PR Debate: Google vs. Facebook: Which Platform Should You Really Care About?

By Hannah Kelly, Business Wire Paris

The changing face of the news coverage and visibility scene

It’s the hottest debate in 2014: SEO for discovery or social sharing for impact?

2014 started off innocently enough.  First Google Hummingbird made major changes regarding news release visibility.  Then midway through the year Facebook launched FB Newswire, to increase the visibility of news.  Suddenly it was clear.  Facebook and Google were directly competing to see which service was more effective at surfacing a story and driving action because of it.

Fact:  Both Google and Facebook are hungry for your news.

Recently, Parse.ly investigated data from around 8 billion page views of approximately 200 news sites with the results that 38% of referrals were generated by Google and 26% by Facebook.  While this statistic may not help Google overtake Facebook in the race to win the visibility war, it does providing an interesting opportunity for communicators.  If your published news piece can generate visibility on both Google and Facebook, you can generate more than 50% of your inbound traffic with (relatively) little effort.

However, the type of news that is sought after by these sites is slowly shifting. In both cases, Google and Facebook first relied on algorithms to determine which news to surface.  Unfortunately, this caused a plethora of misleading articles by less trustworthy “media outlets” to rise to the top.   These algorithms were adjusted greatly on both platforms this summer when Google and Facebook users revealed that they crave “real news” vs. click bait.

In an effort to continually refine results, these algorithms are continuously updated to reward authenticity and engagement. Google’s most recent changes to  Google Penguin, Penguin 3.0, on October 17, 2014, focused solely on overcoming link schemes that manipulate the ranking of a webpage (and the news story hosted there).

So what does this mean for your news?
As more and more refinement is done to ensure only high quality news is surfaced when searched on Google or on social networks, there are a few things today’s communicators can do to make sure their news is not only seen, but shared.

1. Be descriptive in your headline

The more descriptive the title of your article, the more likely people are to read it, visit your page, and thereby increase your page ranking. News releases are known for their relatively long ‘uninteresting’ titles – but now the tables have turned. Readers know exactly what to expect from your release, which comes as a great relief after having spent significant time browsing through articles only to discover that they are not quite what was promised with the first click.

2. Write a concise, accurate article

Now that your title has drawn readers in, the idea is to hold their interest. Long rambling paragraphs will not do this. Keep your information as succinct and on point as possible – engage the audience through a direct approach. To give you an idea, the ideal length for a news release is no longer than an A4 page.

3. Contact information

This is crucial. If the reader has any further questions, they will want to contact you. The worst possible thing to happen at this stage is to struggle to find any method of contact. Include your Twitter, your Facebook, your Google+ – all and any possible ways of getting in contact. Not only does this ease contact between your company and the reader, but it also allows your news to be shared back with direct links.

News releases, especially those distributed by a commercial newswire such as Business Wire can help your distribution reach, and engage and activate audiences on both Google and Facebook platforms. Every news release jumpstarts a range of actions from coverage to sharing, each that directly impacts visibility within both Google and Facebook.  Business Wire’s wide distribution circuits, unique journalist lists and most of all, our “share” tools allow you to publish and share your articles within seconds. With over 50 years in the industry, we can help you tailor your distribution effectively, thus greatly increasing your traffic growth.

11 Things Marketers Should Know from the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit

By Serena Ehrlich, Director of Social and Evolving Media

Last month hundreds of marketers, communicators and social media experts met in Baltimore for the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit to discuss the latest trends in all aspects of marketing and best practices for increasing engagement, sales and ROI.

In this piece, we will look at the top 11 marketing predictions for 2015, including the rise of the social CMO, a movement away from real-time marketing to right time marketing and the increased importance of the online newsroom.

1. The rise of the CSMO (chief social media officer): Social media has evolved from short form messaging communication tool to a program that directly affects every part of a business.  As the real-time customer engagement platform, data generated can directly impact the future of one’s organization.  This role will be a hybrid between creative and analysis.  Those social media teams focusing only on outbound communications, ignoring the data available will not succeed.

2. Multimedia is here to stay: More and more studies are showing that multimedia is now considered a mandatory element when looking to increase the response rate of any communications program. In addition, we will see a huge increase in mobile video investment as mobile device penetration continues to skyrocket

3. Paying to engage with your social audiences: As Facebook, Twitter and other platforms mature, their business models are moving quickly into revenue generation and profit.  Look for these platforms to continue to roll out paid opportunities such as geographic and demographic targeting to increase the ability for a brand to reach their brand fans.

4. A refocus from real-time marketing to right time marketing: Thanks to the meme that the Oreo Superbowl ad was created on the spot and thus is real-time marketing (completely false by the way, the ad was created months in advance), there became a push in 2014 for brands to jump into real time marketing.  Instead thinking about “real-time” organizations in 2015 will move towards “right-time” which involves the use of data to determine how and when to distribute each piece of created content – from social updates to press releases – to maximize the result.

5. The rise online newsroom: As it becomes harder to get media’s attention, more and more organizations are building branded newsrooms – or including within their existing newsroom a section for brand-created content.  This content allows brands to tell their story, utilizing their own voice.  However it is important to remember that the only good branded content is seen branded content, many of these organizations are not only setting budgets aside to build these newsrooms and create this content, they are putting budget aside to distribute the content as well via press releases, coverage amplification services and more.

6. A breakdown of internal siloes: As more and more data is becomes available through various marketing channels, it is imperative that marketing work with more and more internal teams to improve processes, define customer expectations, provide stronger customer service, increase sales, build corporate reputation and more.

7. A better understanding of the ROI of a communications program: Marketers are moving away from “last click” attribution to multi-touch point attribution, allows brands to track customers through their entire journey ensuring that every touch point along the way is credited.

8. A big shift from content creation to content distribution: As content marketing becomes a staple for most marketing programs, more and more marketers are turning to paid tools including press releases and amplification tools to ensure their created content is seen content. After all, there is no reason to pay for content to be created, if you aren’t paying for it to be distributed.

9. The growing importance of social customer service as more than 50% of customer service interactions begin on the computer, well before the customer has engaged the brand.

10. Look to smart devices and wearables to change news consumption from tweets to bursts. How can you increase the impact of your news as you decrease the amount of space needed to tell it!

11. Sharing corporate sustainability responsibility news will continue to increase in 2015 as more and more consumers are choosing to align with brands and organizations that reflect their own beliefs. Organizations of all sizes from Nike to Honest Teas have connected with customers and build entire brands by focusing and staying true to their CSR message.

This year’s speakers shared so many wonderful thoughts but it was these 11 that resonated with me the most.  Which of these surprises you?  Which does not?

Top Takeaways from Content Marketing World 2014? Creation, Marketing, Amplification

By Katie Kennedy, Business Wire Cleveland

Last week we had the opportunity to attend Content Marketing World, hosted by Joe Pulizzi and the Content Marketing Institute. CMI  brought over 2,600 marketing professionals from around the world to Cleveland, Ohio, to discuss a topic near and dear to Business Wire’s clients: content – how to create it, how to market it and how to amplify it.  After having the time to absorb and reflect on the sessions and review my many, many pages of notes, I wanted to share a few of top takeaways from the event:

Andrew Davis, Author, Brandscaping: Unleashing the Power of Partnerships:  
Davis kicked off the show with an engaging keynote, “Inspired Content: How Brilliant Storytellers Create a Sudden Urge to Act,” urging marketers to rethink the marketing funnel and focus on what he calls “moments of inspiration.”

“Valuable content increases the demand for the products and services you sell,” said Davis. “If you want to own the consumer journey, create moments of inspiration. MOI leads to ROI.”

Julie Fleischer, Director, Data + Content + Media, Kraft Foods:
The theme of Fleischer’s keynote, “The ROI of Content: How Kraft Learned the True Value of Its Content and Rebuilt Its Marketing Around It,” can be summed up in three words: relentlessly pursue worthiness.

“Efficiency must be baked in. Content and data should be inexplicably linked,” said Fleischer. Kraft’s strategy focuses on maximizing the uses for any given piece of content and only producing content that they feel is worthy of the budget.

“If you won’t spend money to distribute it, then don’t do it!” Fleischer added.

Steve Rotter, Global VP of Digital Marketing Solutions, Brightcove:
Rotter shared  several very compelling statistics to stress the growing importance of using videos in your content marketing strategy in his session, “How to Drive Engagement in a World of Content Overload.”

The use of video is growing faster than any other type of content marketing because:

• Video reduces page bounce by 12%
• Video landing pages increase conversion rate by 75%
• Consumers are 88% more likely to buy after watching a video product review

Rotter also reminded the audience that 70% of the time content is your first sales call. Stellar content can start the sales process before you pick up the phone or continue the conversation with prospects you’ve already touched.  So why is it that up to 70% of B2B content never gets used?

Mark Schaefer, Author, Return on Influence & The Tao of Twitter:
“We build relationships with brands just as we do with people,” said Schaefer in his session outlining “10 Reasons Twitter is Content Marketing’s Best Friend.”

To make the most of Twitter as part of your content marketing strategy, you need to be in the social media mindset and create meaningful content, make targeted connections and provide authentic helpfulness. Contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way that provides value. “Everyone can tell when you’re just trying to sell something,” said Schaefer.

• Twitter is an ignition point. Twitter offers the fastest way to build an audience of relevant followers for your content and smart interaction on Twitter will lead people to your content.
• Twitter is a source of content. We already know news breaks on Twitter, but it also provides a steady stream of content ideas and access to the web’s best teachers.
• Tweets are powerful social proof on the internet. Using Twitter to build a relevant audience can ignite your content and produce rewards in the form of social validation and SEO benefits.

Beyond Storytelling

CMW embraced its overall theme and not only taught us how to harness emotion to tell a great story with content, but also focused on strategy and how content marketing can be successfully integrated into our organizations.  For more highlights and event recaps from CMW attendees:

• The Ten Best Cleveland Experiences for Content Marketing World Attendees
• 10 Content Marketing World 2014 Lessons
• Three Stories that Will Help Content Marketers Win With Storytelling

The Future of Content Marketing – Interactive Content

Are you responsible for your organizations’s communications program? For explaining new company initiatives to media outlets, influencers and other key constituents? Are you looking for new ways to increase your coverage, to build better fans and to increase social conversations about your news?  Then why are you issuing plain text press releases?

Press releases jump start awareness, generate coverage, initiate conversations and more.  Whether your release is text only, or includes images and graphics, you are starting a conversation, the difference is how many impactful conversations you are generating.

In a recent article for CommPro.biz, Serena Ehrlich, our director of social and evolving media breaks down the latest in content and news distribution, the embeddable asset widget called the Capsule.  This single asset, shared and embedded by media outlets via a single link, provides readers on-demand access to the videos, photos, PDF forms and more they want, all while reading your coverage.

Learn how easy it is to utilize this product today:  http://www.commpro.biz/public-relations/hyperspotted-content-embeddable-widgets-meet-future-content-distribution/