Archive for July, 2008
Calling digital media PRs (freelancers too)
July 30th, 2008
At Liberate Media we’re on a growth spurt, so this is an unashamed call for experienced PRs (freelance or permanent) to get in touch. If you’re reading this post, hopefully you already understand the digital media sector and the importance of social media within digital communications, so it’s a relatively safe bet that you are the type of consultant that we want to speak to.
We also have an immediate requirement for freelance assistance, as I’m off on honeymoon shortly and would like to add a bit of extra resource to help cover my absence. Beyond that, we’re always interested in speaking to freelancers to see where opportunities might exist and to add new ideas to our campaigns.
So, whether you are freelance looking for a short term placement, or even looking for the next career move, you will find further information on the ‘Join us’ section of the site, or you can contact me directly via jobs@liberatemedia.com
Dragons Den talks search engine optimisation (SEO)
July 29th, 2008
As a big fan of TV’s Drangons Den I tuned in to last nights weekly episode as usual, half way through the show a guy pitched for a company called Diamond Geezer, an online retailer of Diamonds. What happened next was a first for Dragons Den. Peter Jones wanted to know all about Diamond Geezers Google rankings and key words.
View the video to see how the conversation unfolded:
Just goes to show how (SEO) keywords and page ranking are now becoming an important mix of companies online strategy’s.
July 28th, 2008
I picked up on a podcast interview and NMA profile of Habbo’s regional MD Europe, Phil Guest on the re-emergence of virtual worlds. It was for me a timely reminder that “it’s all about the kids”. While I’ve struggled with the adult vworlds, out there are more than 100 child-friendly worlds – and Phil said there were many more on the way as leading brands piled in to create playful spaces to build connections and trust with their young customers. Maybe that’s it – there’s a point to these places FUN!) and users who know how to connect, cluster and make the most of their time there. Phil had no doubts that worlds like Habbo sat on the blurring line between real and virtual that young people understood – and that these worlds were a next step in the development of social networks because they were immersive, playful spaces with meaning beyond connections and self-reference. Look forward to the Feast of the Avatars, coming to a social network near you soon.
Why do Twitter users protect their updates?
July 24th, 2008
Private or public Twitter accounts - what’s best?
There have been a few posts on this subject lately, so here’s my take!
Private - do they have something to hide? Are they from the dark side, or are they just plain shy?
A massive part of the social media mix is open conversation , transparency and the ability for people unknown to you, to comment and have opinions on what you have to say.
So why when it comes to Twitter do a small minority of users insist on vetting you before allowing you to see their Tweets. It’s like they want to check you before they except you!
TWO HUGE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PROTECT YOUR TWEETS AND HAVE A PUBLIC ACCOUNT…
1. Everybody in the whole wide world has the opportunity to see your Tweets.
2. Public tweets are indexed by Google
Let’s face it, the whole idea of Twitter is to promote conversation and sharing, make contacts and friends in 140 characters or less. Protecting your Tweets makes it a lot harder to do this, and it is not great for social media optimisation either!
I guess the only reason you would want to protect your Tweets are:
A, You want to talk aggressively about other Twitter users.
B, Don’t want your boss to see you slagging him/her off.
C, You Tweet about your stamp collection.
D, You are talking to a mistress via Twitter.
E, You think you are far too important and senior to be followed by mere mortals
I can recommend another way of keeping Tweets confidential - Group Tweet - which allows you and your gang to send messages via Twitter that are instantly broadcasted privately to only the team members.
Maybe Twitter should just go back to the drawing board and not give users the option to have protected Tweets!
One reason FOR a private account I have come across is in a similar post, click to view here.
A comment is left that says “Twitter in a way is the space where I can say anything, it’s my “free space” to complain about brands, work, anything. That’s why I’m private on Twitter.” - she has a point!
What do you guys do - public or private - let me know your thoughts?
Will PRs and journalists own natural search?
July 23rd, 2008
You might say, “who cares?”, but for me this is a refreshing new angle on the ‘who owns online PR?’ discussion that has been going on within the social media industry for a while. Of course I’m going to like suggestions that PRs might be in line to own SEO, but setting my vested interests aside, this line of thought helps explain why it is crucial that journalists and PRs understand the long-term trends that are happening in natural search.
Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker made his own rather crude observations on the subject on Monday, in his overly optimised article, “Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it.” He doesn’t say anything new - online headlines have always been important for driving traffic and natural links, and the only difference is that journalists are waking up to the impact optimised copy can have on their authority and popularity rankings - but the article drives home the SEO control that journalists have at their fingertips, should they choose to use it intelligently.
Similarly, Leon Bailey Green has today contributed a post to the E-Consultancy blog entitled: “Is the role of the SEO dead and should PRs own natural search?“, where he argues “off-site optimisation, link building or link baiting, should actually be in the domain of PR professionals”. He concludes “so if a web developer can build a search engine friendly website, a content writer knows how to write search engine friendly copy and an online PR guru can get blogs/websites/forums to link to that content, where does that leave an SEO?”
Regardless of who might own SEO in the future, or whether anyone will, it’s becoming more and more important for PRs and journalists to have a basic understanding of how relevancy, authority and quality of content will increasingly be the metrics used by search engines to rank sites. In addition, social networks are in some cases beginning to displace search, by creating trusted networks of relevant recommendations - which will make the role that PR plays even more important.
The tactics of PR and journalism don’t necessarily need to change, but individuals working in these sectors will have to be very good at what they do.
Natural search can appear very scientific, and I personally am on a mission to understand the techniques as well as I can…but ultimately, PR as an industry needs to focus on the quality of its output. There’s no place for fakers!