Google’s new attempt at social networking comes in the form of Google+ and its aims seem to include improving on areas where Facebook falls behind, by moving away from ‘technologically restrictive’ methods of social media and ‘rigid services’. The elephant in the room is obviously Facebook, which still holds the medal for social network giant, and many of Google+ attributes appear to pick up on elements that aren’t easily available via Facebook in both an attempt to differentiate and improve.

One of the main issues users seem to have with Facebook is the openness with sharing your information – so your co-workers and your mum gets to see the raucous late night photos that you really only want to share with your mates. Sure you could start a group but doesn’t that seem like a lot of work? G+ ‘Circles’ supposedly allows you to limit your status updates to specific groups of people. The G+ on this feature is that not everyone you are linked to online is a “friend” and you should be able to classify and segregate between classmates, your boss, acquaintances, best buddies and your Great-Auntie Nora. There is also a group messaging service named, rather cutely, ‘Huddle’. Users can instantly upload photos from mobile phones, as you can with Facebook, and the feature ‘Sparks’ lets you share and find online content that fits with your interests.

Google’s previous attempts at social media, dating back to 2009, have thus far been unsuccessful, including Buzz and Wave, but G+ is, in these early days, creating a bit of a stir. ”I think Facebook is going to have to up its game,” says Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group.

So far, Google+ is in “field trial” mode, only accessible by invitation. There is no official full launch date, so it does seem as if this really is a ‘project’ from Google as opposed to a full on confrontation with the big FB… Watch this space to see if it sticks!

Cisco, in its annual forecast of upcoming technology trends, has estimated some pretty incredible (and scary) stats for the future, such as:

• 1 million minutes of video will be watched online every second
• over 40% of the world’s population will be online – nearly 3 billion people
• internet traffic will hit 966 exabytes per year

This quadrupling of internet traffic is going to cause problems for the finite number of IPv4 addresses available – industry experts suggest that all IPv4 addresses could be assigned by August. Therefore the adoption of IPv6 is going to be an immediate concern – although many consumers and technology companies are resisting this change. Another worry is the ability to control and handle the huge projected pressure on internet traffic to keep consumers connected and content.

You can read more about this at BBC Technology News.

Despite the recent forays into social media, Google asserts that “search remains its core focus” – and the giant still dominates the search world, although Microsoft Bing is snapping at its heels as of the last year. Bing’s searches have risen 2% in the US since December 2010. A small percentage on first look, but not when you take into account the billions of requests made each day of search engines. Google, in turn, has lost 1% of the search share in the same time period.

Instant Pages assists with quick searching by pre-loading the top search result page – showing it in the background while the user decides which result to click on. Most search users choose results from the first page, and the number one spot is obviously the coveted spot – therefore by already loading the most commonly clicked page, when the link is chosen the page appears instantly. Compared to Instant Pages, most websites take between 3 and 5 seconds to load.

Google’s Amit Singhal explained: “We at Google will not be happy until we make the Web as easy to flip through as a magazine. We are obsessed with speed. We often say speed is still the killer app.”

Instant Pages is a quick follow on to Google Instant, rolled out last year, which provides results while queries are still being typed into the search box. It will be made available to Chrome users over the next few weeks, with Firefox and Explorer users having to wait a little longer.

According to Matt Rosoff, Business Insider’s west coast editor, Google’s aim is to ‘make the web faster’, ”As far as Google is concerned it is another thing that will continue to draw people to Google and make sure they don’t leave for another competitor like Microsoft.”

Voice-activated search is also hot on the heels of Instant Pages – a feature already available on mobile devices – and is to be added as a tool on all Google searches made on your personal computer. A small microphone icon to the right of the Google search box will enable vocal searches that are able to differentiate between accents, pronunciations and colloquialism. Approximately 230 billion words per day are being added into Google’s language bank, increasing its effectiveness in what Google sees as the future of search.

Any online business, large or small, can benefit from implementing social media into their marketing plans. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but you need to do something. Social media marketing can help with SEO, it can raise awareness of your company, promote products and services, act as a great customer service platform, increase brand strength and help customer relations in a big way. Even Matt Cutts thinks so, don’t you Matt?

Matt says, “You’re SO right, Ikroh.”

Facebook Places launches a new aspect to their mobile experience for users in the UK today – the opportunity to save money and use special offers by ‘checking in’ to Facebook on your mobile when shopping on the high street.
Designed as a natural extension to how users are already using Facebook Places, the social giant is now adding an incentive for Facebookers to post their location, by offering discounts and vouchers from third party companies.

Similar to the FourSquare template, customers log in to their Facebook profile, telling the world they’re visiting Yo Sushi, Debenhams or Starbucks for example (all verified participants in the scheme), and are rewarded with a kind of virtual loyalty card or coupon. Other British participants include: Mazda, O2, Alton Towers and Benetton, with more likely to follow.

Emily White, spokeswoman for Facebook Places, explained how over 200 million users are already posting their location from their mobiles with no incentive, and the new addition to the service creates, a “chance for businesses to be part of the conversation” and the “opportunity for users to find even more value from Facebook on their mobile phone”. Facebook is not apparently taking a cut from the affiliations, asserting that it’s really just about a “killer user experience”.

Deals available to Places app users also include “golden ticket” rewards and bonuses for users who bring their friends, as well as the chance to help charities – for example, every check-in to Argos automatically donates £1 by the company to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Speculation, of course, surrounds the potential threat to similar loyalty-scheme-based companies: FourSquare, Groupon, Living Social and Quidco to name just a few. White assured that these companies are “not in the line of fire”, that businesses like Groupon are have a different focus to the service Facebook Deals offers. Groupon in particular, she says, is more about discovering new products and companies, whereas Facebook Places is about “presenting offers in places you’re already going to”. True enough with regard to Groupon, or Living Social, but what about the others? Is it a coincidence that Quidco recently launched the option of registering your credit/debit card with your account so that you receive points every time you use it on the high street? As we’ve looked at previously – mobile marketing is certainly the future of commerce, but is it likely to be monopolised by Facebook right off the bat?

From a customer point of view, things seem pretty sweet (unless you’re especially paranoid about the social fat cats/government/martians tracking your every move of course), and with Facebook offering the service for free to participating businesses, the flipside appears to be beneficial as well. So far the scheme is only open to the big guys, though over time Facebook hope to be able to include small businesses as well.

Facebook’s stake in this seems to lie in an increased dependence on the network by its users (we suggest the following tagline: Facebook – more addictive than crack!), with incentives to use the platform for every on- and off-line movement and purchase. Facebook also hopes that advertisers will be encouraged to invest in even more lucrative deals with the social network to assist with physical as well as virtual traffic to their shops.

Will the new incentives entice you get connected? Are you already using Facebook Places? Or are you a die-hard Groupon/Quidco fan? Discuss.

The growth and development of online marketing has been vast over the past few years, with smart phones, the iPad, mobile marketing, social media, viral marketing and the insane growth of internet and social networking use. (For an idea of what’s coming next, have a look at Trendwatching.com’s Crucial Consumer Trends for 2011.)

Here are some of our favourite 2010 stats:

Facebook grew by over 30% last year, now boasting 500 million users

Top Google search terms were dominated by social media, with users looking for Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. The social network giant Facebook nabbed over 3% of all searches in 2010.

For a handy Twitter roundup (and so I don’t have to go and research it all), check out the Most Powerful Tweets of 2010

I love Time’s Best Blogs of 2010 list, which shows that no matter how much information we have access to for free on the internet, most of us are still going to end up looking at humorous sites like CakeWrecks, Sh*t My Kids Ruined and The Oatmeal for cheap laughs. And if we’re not doing that, we’re searching for the next must-have technology or the coolest designs. Interesting also is that TechCrunch is voted ‘essential’ and Mashable ‘overrated’ this year.

The most watched YouTube videos revolved around music, parodies and humour (albeit annoying oranges saying “Whazzzzup!”). A representation for social media marketing took number 5 with The Old Spice Man, but my favourite has to be OK Go’s video for This Too Shall Pass:

If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably not failed to notice the meme that has been transforming your friends and contacts into cartoon characters over the last month on behalf of the NSPCC. Of uncertain origins, and centralised at a community page created by Jay, ”a volunteer who aims to raise awareness about Worldwide Violence Against Children and Child Abuse”.

The campaign, despite not being affiliated directly with the NSPCC, has enticed multitudes of Facebook users to swap their profile picture for a cartoon character from their youth: “The aim is not to see a human face on FB until Monday (Dec 6^th). Join the fight against child abuse and copy and paste to your status.”

However, the meme has been criticised and widely discussed due to its unknown origins – from blaming a secret society of paedophiles (predictably suggested by the Daily Mail) to the suspicion that the campaign was actually a Green and Cypriot meme originated to celebrate cartoons and comic books, and somewhere along the way took on an additional representation.

Mainly, though, the whole situation has attracted negative attention for its apparent ‘uselessness’ – that changing your profile pic is not active support for the charity and won’t make a difference, or that most users are just taking the chance to flaunt their taste in cartoons: “Look everyone, look how cool and retro my favorite 80s or 90s cartoon character is!”

Gawker probably sums up cynical opinion of the campaign best:

The NSPCC made clear that they were not responsible for the campaign, but were happy to accept the results it produced, describing today on Twitter how it had created “a massive jump in traffic to [the] website and an unprecedented surge in donations”.

On the NSPCC facebook page, the charity posted the following message on 4th December:

“A warm welcome to all our cartoon friends! We are incredibly grateful for your support to end cruelty to children in the UK. Although the NSPCC did not originate the childhood cartoon Facebook campaign, we welcome the attention it has brought to the work we do.”

They also invited their fans to tell their stories regarding how the campaign had impacted them, which led to nearly 2000 comments and a definite feeling of solidarity within the NSPCC’s Facebook community. One member explained:

Still not sure whether it was viral spam or not, but I have now joined the NSPCC fb group and donated via justgiving.com Wouldn’t have done that otherwise (and also encouraged my friends who did change their profile picture to do the same!).”

As well as the rise in awareness and donations, socially, the charity gained over 50,000 new Facebook fans in less than two weeks, and it has been noted that the extra attention has prompted the NSPCC to increase their social activity – as one Twitter follower commented:

“It also resulted in you guys tweeting more than usual – nice to see!” 

The NSPCC was actually the first UK charity to develop a fundraising application to run within Facebook, back in 2007, linking with JustGiving.com to enable users to donate to the charity, keep on top of events and share news with their friends.

Ikroh kind of love this example of social media marketing – since it developed organically, grew exponentially and was essentially separate from its cause. Social media was created for and by its users, not by sales executives and marketers, and it behaves accordingly.

It would have been perfectly simple for the Facebook community to do what the naysayers predicted – to change their picture and do nothing more, and I’m sure a vast amount of members did just that. The crux here is the portion who acted on the nudge and by their own volition, seeked out the NSPCC website and made a donation. Or the bloggers and Tweeps who thought the whole thing was stupid and pointless, and personally prompted their followers and readers to make a donation independently of the meme. All this social interaction and activity ballooned the awareness of the NSPCC, positive and negative, and led to the pretty incredible outcome.

The marketing campaigns that really work on Facebook and other social platforms are the ones that inspire interaction, sharing and the involvement of a community. It’s not possible to orchestrate or plan a viral event – that’s up to your users – all you can do is appeal to the side of people that makes them want to Get Involved.

Click HERE to donate to the NSPCC and help stop the abuse and mistreatment of children.

With just over a month left to vote, the B2B Twitterer of the Year (B2BTOTY) Award is becoming a coveted achievement for B2B professionals. In its third year, B2BTOTY now covers 10 categories, including best local, national and international B2B companies, best B2B publication and journalist, best B2B Twitter application and the accolade of best “Boss Tweet” B2B personality, won last year by Laura Ramos (@lauraramos) from the B2B Marketing Post.

The impressive judging panel this year includes previous winners such as Kathy Hokunson (@Katiehoke) from Site Seeker, who won best Local/Regional B2B Company in 2009, and Kipp Bodnar (@kbodnar32), a marketer from Hubspot, the company that took the National/International B2B Company award last year.

B2BTOTY is focused on awarding organisations who provide a worthy and valuable service through Twitter, and asserts that it is not a popularity contest:

“It’s not about how many followers you have, or how many tweets you tweet. It’s about creating a community, the value a B2B entity brings to it, and the integration of Twitter into the operation of your business and becoming a more social enterprise.”

Current leaders in the voting are Hootsuite (@hootsuite), CR4 (@CR4_news) and Savvy B2B Marketing (@Savvy_B2B) amongst others. You can see all the contenders for each category by visiting the leaderboard. Voting closes on December 18^th 2010, so make sure you tip the scales for your favourite in each category.

Gap has come under fire from consumers via social media for the change of its iconic logo, and swiftly backtracked to the original, following outrage and ridicule on Twitter and Facebook.

Thousands of angry fans commented on the Gap Facebook page, and a satirical profile named @GapLogo was created on Twitter, soon joined by @OldGapLogo, and a design-your-own logo site to poke fun at the new design.

A few days after the reveal of the new Gap logo last week, the company’s North American president, Marka Hansen, wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post to explain the reasoning behind the change, and assured passionate customers that the comments and suggestions made through social media were being listened to and considered. Hansen defended the new logo, saying, “We chose this design as it’s more contemporary and current. It honors our heritage through the blue box while still taking it forward.”

Though a message posted on the Facebook page welcomed participation and the sharing of designs created by Gap fans, a mere week after the logo change, the company decided to take a swift U-turn and revert to the original 20 year old logo. In the press release provided by Gap on Monday, Hansen said:

“We’ve learned a lot in this process. And we are clear that we did not go about this in the right way. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community.  This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing.

“There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way. “

Though many commenters seem relieved by the outcome, few are satisfied with the process taken to ultimately stay static. The many designs submitted by fans do not seem to have been acknowledged, apart from the admission from Gap that their crowd sourcing was approached in the wrong manner. Several independent contests and design communities sprang up in response, such as this one at 99 Designs with over 4000 entries. The winner will receive $500 and the winning design will be presented gratis to Gap “as a gesture of goodwill”. Definitely worth a look, there are some fantastic entries, and nary a Helvetica in sight…

We’re off to Social Collective in London on Thursday, for some social media mingling, a great line up of speakers and, um… lots of free food.

Social Collective promises to:

“bring together collective thoughts on Social Media for 2011… looking forward into the bigger picture about how we communicate within the platforms and how we measure and integrate Social Media into our strategies, customer service and marketing campaigns.”

The agenda goes as follows:

Social Media Secrets: Observations, shortcuts and juicy nuggets of insight from the brands that know the truth about social communication – by Katy Howell

Measurement and Insight: The Rights and Wrongs - by Brad Little (Key Note Speaker)

Social Opportunities for Brands in 2011 – by Paul Harrison (Key Note Speaker)

Can B2B Really be Social? – by Andrew Gerrad

#SoTech Open Debate on Marketing, Advertising, PR in the Era of Social.

Project Social Clarity – by Chris Hall (Key Note)

CNN Global Research Study – by Didier Mormesse

The speakers will cover a range of subjects, including: best practices in social media, creating an integrated strategy, brand monitoring, measurement and insight, social tools for businesses and the evolution of ‘social business’.

We’re looking forward to it, and will be furiously typing up notes throughout to post here next week for those of you who couldn’t attend.

With the broad acceptance of social media as an integral part of online business and marketing, we’re now looking to the future and how social media is going to develop and help shape business practice and interaction in the years to come. Ikroh are always looking for new ways to help our clients perform fantastically online – we’re like an excitable labrador, licking your face – friendly, enthusiastic and loyal, and if you take on Ikroh, you can guarantee results.

So without further ado, on with this week’s Friday Favourites from the web-wide world of SEO, social media and internet marketing. Bring it on.

First off, a great little gathering of 5 of the best social media and B2B marketing videos for your consideration:

A frankly mindblowing infographic all about t’internet….

And “Articles of War” – an intriguing, amusing and sometimes disturbing batch of statistics on Wikipedia disputes:

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole day of marketing and 2.0 insights and we thought for those of you who didn’t get a chance to watch the speakers and get involved in the live chat, we’d summarise each speaker’s presentation (and their scheduled chat afterwards) and try to answer any unanswered questions from the chatrooms. Every weekday this week, we will post a summary on the blog, following up next week with the chat questions. Enjoy!

Brian Solis – Founder and Principle of FutureWorks

“Engage or Die!”

The final keynote speaker of the Vocus Online Conference was Brian Solis with his talk “Engage or Die!” on the way PR must adapt to exist in the world of social media.

Overview:

Social media is having a massive effect on public relations, media and business. Within social media we are actively working out the future of media before media itself. As social media marketers, we need to lead the transformation from traditional PR to the level of engagement that social media demands. We are in the era of “Engage or Die!”

Traditionally, public relations is a one-way street; press releases, pitches and advertising spam customers with information that they have no way to interact with. We just have to hope that they respond to it. We have to earn the right to engage with our consumers, and with social media we are given the opportunity to do so. We are no longer pitching and broadcasting, we are entering into conversations and interactions. But how do we accomplish this?

“At some point, we have to stop asking questions, and start answering them for ourselves.”

Solis went on to advise that by all means research existing case studies and success stories, but don’t let them influence your approaches to social media. Think creatively and appropriately to your business, your customers and your market to find a niche or solution that will work in the best way possible for your own situation.

There is no magical short cut. We need to find answers appropriate to our business and learn and develop and measure and innovate to improve. We must let go of the desire to control our brand and take the opportunity to steer perceptions the way we want them to go, through personal engagement and appealing to our audience.

The main contenders are the obvious choices for starting a social media presence: Facebook has hit the 500 million user mark, Twitter has over 190 million, YouTube hosts 9 billion streams per month and Foursquare is fast growing with 1.6 million users. But there are also hundreds of other very important channels where individuals are communicating with each other. Find out where the relevant conversations are taking place that are important to your business and marketplace. Research keywords, competitors and your brand’s profile. Investigate where you should be making an impact and earning attention – the major currency in content commerce.

Social media moves fast. The length of time an object stays alive in social media is a measure of its resonance and its value. Attention is spread thin and to have your content stay afloat in the reams of conversation and streams of information that pass by every second is what you are aiming for. We do this by publishing relevant and valuable content that people strive to keep visible. Measure your success by running monitoring tests on particular social objects, for example a tweet. Measure the click through rate, sharing, follows, retweets etc and find out how long each item is visible and engaged with.

By contributing valuable content and participating in conversations which benefit your audience as individuals and as a community, you will earn significance and prominence. If people want to listen to what you have to say, they will also share it, distribute it and shout it from the rooftops for you.

Putting the ‘Me’ in Social Media

It takes time and effort to establish a presence, but the more people who follow and respond to you, the more chance you have to learn how to participate within your networks. Your audience has their own audience, and you want them to benefit from your insights and experiences, you want them to want to know what you think, and pass that message on.

It’s important to investigate how information travels, where it clusters, the lengths to which it spreads, and through which networks. When is the best time to tweet, to ‘disrupt’ the flow and make the most of that attention aperture.

Then, think about what you’re posting – our actions equate to social media currency. Everything we say and do helps to define our reputation, credibility and presence online socially. Relationships are gained through actions and words that resonate and inspire. Monitor what people are reacting to through tools like Klout, URL shorteners like Bit.ly and Hootsuite and social media monitoring programs.

Become the Influencer

Invest some time in developing a strategy and an aim. What are you trying to achieve? Followers, brand strength, conversions, awareness? A great example of a simple plan of action that Solis gave was Starbucks giving free coupons to the most influential tweeters of coffee related subjects. These influencers took their coupon, got a free coffee and then shared their experiences and opinions with the world, and their audience of coffee-loving contacts. Strategic customer relations can work fantastically within social media because you are connecting on a personal level to what people really want.

Simply sharing content is not enough, you need direct interaction with people who will influence others. Get the right people to see what you’re sharing and they will provide you with an appropriate audience and connect more people with your content.

The process of transaction generally follows these steps – for example, take a tweeter looking for an exciting new pastime:

1. Need – “I really want a boomerang!”

2. Awareness – “Hey tweeple, know where I can get a cool new boomerang?”

3. Consideration – “Hmm, this one’s a bit too expensive, any other suggestions?”

4. Decision – “I’ve found the perfect one! Cha-ching!”

5. Satisfaction – “Wow, this boomerang is the best darn boomerang I’ve ever seen…”

6. Recommendation – “Everybody, you’ve got to get one of these boomerangs, they’ll change your life!”

Ahem. What I’m trying to show here is that you can identify explicitly the stages of a decision making process because they are defined and shared through social media: what people are looking for, why they want that particular product/service/information, where they’re looking for it, what they find and what their evaluation is.

Now, say you sell boomerangs. You want to listen and explore conversations and exchanges concerning boomerangs – how people are communicating, in what media, what questions they want answers to, what problems they are coming up against. Venture outside your domains to find this information. Tap into communities that already exist in relevant markets.  Entering into those conversations and groups and providing the advice and answers your customers are directly looking for will expand your network and gain you influential followers. Context is king.

“Unmarket”

We need to break out of the public relations box and change the way we market. We’re not yelling at people “come buy my product!” but instead producing great content that helps people and sells products through “unmarketing”.

Can you distil a press release into 140 characters or less? Brevity is a skill which will provide you with focused messages which are concise and eye-catching. Make the most of the social media available to you and make your social media newsroom or company blog a place to interact. Social media is rich with emotional connections – we share things because they speak to us, they resonate, they move us in some way.

Communication is more important than a pitch. Make people feel that they are part of your network. Encourage them to become your ambassador. Social media has its own society and you must participate in a genuine way for people to believe in you and pay attention to what you are saying.

Tips and Hints (from the live chat)

- Don’t just target the A-listers as your main influencers. Consider the ‘magic middle’, populated by people who may have less of an audience, but who have a following of highly concentrated individuals actively seeking the information from that person. Gaining the support of one of these influencers can be more effective than an A-lister.

- Gaining influencers is still, despite the many tools out there, mainly a manual process – you need to research and investigate the best people to connect with, and achieve that by reading what they are writing, finding out what they are about and forming a relationship.

- Find an angle or approach that interests people. Targeting the right individual with the right angle will make a story reach further than you can imagine.

- Personalise – don’t just bug someone because they are going to be influential in your targeted field – engage with them on a personal level to build a beneficial relationship.

- Invest time in your research and identification of your niche. Monitor and track content to see what works and what doesn’t. Have clear goals in mind before you make your move.

- Be prepared to stand out in front of your company and represent them personally. You don’t just have to ghost-write for the brand – make connections on a personal level.

Well, that’s all from us today – thanks again to Brian Solis for a great presentation. Come back next week for our Q&A session comprised of all the questions that couldn’t get answered on the day. 

You can read the other parts of our Vocus Online Conference Summary series with Deidre Breakenridge, David Meerman Scott, Beth Harte and Lee Odden on the Ikroh blog.

 Resources:

Books/Blog Posts:

Engage! by Brian Solis

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge

The Hybrid Theory Manifesto by Brian Solis

Websites:

www.briansolis.com

www.future-works.com

www.nowisgone.com

We thoroughly enjoyed the whole day of marketing and 2.0 insights and we thought for those of you who didn’t get a chance to watch the speakers and get involved in the live chat, we’d summarise each speaker’s presentation (and their scheduled chat afterwards) and try to answer any unanswered questions from the chatrooms. Every weekday this week, we will post a summary, following up next week with the chat questions. Enjoy!

Lee Odden – TopRankMarketing.com

Lee Odden’s presentation, “Top 10 SEO Tips for PR” explained the basics of integrating search engine optimisation into the public relations and marketing side of business to maximise the potential of your SEO.

Overview:

The purpose of SEO is to make the content on your site easily found by search engines, and in turn, raising your ranking in their result pages. With PR, SEO can do the same optimisation to make your news content easily found by journalists and the media.

 Pitches do not result in massive media exposure. Researchers find their own stories, depending on what is trending, what is new, what is engaging. A journalist or researcher’s path to finding a fresh story firstly takes them to a search engine. Next they explore the results, find out facts, information and ideas to expand on. They will choose their content based on their trust of those sources, whether they have a good SEO ranking, if they are an authority on what they are talking about. This leads to a media relationship between the researcher and the source, with journalists using their favourite, trusted sites for information again and again. Obviously, you want your site to be in that position – giving you instant media coverage without having to pitch, cajole or fight for it.

Balancing the Push and Pull

Odden used a Push/Pull explanation to show the difference between traditional PR and SEO-enhanced marketing.

The PUSH covers PR and its outreach approach, for example using wire services, networking, pitching etc, effectively pushing for sales.

In contrast, the PULL is what your content does when it is optimised with SEO, for example distributing press releases, a newsroom or section on your website, social media networking and media coverage.

Implementing SEO into your PR content will both help your site rank higher, and enable your important information and news to be found, shared and distributed.

The Basics

The basics of search engine optimisation are easy to take on board and put into place, making your PR and SEO mutually beneficial. For example you can:

• Reach journalists and researchers with the content they are looking for.
• Extend the reach of your PR and communications.
• Increase unsolicited media placements.
• Bypass media channels and deliver the information directly to consumers.
• Protect your brand and online reputation.

Why SEO is Important

By optimising the content on your website or blog, you will assist your existing SEO, adding extra channels in which your content can be shared, linked to and distributed. A higher ranking on SERPs (search engine result pages) lends credibility and trust to your brand and site – essentially showing that you are the Number 1 expert in your field.

Having a beautiful and informative site is not enough – if it isn’t optimised, Google (or other search engines) aren’t going to find it and you won’t be listed for the relevant search terms that relate to your products or services.

Odden gave the example of an Adidas site – full of strong impacting images of men’s sportsware and training shoes… but no actual text on the page – meaning that the site didn’t make it into the top 10 ranking pages for “men’s running shoes”. In contrast, he showed a Patagonia site, similarly image heavy, but also containing navigation content – providing search engine crawlers with plenty of informative text to help them rank the site appropriately. Therefore Patagonia’s site came up as the number one result for “outdoor clothing”.

Top 10 Tips:

#1 –Make your site searchable! Search engines need to crawl your site to gather the information they require to rank you accordingly. Certain files can block the bots used to do this which results in your pages being missed. Remove any barriers and make sure your site is easy to navigate. Things to check are privacy settings in place to keep bots away while a site is under construction or ensuring that you don’t just duplicate text such as title tags, and be sure to register and validate your site with Webmaster Central so they know your site exists! Search engines thrive on unique, fresh content, and need to know what your page is about so make it easy for them and optimise.

#2 – Optimise all content. Make the most of all and any content you publish by inserting keywords and links, including: blog posts, press releases, news, PDFs, white papers, link and anchor text, interviews, newsletters, even comments. And don’t forget about “digital assets” such as images, video, podcasts and social media interactions. If it’s published, it must be optimised and promoted. Content distribution encourages linking, which also boosts SEO.

#3 – Know when PPC is a better choice than SEO.  SEO is a long term process, ingrained in the content and makeup of your website, building presence and links over time. PPC campaigns run on demand as a more instant alternative to natural listings. There are times when PPC is a better marketing route, such as promoting a business change or new product, or to combat negativity with a realtime reaction in a way that SEO could not do so quickly.

#4 – Research your keywords. SEO generally starts with researching which keywords you want to optimise to best promote your products, services or website. Which words and phrases do people actually search for when they are looking for your specific goods? You can’t just rely on what keywords you already tend to use, or the ones you decide are most important – you MUST do your research in this area, and glean information from your competitors, search engines and keyword tools. Brainstorm, import your keywords into a research tool, check variations, permutations, popularity, relevance, competitors and trends. Do a search and see what types of media come up on the first page – if there are a lot of videos that match your main keywords, it could mean your customers are looking for video answers to their queries, and that’s where you should be adding your content. If a targeted keyword is highly competitive, consider long tail search terms instead.

#5 – Maximise your on-page SEO. Use keywords in title tags, page titles, navigation links, body copy, keyword links, image alt text, URLs, meta tags and so on. Organise your pages logically so bots can easily find the content. Add content regularly and sort into categories or themes according to subject. Monitor your page metrics and adjust if you’re not getting the results you’re after.

 #6 – Optimise press releases. Add your researched keywords into press releases and optimise your content, add a call to action, link to relevant landing pages, add media, post to your newsroom, pitch to the media and distribute via social media to get the most out of a single press release. Press releases can be used as a powerful SEO tool to gain links and increase rankings.

#7 –Optimised your newsroom. Using software like WordPress makes it easy to implement SEO into your newsroom or blog by adding tags, organising posts into categories, inserting keywords and links, enabling RSS or email subscription and site search, linking with your social media networks and posting a variety of fresh, unique content including multimedia.

 #8 – Build links and “electrify” content in search. Inbound links boost your search credibility and will help you rank higher. Earn links with great content, promote your site and content socially, trade links with partners, link internally to other posts or landing pages, embed links in press releases, use keywords in link text rather than “click here”. Bear in mind that natural links are much more powerful than a bought link. Grow your brand’s network through gaining email subscribers and followers and fans on social networks.

#9 – Use social media. Optimise your social media content for search – three of the top ten search engines are searching socially already and it is an area which is likely to become an integral part of natural search. Social media can influence SEO and vice versa: by optimising you are link building, networking and boosting traffic, including the expansion of your social media presence. In turn, social media increases exposure, the amount of places your content is shared and builds natural links, assisting with SEO.  

#10 – Measure PR SEO. There are various ways to monitor your analytics, such as individual wire service metrics, analytics for landing pages, site traffic, Google alerts, monitoring RSS subscriptions, conversion tracking, social media monitoring, amount of inbound links, pick ups on blogs/sites/publications and search rankings. Compare yourself with the competition and see where you can improve.

 Tips and Hints (from the live chat):

Beginners looking into some DIY SEO shouldn’t worry about the differences in optimising for separate search engines (eg Google or Bing). Analytics can give you clues and hints, but unless you are an SEO professional, you should mainly concentrate on keywords, writing engaging content, link building and increasing visibility.

Even text within Flash can be seen by Googlebots in many cases. The best way to optimise this kind of text is to add it to the page where the Flash loads, eg: embed the Flash within the HTML of the page where the text is published.

Great resources for learning search engine optimisation are abundant online, though nothing compares to first hand knowledge and experience. Get involved, go to conferences, network and research. See the resources below for invaluable sources online.

*           *          *

Well, that’s all from us today – thanks again to Vocus and Lee Odden for a great presentation. Come back every weekday this week for the rest of the webinar summaries, and check the blog next week for our Q&A session comprised of all the questions that couldn’t get answered on the day.

You can read the other parts of our Vocus Online Conference Summaries with Deidre Breakenridge, David Meerman Scott, Beth Harte and Brian Solis at the Ikroh blog.

SEO Resources:

TopRank Guide to SEO

TopRank Blog

Search Engine Land

SEOmoz

SEO Book

List of great SEO books and resources

Guide to image optimisation

Keyword Tools:

Wordtracker

SEMRush

Keyword Discovery

Google Keyword Tools

Google Trends

Google Insights

Firstly, a few minutes of perfection from Mitchell and Webb – Apple, take notice, your latest product is showcased here.

Next, the Vocus online conference we attended on Wednesday. A great opportunity to listen to presentations from five influential speakers from the world of PR, social media and marketing, including Deidre Breakenridge, David Meerman Scott, Beth Harte, Lee Odden and Brian Solis. If you missed it, don’t worry, we’ll be talking more about its finer points next week so stay tuned to the Ikroh blog for that…

And finally, an interesting discussion on the importance and impact of fonts. Yes, you heard, fonts, or typefaces, or those words and stuff you read on a daily basis. How you choose to present your content can effect the way your audience reacts to it, so think carefully before you go for the wingdings…

The Cinematic Orchestra’s interpretation of Lilac Wine, in honour of Dr. Marten’s 50th anniversary. Blissful.

Possibly the best social media story ever:

And finally, the most effective use of a facebook status to, um, save the world from wolves?

On, this, the first Friday of July, Ikroh is spreading our love around.

How about your own Twitter parade? (Why a monkey parade, you ask? Why NOT a monkey parade?) An ego stroking exhibition of just how many Twits adore you (or monkeys), in flash form. Giggle at those who get turned into yappy dogs. See what everyone’s saying in one big crowd of funny-headed avatars. Like most things in life, it’s over all too quickly. Let’s do it again… Visit IS parade to make your own.

Museum of Modern Tweets – Artist Odessa Begay gives you something to do with Twitter on a Tuesday (because it’s always a bit of a ‘meh’ day, huh?). Each week he takes a celebrity’s tweet and transforms it into a weird and wonderful representation.

Vuvuzelas for BP – A campaign on Kickstarter to thoroughly irritate BP for a day with an army of vuvuzela-players (or should that be blowers, it’s not like they qualify as a music instrument… more like a cross between a depressed elephant and an upset stomach) non-stop vuvuzela-ing outside the London headquarters. Web video producer, Adam Quirk is the brain behind the bizarreness, and his annoying creation has already surpassed his original budget – all excess money is going to the Gulf Disaster Fund.

We’re fully into <shh, don’t jinx it> summer now. Feeling a lot of worldly love for the sunshine, bbqs, wearing flip flops – oh – you’re stuck inside, working? Sorry. If you’re chained to your computer, this week’s selection of “Ikroh Loves…” might cheer you up.

There are lot of these banging around YouTube, but this one’s a doozy. The thinking man’s soundtrack accompaniment:

And if you don’t have time to play Mario all day (ahem), then how about making work a little more pleasant with one of these opulent work station configurations, catalogued by Web Design Ledger?

Ever wondered what life was like before Twitter? What percentage of tweets are pointless babble? The peak days of the week for RTs, spamming and genuine conversation? You HAVE? Oh, well then this will be perfect for you – here’s hubspot’s Ultimate List of 100 Twitter Statistics. Knock yourself out:

Have a splendid week, from Ikroh.

As of Friday 25^th June 2010… (that’ll be tomorrow, those of you living under rocks)… the UK arrival of the iPhone 4 is upon us. Soon, how long you spent in a tent, in a queue, in tears, will be irrelevant. Maluphiles (that’s apple lovers to you) the country over will rejoice, pour libations of apple juice and dance on the graves of their old handsets like it’s the iPhone solstice… Can you tell I’m a bit peeved that I don’t have one?

For those of you joining me in sullen jealousy, let’s plan for the future. Which tariff to go for, if and when we decide to join the cool kids? The networks currently providing contracts for the iPhone are 3 Mobile, O2, Orange, Vodaphone, Tesco and T-Mobile, and packages vary. Here’s the rundown:

3 Mobile:

Having just released these details, and following a massive advertising push regarding their increased network improvements, the UK’s littlest provider, 3 Mobile, are trying to corner the market here, offering some of the best deals of the bunch.

All contracts are 24 months, ranging from £30-45/m with handsets costing £99 for the 16GB (free with the £45/m plan) and £89-189 for the 32BG model. All plans will give you 500 network minutes, 5000 texts, 5000 three-to-three minutes and 1GB of internet.

Three is also offering sim only and PAYG plans – you can see them all here. You’ll have to wait though, as it’s not actually available for contracts on launch date – 3 say it’s “coming soon” – though you can buy direct from Apple from the 25^th June and choose a sim only contract.

Vodafone:

18 month plans range from £30-65/month for a 16GB handset, which costs £219 with the cheapest plan and free with the £65 plan. A standard of unlimited texts, 1GB of internet and wifi stay the same across all the plans (except the £30/m deal, which offers a pretty measly 75 mins and 250 texts), with minutes increasing by 300 on each deal. 24 month plans are much the same, apart from monthly tariffs being 5 quid cheaper.

For the 32GB things look extremely similar, apart from a hike in the cost of the handset, ranging from £309 on a £30/25 per month contract to £59 on a £65/60 per month contract (18 and 24 months respectively).

For pay as you go, you’ll just have to wait, as all Vodafone details are yet “to be confirmed”.

Orange:

18 month contracts start at £30/m and end at £75/m, with minutes ranging from 150 to 3000, and texts coming to 500 on all except the £30/m plan (which offers 250), though unlimited internet and Wi-Fi are standard. The handset itself will set you back £99-£229 for a 16GB model. For a 32GB handset, you’ll pay between £139-£319 for a similar plan.

24 month contracts offer a little more, ranging from £25-£75/m, with 16GB handsets costing £229 max and coming free with a £75/m contract. Texts go from 125 to unlimited once you pass the £35/m mark, and minutes from 75 to unlimited. As with the 18 month contracts, handset price changes with the 32GB model, from £29-£319.

02:

All monthly tariffs here come with unlimited texts and Wi-Fi, with plans ranging from £25-£60 for 24 months, and £30-£65 for 18 months. For a 16GB handset, you’ll pay a max of £279 – it comes free with the top tariff for both lengths of contract. For a 32GB, costs range from £29-£323.

As with Vodafone, PAYG details are still in the works.

Tesco:

Tesco are offering 12 month contracts for the 16GB handset range from £20/m to £35/m, offering 250-750 minutes, unlimited texts, 1GB mobile data and unlimited BT Openzone Wi-Fi. Handsets cost a whopping £229-£349, though if you choose a £45/m, 24 month deal, you’ll only pay £19 for the handset and get unlimited minutes too.

For the 32GB, 12 month tariff, the details are the same, apart from a handset costing between £99 for a £45/m contract and £429 for a £20/m contract. You do get the bonus of 1000 Tesco Clubcard Points with every deal, however.

T-Mobile:

Who knows? The network still hasn’t revealed any pricing plans or ideas of how their tariffs will compare. Perhaps they’re waiting to undercut everyone completely…?

STILL CONFUSED?

Here’s the comparison for a mid-range £35/m tariff:

16GB

32GB

So there you have it, enjoy it if you get one, or join me to rock gently in a darkened corner if not. And when the riots start, I’ll meet you at the Apple shop to pillage…

Friday, Ikroh’s in Love…

We are a loving bunch here at Ikroh. Group hugs are common in the office, sushi is shared, children are entertained and our coffee cups runneth over. “Ikroh Loves…” is a weekly post dedicated to the web wanderings of our team and the multimedia we’ve come across and are feeling the love for; apps, music, photos, design, video, articles, news, tools, guides and sites. If you’re similarly loved up, go ahead and submit your own beloved wanderings as a comment or an email and we might just agree with you and post them here.

Without further ado, here are this week’s contenders:

App:

The Sky News iPhone App – Keep updated on whatever news floats your boat with easily navigated tabs organised by subject and no ads to get in the way. You can view videos, get text alerts and even submit your own reports. (We’re all into apps right now because of Top Secret developments at Ikroh regarding iPhone and Android to help with Social Media Marketing and SEO… Watch this space.)

Images:

36 Features the iPhone Definitely Didn’t Get – Winning suggestions in a photoshop contest on Gizmodo, include a lightsaber, not one but TWO itoasters, bacon maker (our fave) and  boob authentication (well, in the world of geeks it was inevitable to have something boob-related submitted) to name but a few.

Website:

Awkward Family Photos – if you haven’t been here before, you’ll spend several hours here now. A comprehensive archive of strange, humorous and disturbing family photos and portraits, submitted by their blushing stars or family members. From the famous “Thanksgiving Letter” to the most heinous display of denim and mullets in the known world, AFP has the length and breadth of excruciating nostalgia.

Happy wandering!

Microsoft has recently landed a deal with Channel 4 cartoon, The Simpsons, in Microsoft’s first sponsorship of a UK television programme. The deal also ties in with the 20^th anniversary of the cartoon series and has become the very first technology company to get behind the show and provide them with a sponsor.

The sponsorship deal will help push a major advertising approach for their new search engine deal, Microsoft Bing. Microsoft has invested millions to encourage more people to start using the search engine and build a better presence online, hoping that the broad spectrum popularity of The Simpsons will assist with this.

Specially designed Microsoft Bing adverts will be shown before, after and in commercial breaks of every Simpsons show on Channel 4 and Channel 4+1. The adverts will depict families using Microsoft Bing as their preferred choice of search engine.

Microsoft had previously been the main sponsor for another cartoon series, Family Guy, but stepped back from the deal after deciding that the sometimes offensive, adult content of the show did not fit the company’s brand.

The adverts – which are using the tag “Bing and decide” – aim to show viewers how the search engine is different to any others. The TV campaign will be supported by Microsoft Live, MSN, partner sites and online news providers.

With Google currently leading the search engine market, Microsoft is putting together a massive advertising campaign to meet their goals and become Google’s closest rivals – a title currently held by Yahoo. Google search massively dominates the field at the moment, taking over 80% of the global search market. With large investments and company time Microsoft Bing will certainly try to change these figures to their advantage.