amazon.com/Fruit-Earth-Aloe-Vera-Cream/dp/B0009VNI2C – 174k – Cached – Similar pages Â

Positive Health Magazine – aloe vera

A mother, whose son’s eczema had totally cleared with an Aloe Vera and Bee Propolis cream, was to totally change my medical perspective and, in fact, … www.positivehealth.com/article-list.php?subjectid=11 – 28k – Cached – Similar pages Â

California Baby | Natural & Organic Products | Aloe Vera Cream

California Baby’s Aloe Vera Cream is light, fluffy and non-greasy; contains 100% Aloe Vera infused with herbs and essential oils known for their soothing … www.californiababy.com/aloe-vera-cream-2-oz.html – 32k – Cached – Similar pages

The first listing would not interest me at all.  In fact I’d have to go to number fiv before I found a title and a description that caught my interest.
At a recent in-house training session for the marketing and PR staff of a large public company we looked up their search listings. When we compared their ‘headlines’ and ‘blurbs’ to the other listings on the page, it was quite clear why a searcher might choose another link rather than theirs.

They were not aware that they could control what appears on the search engine results page.

Meta tags on web pages, and the headlines and sub-heads of your press releases and articles are very important pieces of persuasive copy.  Don’t leave it to your IT department or webmaster – they are not marketing and PR trained.
You don’t have to learn to code, but you do have to learn enough about writing for search engines so that what appears on a search result page presents your best face to the public.

My book the Power of Good Content will get you started.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Greg Jarboe reports on Search Engine Watch that Google News has edged out Yahoo News in the UK  A year ago the leader board looked like this:

Rank    Property               Total unique visitors (000)
1         BBC News                   7,763
2         Yahoo News                3,550
3         Google News               2,685
4         The Sun Online            2,645
5         Guardian.co.uk            2,526
6         MSN News                   2,397
7         AOL News                   1,924
8        Times Online                1,918
9        CNN                            1,306
10      Sky News                  1,268

There was a 5.2% increase in unique visitors to news sites and the December 2007 rankings are:

Rank         Property        Total unique visitors (000)       Year-over-year change
1              BBC News             8,248                                        Up 6.2%
2              The Sun Online      3,784                                        Up 43.1%
3              Google News         3,290                                        Up 22.5%
4              Yahoo News          3,267                                        Down 8.0%
5              Guardian.co.uk      3,151                                        Up 24.7%
6              MSN News             2,141                                        Down 10.7%
7              Times Online          2,114                                        Up 10.2%
8              Telegraph Group    2,085                                        Up 79.3%
9              AOL News             1,692                                        Down 12.1%
10            Sky News              1,303                                        Up 2.8%

I bet other newspapers would love to know what strategies The Telegraph Group and The Sun Online implemented in the last twelve months.  Here is a clue:

Publishers with original content are the ones who are up, says Jarboe. So how does this explain Google News’ increase?  After all, they are an aggregators of news, not a purveyor of original content.  Well, yes and no.

Google’s Universal search format includes news in all web searches. And Google made a deal with the wire services to host content.  Their stated intention was to remove duplicate content from the news results.

They also announced a function to help users “quickly and easily find original stories from news publishers – including stories from some of the top news agencies in the world, such as the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, UK Press Association and the Canadian Press.”  

Just 10 days later AP stories were showing up in the top Google News rankings.

If Google’s goal is indeed “to display a better variety of sources with less duplication.”  and ”provide more room on Google News for publishers’ most highly valued content: original content,” the deal with AP and other wire services could have been a factor in these ranking changes.

PR lessons here? 

If you get a story picked up by the to the wire service it will get good search ranking in Google news.

Newpapers need good original content.  They are strapped for resources.  Media jobs are down.  There is an opportunity here.

Greg Jarboe is in London at Search Engine Strategies right now. I’ll get the lowdown on the stats from him when he returns.  And I will have all the inside scoop at my session at SES NYC on March 20th – Getting Authoritative Online Mentions

This session focuses on the underlying quality as well as ingenuity needed to get other websites to link to you early and often. It will also explain how you should approach journalists, bloggers and other authoritative sources to enhance your company’s online reputation, whether or not you get links.

 

 
 

 

Who would ever have thought this question could be raised?  Forbes makes the point that newspaper circulation is in freefall with ad revenue tumbling alongside it, so newspaper editors have to slash their budgets. Witness the tussle at the LATimes.

Readers are moving online, says Forbes.  They get local and international news online – even the AP.  And it’s all free!  In August of 2006 AP made a delal with Google to license content.  “The deal could have implications for news organizations that have lost ad revenue to online “aggregators” such as Google and Yahoo,” said the WSJ at the time. 

A year later Google began to host the content from AP, Agence France Presse, The Press Association in the United Kingdom and The Canadian Press instead of sending traffic to newspaper and broadcast companies’ Web sites.

Editors at some of the major dailies have let the AP know that they think AP is not giving them the support they need in these tough times. AP Board Chairman Dean Singleton doesn’t see it that way. 

“I think the overwhelming majority of customers of the AP agree that AP does an outstanding job with the small amount of money it charges newspapers,” says Singleton

What the AP has done is move with the times.  In the 1990’s they started to diversify their revenue streams. Instead of relying on print revenue they branched out to video and online news.

While many in the print news industry are laying off staff, AP’s strategy has enabled it to keep its staff complement steady since 2000.  On the other hand one in four media jobs have disappeared since 2000 putting the industry at a 15 year low.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since May 2002, when U.S. measured media spending began to recover from the last recession a majority (11 of 19) media stocks have fallen.

Newspapers account for half (82,800) of media jobs lost since 2000. One in four newspaper jobs have disappeared since newspaper employment peaked in 1990.

Internet media companies, including search engines and web portals, had a 13.4% jump in jobs last year.

It’s time for a hard look at the new face of news and your media relations strategy. There is a new narrative for PR on the horizon

 

 

Purse strings and budgets might be tightening as threats of a depression loom.  And as always, just when a business should not stop promoting, marketing, advertising and PR folk feel the pinch.

Josh Bernhoff of Forrester Research asked in the blog if others were experiencing any slowdown in social media. The answer was a definite no. Things are different this time, he says. 

Why? Social applications are about conversations and consideration. They’re about people connecting with other people. They’re cheap in comparison to many other forms of marketing and PR and they’re measurable. 

“beinggirl.com is four times as effective as TV ads, Procter & Gamble told us,” writes Bernhoff. “That won’t get cut in a recession.”

Their report Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession: Unlike Last Time, Results-Based Marketing And Social Applications Could Thrive is available to the public.

Here is the executive summary

Many economists now believe we are in, or approaching, an economic recession. In the last recession, online spending cratered along with the rest of the advertising industry. But since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession. Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects’ decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures. Interactive marketers should stop toe-dipping and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics.

The registration is a fairly long process, but worth it to get this report.

After more than a year of research and development Marketwire has unveiled a social media press release service they describe as the industry’s most authentic social media product.  

And for all the hoo-ha about social media releases, it is a good PR move to get your releases indexed by search engines and seen in social media websites.

One study found that press releases have surpassed trade mags as the number one source of information for business workers. The Thomas Register is holding workshops for its members to teach them to optimize press releases so they get better search visibiility.  The wire services already offer SEO with your releases. Some offer social media tags and RSS Feeds.

But as the web becomes more social each day, just making your releases visible in search engines is no longer enough.  You have to get your news content out into social sites too.

One in twenty web visits goes to a social networking site. (Hitwise) These sites siphon traffic downstream to other websites.  YouTube is the 3rd biggest search engine today and draws ten percent of all web traffic.

Watching video clips online is growing at an astounding rate.  This new service from Marketwire allows you to upload a video clip with your news release and it gets put right into YouTube. No need for a programmer or your IT department.

News and images show up in Universal search now.  Having your photos on other social sites is important.

Making releases a part of the conversation through moderated comments can only be done if you use Marketwire’s hosted newsroom.  Personally I’d  advise that you have your newsroom on your own site.  There are many easy ways to do this.  And while an RSS feed from the wire service is pretty standard today, your own RSS Feed on your website will do far more for your visibility and your traffic.

Exclusive features of the new service include:
         -  Comment box and online newsroom
         -  In-release performance statistics on search engine cataloging
         -  Distribution to YouTube, iTunes, Second Life, Pheedo™,
            Photobucket and Twitter
         -  Facebook® tags
         -  Custom RSS feeds
         -  Trackbacks for easy monitoring of online performance
         -  Search engine, Technorati™ and Digg™ results
         -  Embedded 500-character audio summary headline
         -  Distribution to more than 1,200 in-network geographically
            targeted websites

–  Additional Social Media 2.0 features include:
         -  Newsroom integration
         -  50 social tagging options
         -  Multiple social video and photo hosting options
         -  Permalinks
         -  Keyword cloud navigation
         -  Downstream distribution to more than 1,000 websites and online
            news destinations

Thom Brodeur, Snr VP at Marketwire, walked me through the demo and answered all my questions. And he said this is only the beginning. They’ve shown that they are open to feedback and will continue to listen and change.

As Greg Jarboe said today: If early versions of the social media press release were the unfortunate result of mixing two good ideas, let’s give Social Media 2.0 the benefit of the doubt. It deserves a “second life.”

 

The news is full of the Microsoft/Yahoo story today. There has been pontification about what it means and how it will affect markets from search people and financial analysts. What first struck me though is how will this affect the online news landscape?  Yahoo News is the number one news outlet online with over 30 million readers. Google is at #7 with less than 10 milion. 

Adding their news content to web search result pages, the area where Google absolutely dominates, was smart thinking on their part.

Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Engineer, said that search plays a pivotal role in how we find information – how we research and how we shop. Innovation will tranform the searcher experience and Yahoo has the smarts. On the  communications side the web has evolved to social media.  The social platform will soon become a new entry point to all the web has to offer.  And it will affect productivity as social platforms enter the workplace.   Watch the video.

Although this deal is primarily about the ad revenue, ad dollars follow audiences.  It seems MS realizes that in order to rake in the big bucks they will first have to improve the search and social media experience.

It’s an interesting time to be in media relations. I’ll be keeping a close watch on this merger to see how it affects placement of news stories and the dissemination of information online.