Old Media and New Media, including SEO are fighting a war of attrition – and the smart money is on New Media to win. Eventually. Google and search engines have become the new broadcasters transforming public relation to SEO, while simultanioulsy replacing commercials with a Pay Per Click (PPC).
Digital online content swept the media-scape of the first decade of the twenty-first century like a grass fire consuming old growth in its path. Old Media – newspapers, magazines, broadcast radio and television – has relatively high production values and controlled distribution. Above all else, Old Media is programmed – which means it’s vetted, fact-checked and less speculative. New Media, on the other hand – by which we mean the Internet and the Internet’s intercept with targeted cable television – is on demand, raw or refined, multi-platformed and always open for business. When PR stories take off in New Media, they tend to break in a big way because the audience becomes the promoter, linking to the story on blogs and Facebook pages, and emailing it to their entire address book. What was once water cooler gossip in the days of Old Media is now heard round the world. This particular phenomenon is called viral buzz.
The SEO and Internet ‘s ascendency as the news source of choice has been well documented over the past ten years. What is, perhaps, less well understood among those who grew up under Old Media’s shadow is how pervasively it’s infiltrated the entertainment consumption habits of that all important 18-34 demographic. In the under 18 cohort – the all-important trend makers of tomorrow – there’s simply no competition.
The advent of the Internet created not only a new promotional medium for public relations,and press releases, but also a new approach. In Old Media, a relatively small number of gatekeepers control the information flow. Cultivating relationships with these gatekeepers – whether you want a story to run or stop dead in its tracks – is of critical importance to the success of any public relations strategy.
On the Internet, though, there are no barriers to entry. Every webmaster is a potential gatekeeper. The information is out there – and caching tools mean it’s out there forever. Promoting any particular piece of information, however, can be a daunting task: at last count, there were well over a hundred billion websites. But the Internet has developed a number of tools to narrowcast to segmented interest groups. Chief among these is the search engine.
Basically a search engine is a computer program that uses mathematical formulas to seek for patterns within content. The exact algorithm may vary from search engine to search engine but generally relies upon some combination of metatags, key words, external links and the position of elements on the webpage itself. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art and science of assuring results by customizing your website with hidden content that will score high on search engine probability indices. But optimization alone isn’t enough. The most successful websites also utilize search engine ad word buys and reciprocal links to lure traffic. The rise of so-called social media brought yet a new personalization twist, further refining narrowcasting through the use of browser cookies that reflect the search history of the person using the browser. It’s quite possible for two people, typing the same search term into the query box, to get widely divergent pages of results.
Fine and dandy. But what does all this mean for the professional who’s pitching that book, that product, that company, that personal expertise, across the media spectrum?
It means that professional should choose a public relations company to work with that knows both Old and New Media from the inside out, and understands the synergy between the two. With its recent acquisition of the celebrated PR firm the Idea Network, Summary Newswire became that company.
Summary Newswire is a leader in building Internet buzz. Through customized content, search engine optimization and distribution to article outlets and the blogosphere, Summary Newswire builds critical mass. Summary takes your genius viral through a four-pronged approach that involves press release optimization and distribution services, article writing, article distribution and social bookmarking.
• Press Release Optimization and Distribution
Press releases have been around forever, but the old formulas just won’t work on the Internet. If you want your press release to find an Internet audience, it must contain those triggers that guarantee search engines will pick it up and distribute it to your target demographic. But if you want your audience to keep on reading past the opening sentences, then the prose must sparkle. Marrying keyword saturation with lively prose takes talent – and Summary Newswire has that talent plus a proven track record of success. A Summary Newswire press release is a tool that will work in any medium – newspapers, radio and TV stations, trade magazines, ezines and internet publications.
• Article Writing
Online content creation is a thriving market. Research from Interactive Media Strategies projects that by the year 2012 spending on business content creation will be well over one billion dollars. But once again, the most cost-effective strategy for any business is the creation of quality content that can be repurposed effectively both on and off the web. Summary Newswire offers a selection of packages that allows any business, from the smallest to the largest, to feature branded content – original stories, news reports, analyses, blog entries – that can be used both on and off the Internet and that create positive synergy with other companies of like mission.
• Article Submission
Search engines are not the only means of distribution across the web. Many members of your target audience will have favorite sites they rely upon for news and information. Summary Newswire manually submits your content to appropriate sites and article directories, and provides you with a set of tools – e.g. unique email and user accounts – that will allow you to monitor your target audiences’ response personally.
• Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking is the art of leveraging community forums, blogs, message boards and content-centric sites like Digg on behalf of your product or message. Matching elements with audience is labor-intensive and requires meticulous planning. Widespread distribution without a clear-cut strategy will ruin your chances for success because it will be seen as spamming. Avoid this pitfall in your online promotion and work with a professional – Summary Networks, the leader in Internet public relations.