The proliferation of social media has finally infiltrated the world of B2B and you know what, it’s not as bad as we thought it would be. I used to think social media and B2B were like the sun and the moon…never the two shall meet.

But, leave it to the web to once again alter the landscape and shake the tree of traditional marketing.  Just as the proliferation of email and websites started to fragment the way in which we could talk to an audience, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook and even the blogosphere are providing new ways to talk with those people who are interested in our clients’ products and technologies, and actually engage them in the process.

Isn’t social media for business really just customer relationship management (CRM) on steroids? It does have applicability and gives companies direct feedback from the audience they most want to reach—people looking to buy a product or service. Imagine the impact of harnessing that firsthand input and applying it to product development to meet market needs!

The good news is that even though the pie keeps getting sliced into more pieces, there’s still enough pie to go around.  The bad news is keeping up with it all can be mind boggling.  An easy way to start is to apply these new social media tactics to one aspect of your campaign and grow it from there.  We tend to get our clients’ feet wet by first integrating social media with our PR program.  From there, once you’re familiar with the lay of the land, the process just snowballs and pretty soon, social media has become an integrated, and valuable, part of your marcom program.

So, next time you get friended or someone asks for your Twitter name, remember this is the environment your customers are operating in.  Like it or not (but we’ve come to like it), social media is enhancing B2B communications.

Read the post “Mixing in Social Media” for more info.

Articles, Integrated Marketing, Public Relations Facebook, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Twitter

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the latest buzz phrase of the marketing world (we’re guilty of using it, too!), but did you know it is sneaking into the PR world as well? Not only should you optimize your website or your blog, you should also be optimizing your press releases for search engines.

A traditional news release with plain text will reach the editorial community on the date you release it, but what happens when a potential customer is searching Google for that great new product six months later? Unless your press release has the staying power to continually rank high in search engines, the chance of an older press release being found is slim.

This is where SEO comes in. Here are some important tips for optimizing a press release:

1. Use the important keywords in the title (words customers would search).
Headlines are the first thing a search engine and a reader will see. Putting keywords in the headline increases your chances of being found and people seeing the relevance of your news release to their search.

2. Keep the title to approximately 80 characters.
PR distribution sites will often use the headline for the title tag. Keeping the title short (while including keywords) ensures the keywords of your release will not be cut off and will be visible to search engines (and readers) at the first glance.

3. Effectively use keywords throughout the press release.
Using a keyword density check tool will help you determine if your press release includes too little, too many, or just the right amount of keywords in the text. Using too many words may seem counterintuitive, but it could actually hurt your SEO. Too few keywords hurt, too.

4. Use links in the body of the release.
Adding links in the body of the text will increase the chances of the search engines finding your release. And always start with http:// for the URL. Those seven little characters will ensure the links are active in the release whereas URLs starting with www. could be missed.

5. Include anchor text.
Try to link at least three keywords in the text specifically to an internal page of your site rather than just the homepage. These tagged phrases provide more SEO value to a release than just listing URL links in the text, since they appear as searchable terms.

6. Make sure your news gets out.
In addition to the traditional press list, news releases should be distributed more widely using outlets targeted for online media as well as submitted to a variety of online news sites that post content, both of which are geared at the end user, versus the editorial community.

SEO has changed the landscape of not only traditional marketing, but traditional public relations as well. Writing and distributing timely news releases with the editors, end user, and search engines in mind will dramatically increase the reach of each release.

Articles, Online Marketing, Public Relations PR, press release, SEO

OK, for those of you who know us, it’s no surprise that we always advocate a strong public relations program as part of a comprehensive marcom plan. In fact, this is where many of our clients start their relationship with us.

The benefits of PR are seemingly endless and become even more important when marketing resources become scarce, as could be the case for some companies heading into 2009.

Two critical factors we see impacting current marketing budgets that increase the need to stretch resources and still accomplish company’s goals are:
1– the slowing US and global economy, and
2– the ongoing allocation of resources required to optimize your website with still-evolving online marketing tactics.

So, ask yourself: How can I keep my company visible in all relevant market areas while working with limited resources?

The answer: Use PR…if you already are, use more! Some basic approaches include:

News Releases: You’ll reach all your target media for about the same cost as an ad in just one media.
Feature Articles: You’ll increase your company’s credibility tenfold and position those within your company as the experts.
Trade Show Support: You’ll build one-on-one relationships with the editors, who will, in turn, be more apt to call on you when writing stories about your industry and listen to ideas pitched on behalf of your company.

Who knew one tactic in your marketing program could be so effective!

Learn more about The Simon Group’s PR program.

Articles, Public Relations PR, press release