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What do your competitors do online?

Have you ever wondered how your competitors always end up at the top of search engine rankings or why you always seem to be below them on adwords? If so there are a number of things you can look at online but my two favourites are:

Both of these sites give a you a free snapshot of what your competitors are up to although Spyfu has just added specific UK data which is great. The information you can get includes keywords, how much they spend a day, which are their best performing ads and much much more.

OK that did sound like an advert but they are interesting to take a look at and could really help your search engine optimisation.

 

Tags: SEO by Rob
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Please don’t ask me to chase up a news release

I am sure it’s not the only one out there but I stumbled across a succint rant (see link below) all the way from Canada which explains why we don’t chase journalists when we have sent them a news story. What’s more, any PR person who says they do is either deluded or about to get an e-slap from an irate journo. Like Richard Morochove in the article says: If you want to know if a writer got your email just enable read receipts on your Outlook. If he/she wants to talk to Mr/Ms BigCheese then he/she will contact them using the contact details you should have put on the news story.  Save direct hassling of journalist for something you know they are writing about and which has an element of exclusivity. If, like Richard, they are freelance, they are in business. So think-can my contact make a quid out of this story? Then they will forgive the interruption.

http://www.morochove.com/pr/dumbpr.htm

 

Tags: Public Relations by Frank
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To blog or not to blog …. that is the question.

Blog this, blog that, blog the other.

The blogsphere is now full of everyone writing blogs about their latest adventures or misadventures and even Ben Elton in his book Blind Faith has used the blog as yet another Orwellian way that the state will soon keep tabs on us.

The real question is, as a business should you put your toe in the water and launch a blog?

When we discuss the issue of blogs with clients we have a few simple questions:

  • Do you have something you want to say?
  • Will it be informative and new?
  • Will you be able to continually add content?

If you have answered yes to the questions go for it … your blog could be a great way to access new business opportunities or talk to your existing customers but don’t forget that you still have to get people to read it - promotion is the key to success.

Tags: Uncategorized by Rob
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Talking the talk, walking the walk

Although 95% of PR is done remotely, sometimes there’s just no substitute for meeting journalists face-to-face with a client.

It’s an effective tactic when introducing a new company to the press, and even more so when building on a previous meeting — but with one caveat.  You’ve always, always got to have some hard news to impart.

This was brought home to me again yesterday, when doing a round of interviews with Check Point’s Nick Lowe (http://www.checkpoint.com).  We’d already met three of the journalists several times previously, so much of the talk was industry gossip and catching up. 

But there was no getting away from the hard news.  After the pleasantries, in each interview we had to get down to the business of giving the story.  As it happens, we had a good story which went down well, and the day was a success.

It was a reminder (if it were needed) that the only currency that works in PR is news.  Without a good story, no amount of wining, dining and contacts will help you get coverage. 

(Although when it comes to dining, Cafe Soho on Ingestre Place, off Broadwick Street, Soho, does a cracking BLT at a very reasonable price.  You can always rely on a journalist to know a good place to eat)

 

Tags: Public Relations by Craig
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What are my backlinks?

Have you ever wondered who is linking to your site or how good your PR really is.

A really simple way to find out is as follows:

  • Go to www.yahoo.co.uk
  • In the search box enter  the following “linkdomain:contextpr.co.uk -site:contextpr.co.uk”

A list with every link that has been found on the web about your business should appear.

Tags: Uncategorized by Rob
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Who’s talking ?

If you are interested in finding out who is saying what about you in a blog or if the discussion you started weeks ago has been taken up by others there is now a really simple tool that you can use to search blogs.

www.blogpulse.com

At the moment the tool is FREE to use so give it a go you may find some really interesting results.

 

Tags: Uncategorized by Rob
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Gotta be in it to win it

One of our clients, Check Point (http://www.checkpoint.com) has just won a product category in the 2008 Techworld awards (http://www.Techworld.com), which has given us a warm glow this morning.

Especially as the client has sent the news out to all its field sales staff, partners and resellers — it shows how much they value winning.

Sometimes it may not seem worth the effort of entering industry awards in general:  there’s the time and effort, not to mention the ever-present suspicions of prize fixing.

But one thing’s for sure:  you don’t win if you don’t enter.  As Woody Allen once observed — and it’s very true in PR — success is 75% turning up.   [Read more →]

Tags: Public Relations, Technology by Craig
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PR 2.0 Seminar Says Brand is All About Search

I went to a really helpful seminar on PR2.0 in Manchester this week organised by KMP Internet. We learned an awful lot and there were some great speakers.  I can now bore my friends (both of them) with talk of wikis, twitters and worryingly, Google Juice (sounds messy). What came out of the gig that was really eye- opening was the conclusion that brand was no longer about image but about search. And although it’s not the whole story, it’s a thought-provoking conclusion. 

Tags: Uncategorized by Frank
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Rank Insider

One question we’re often asked by clients old and new is, “How do we improve our search engine rankings?”
 
The answer’s simple, and it doesn’t involve paid-for clicks or website tweaks. No, it’s that old-fashioned PR staple, the press release. 
 
You might ask why, in the era of Web 2.0 apps and social networking, such an apparently outdated idea can get such good results. There are two key reasons. 
 
First, because media websites and news portals tend to be heavily optimised by their owners or publishers. By getting your news onto the sites, you can take advantage of this optimisation work to your own ends, to push your company name up the Google rankings.
 
Second, these sites are also link magnets – they link to other news sites, to vendor sites and all types of media, and vice-versa. And a high-density mesh of links further improves rankings.
 
So far, so good. But you’ve still got to get your press releases published on these sites, and you’ve got to make those releases work hard for you. Here are some tips to help you do that.
 
1) Use specialist news distribution services. There’s a range of news services which specialise in disseminating news on the web. These rank highly in Google searches, so your news will in turn rank highly. Make sure you use them.
 
2) Use a keyword that’s associated with your company in the press release headline. This could be your brand name, or a technical term that describes your product or services. This helps link your name with the sector you want to be associated with. Make sure the keywords also appear in the first paragraph, too.

3) Include a hotlink in your first paragraph – but do it carefully. If you place an hotlink early in the story, it improves the chances of it being clicked on by the right prospects.  But don’t make it sound too promotional, or you risk the credibility of the release.

The good news is, you don’t have to pay for getting onto the majority of these news sites, and you don’t pay for the click-throughs. But you do get the vital boost up the search engine rankings – and the more releases you put out there, the higher your ranking. 

 
There’s life in the old press release yet.

Tags: Uncategorized by Craig
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Pulp Press Releases

“You know what the funniest thing about Europe is? It’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same over there that they got here… but there, it’s just a little different.” Vincent Vega (John Travolta) - Pulp Fiction
 
Vega’s musings on cultural differences in Europe don’t just cover the condiments we enjoy with our French Fries. They could also include press releases, and more specifically, the language used in those releases. 
 
One of the most common complaints from UK journalists is that you can always spot a press release from a US company by the length and language. They are more verbose, more promotional.
 
Why is this? It’s a symptom of the differences between American and British media. First, the UK is a smaller market, so there are far fewer magazines. Then those media outlets have fewer journalists. This means there’s less specialisation and – crucially – each journalist has to write a lot more stories per week than their US counterpart.
 
So UK journalists have a heavier workload, and don’t have time to wade through corporate jargon and self-promotion.
 
All of which means, you need to get to the point of the story quickly in a release. 
 
Windy phrases such as “XYZ Corp, the leading supplier of open-source widgets to the global widget consumer …” simply distract readers from the real story. This kind of background should go on the end of the release, in the company description. 
 
Avoid terms like “unique”, “pioneering” and other such adjectives even if it is unique. “Ground-breaking” is acceptable if it’s describing a new pickaxe, and “best-of-breed” fine if it’s a show animal. Otherwise, leave them out.
 
Stick to the facts. Try and keep the release under 500 words (two sides of A4). If the story is longer than this, redraft it. 
 
If there’s a quote from a person in the release, make it read like it is something that a real person would say: journalists have extremely sophisticated bull-mud detectors.
 
These points may not be popular with some people within your company. But they will endear you to the people the press release is really aimed at – the press themselves. So pretty please. With sugar on top. Keep it short and to the point.

Tags: Public Relations by Craig
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