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By Tim Giles
RSS is the new black. Blogging is the new journalism. Get publishing baby or get the hell out of Dodge! That familiar faecal smell of over hyped new technology is wafting in on the breeze sending stocks of Kleenex and lubricant through the roof. I sit bouncing on my Pilates ball in my ivory tower pondering the merit of this waffle. New technology has the potential to seduce beyond its true value. An inviting beach break disguising a rip that pulls the unsuspecting entrant further from their original goal. To succeed requires preparation, knowledge of the environment and the resources to follow through. Most businesses do not have an army of writers on staff to spew out endless reams of copy to fuel a scattergun approach to online PR. For most firms the core business is selling widgets not writing about them. Fundamentally the idea has great merit. Success on the web is all about great content. People search for and will give up personal information in exchange for good content. They will bookmark, refer and otherwise engage with web pages that are useful, interesting and relevant. Any tool that enables a business to extend access to this key content, (and by extension its sales team), beyond the limits of the web server the site is sitting on, has the potential to achieve significant results. This is after all the holy grail of web marketing - The mechanism where a contextual sales pitch to a highly qualified audience is linked to real time fulfilment with minimal incremental cost. It is all well and good to jump up and down and greet the arrival of new technology like an all-conquering premiership team. But before we get too carried away with planning ticker tape parades and testimonial dinners we should remember that technology rarely achieves anything by itself. All the new(ish) push publishing technologies do is provide a new channel for marketers. It is how this is used that will determine success in the long term. The question then becomes which content, which mix of tools and how much? This will vary depending on your business type and your available resources. The key to this is to understand the individual tools and the specific expectations of the users of them. The following are some broad definitions. 1. Directories The most familiar directories are the Yellow and White Pages however there are hundreds of other directory services in operation in Australia and throughout the world. Some of these are free and others require subscription. Often they are split down industry or special interest lines and many share listings across multiple sites. The biggest example Yahoo is essentially a directory rather than a search engine. 2. Bulletin Boards Bulletin boards are electronic message centres that are generally set up to service specific interest groups. Users can view posts, review messages left by others and respond. Bulletin boards were one of the foundation applications of the internet. 3. Forums Essentially an extension of bulletin board functionality. They create virtual communities and provide opportunities for exchange of ideas on defined areas of interest. Many have strict rules regarding what can be posted and often any site discussions are monitored to enforce these ideals and to comply with various agendas. 4. Blogs Blogs are basically online diaries. It\'s name is an abbreviation of Web Log and in recent times it has grown away from its activist origins into more commercial applications. In essence it is the simplest and cheapest form of dynamic content publishing available on the web, which is part of the reason for its success. The format also has a tradition of informality and provides a perfect forum for personal and relaxed releases. One of its strengths is that it can provide an arms length communication medium. 5. Aggregators There are two principal issues regarding content on the web. The first is that constantly producing new items is time-consuming and displaying relevant third party content provides a convenient means of keeping sites fresh. The second is that exposure is often an issue for businesses that do produce good content. To meet these two supply and demand issues aggregators have sprung up providing outlets for publishers and dynamic news feeds for sites wanting content. A variety of different models and systems have now sprung up allowing for either ad hoc or automated submission. 6. RSS RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. In a nutshell it is a system that enables you to feed defined content to a central news aggregator who then sorts it into relevant categories and funnels it out to other sites as dynamic news items with a headline and often teaser text linking back to your original article. Submission can either be automated through using a defined folder and XML scripts or can be made ad hoc by you directly to the syndicator. Each of these media provide opportunities for marketers to boost website performance in a number of key areas. The focused use of external content can boost brand exposure, increase the volume of back links in search engines with a flow on effect for site ranking and most importantly it gets your key selling points out where customers are looking. The catch is that it can also chew up resources as your business becomes a quasi publisher. There is also the risk that the freedom of commentary and viral nature that is so appealing regarding the media technologies can send you down in flames. In web jargon an uncomplimentary post or email is referred to as a flame. Often the informal and anonymous nature of web forums can encourage heated and malicious responses out of all proportion to the original post. Therefore some care needs to be taken in how any post is worded to avoid being flamed for being a spammer (ie. being too overtly commercial in your comments) or attacked by an aggrieved competitor or biased interest group. The last thing that you want to happen is to get involved in a flame war in a forum. The more you respond the more credence the thread attains and the more prominence the comments get. Even if you end up winning the logic argument the aired dirty linen can impact on your brand in the listings. Which content? Marketing via proactive news syndication is no different to other forms of marketing. The medium merely provides a pipeline to a potential customer at a given point in time. It is the message that determines the success or otherwise. Where syndicating technology takes this to a refined level is that this message can be displayed in an environment where the potential customer has already demonstrated an interest in the subject. It enables you to piggy back on the success of someone else\'s marketing at a fraction of the cost of running press ads or advertorials. It can be used to compliment existing offline campaigns, test run new ideas, and position the business as an industry knowledge leader. It can also be a time consuming distraction if not properly thought out. Therefore the primary focus of your site strategy should be developing content that people in the market for your goods and services are interested in and then tailoring it around key selling points to take them a step closer to becoming a converted sale. Look for decision triggers related to your products and services. Identify the common concerns that potential customers have regarding making purchases and respond accordingly. Ideally try and prepare content in such a way that the one theme can be applied in multiple ways with the minimum of effort. Which mix? Consider the following example. A travel insurance company identifies bird flu as an issue impacting on travellers decision making. A review of popular travel related forums identifies a number of threads and posts specifically relating to this concern. The company prepares a list of frequently asked questions and answers specifically relating to the insurance impact and risk for travel in each continent and useful links to more detailed information. This source data is then applied in a focused campaign through proactive online PR technologies. A well rounded campaign could operate as follows. * Source data is compiled into a series of articles for each continent that are drip fed into RSS aggregators at regular intervals * The same data is converted into web pages on site in question/answer format that also includes a small (though clearly visible) interface directly into the booking/quote system and other contact triggers. * A staff member, clearly identifying themselves as an employee of the company, responds to relevant forum queries with a posting linking to the information resource on bird flu travel insurance issues. The post should be succinct and avoid sales language. The point is to provide an information resource. The key is to be useful and relevant not to trick forum subscribers into your sales trap. * Respect the forums conventions and restrictions. Hiding behind an avotar, fabricating dummy conversations with yourself and posting inappropriately for the respective online community is counter productive. * Submit the travel advisory pages to appropriate niche directories (eg. Overseas Travel Directory ) * Create a free blog relating to travel insurance issues using a site such as blogger ( www.blogger.com ). Have a staff member regularly contribute updates and comments on general travel insurance issues with links back to appropriate areas of main site. Mention blog URL in relevant forum responses * Create an opt in email newsletter relating to these issues and each month list new travel advisories, useful links, forum responses and blog highlights. * Adapt for use through traditional offline PR channels and look for opportunities to do vice versa. * Monitor referrals and concentrate future efforts on best performing sites. How Much? Running a unified push PR campaign requires preparation of appropriate resources. The reality however is that few businesses operate in a vacuum without some source materials that can be leveraged. The real question boils down to the ability of your organization to manage the demands of the new media - The currency of content is immediacy. The best results will spring from timely posting and ongoing relationship building. Before you start look in the mirror and ask the following questions about your site. * How will the site content be managed? An easy to use Content Management System that provides you with the ability to create new pages will make any campaign much more cost effective than if you have to run to a web developer or tie up internal IT staff every time a page needs to be updated. * What resources do I have to help? Talk to your existing PR, marketing or other creative agencies to see what existing materials can be adapted for online PR. Every publicity item has the potential to be used as a press release, a site news article, a feed to an RSS aggregator, a newsletter item or a blog commentary. Multi tasking content makes the process much easier. * What fulfilment limits do I have? Pick and choose your targets accordingly. It is no good targeting US customers if you cannot sell to them. * Who will be the internal champion of the ongoing project and do they have the resources to maintain it over time? Stale content is dead content. Once you create an expectation of being a knowledge leader in the industry space you need to be able to avoid looking dated and stagnant. The bottom line is to recognise that such online push PR opportunities are just another string to the marketing bow. However, when using traditional media it is often difficult to engage non customers without backlash. Unsolicited approaches get labelled as invasive spam, do not call lists are promoted with evangelical zeal and so called opt in lists are often simply catalogues of dead end anonymous webmail accounts. Where the emerging web based push PR tools come into their own is by delivering these messages directly to the customers when they are actively looking for them rather than when they are settling down to dinner. It opens the potential for experimentation or quick reaction to events or opportunities and can be effective - As long as the content and message is right. |
