RHetoric

The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz has written a revealing column on the machinations he and his fellow reporters must go through to cause their articles to show up in Google search results.  We go through a similar process when we write press releases, and it can challenge a copywriter’s sensibilities.

Unfortunately for the Post, it also challenges journalistic sensibilities.  As Kurtz points out, Google trending is telling him his stories will be better read if he makes reference to Sarah Palin, Tiger Woods’s ex-wife, and Lady Gaga, all in the same story.  Not exactly Kurtz’s beat!

How does this apply to public relations firms serving businesses?

Used to be, the people we wanted to reach were unwittingly exposed to a wide variety of subjects.  The daily newspaper, trade journal, or evening news supplied a global sampling of the state of affairs, sparking new ideas and new interests. A mile wide and an inch deep.

Today, these same people hand-pick blogs and Twitter feeds and e-newsletters that cover not just their industries but sometimes their distinct job functions in their industries.  Their information consumption is highly specialized - a mile deep and an inch wide. So how do new ideas, one or two standard deviations from a reader’s core interest, break through?

The answer is relevance, and Google serves a useful public service here.  Its algorithms, hated by many, actually create a road map for businesses to make their ideas and innovations relevant to target audiences who have chosen to specialize.

If we want hospital IT managers to pay attention to our client’s HIE (health information exchange) solution, and we know that hospital IT managers are busy doing searches on terms like “meaningful use rules,” then we had better be using those terms in our press releases, and posting them on wire services that are crawled by search engines!

It’s one thing for a press release to be read by a journalist - but if it can be read by a prospective customer, even better.

Now, one can get a lot more sophisticated than keyword selection. The point, however, is that Google is not causing people to specialize, it is that they are choosing to.  So marketing and PR professionals must tweak their content to be relevant to the specialized interest, and the keyword is one way to do it.

There are other ways too, some of them gimmicks designed to game the algorithms.  We’ve seen content farms where kids are paid by the word to scrape copyrighted news articles, pepper them with references to the corporations that are paying them, and repost them - all to fool search engines into ranking those corporations higher.  We’ve seen cases where well meaning bloggers are duped into hosting linkbacks to other sites, to juice the other sites’ search engine results.

Ever do a search and end up on a page where the content seems relevant but just doesn’t seem to make sense?  Someone is getting paid to waste your time on purpose, to register another tick in their statistics.

For those of us in business-focused PR and marketing, we don’t have to resort to dropping Lady Gaga into our press release headlines to garner readership.  It would boost the numbers, but not of the right kind.  Rather, we have to be mindful of the fact that our target readership has chosen to specialize, and so as writers we must tap the language of their specialty to relate.  That is where Google’s algorithms can help us make the link.

Now I am going to go monitor my web stats to watch my online popularity explode as a result of this keyword mention of Lady Gaga.

BP’s PR problem isn’t a PR problem… it’s an unstoppable gushing well problem. However that hasn’t stopped some crisis PR “experts” from rushing to the media to offer their opinions on what BP should be doing differently to enhance its image. Hey, it’s good exposure for the PR experts, I’ll give them that.

But frankly the image problem is the effect; while the cause is the non-stop, gusher under the Gulf. Until that hole is plugged, no amount of PR advice can really plug BP’s PR nightmare.

PR professionals commenting on this crisis should first acknowledge this is the underlying cause of BP’s PR problem, then dispense advice in this context.  If they did, they would be doing a much needed service for the entire PR industry, which sometimes gets a bad rap for vacuous spin.

So now for the two-bit PR advice to BP.  First, plug the well - obviously.  But in the meantime, have a script.  Sending the CEO or chairman in front of the cameras in the middle of a crisis without a carefully prepared and vetted script is madness.  Had the CEO said, “I want my life back” in a media training session first, the comment would have never made it to prime time.  Likewise, BP’s chairman should have memorized a carefully crafted script before walking out of a White House meeting and talking to the press corps - a script that would not have referred to Gulf residents as “small.”

It’s a good lesson for anyone in corporate America.  When a crisis hits, it is absolutely critical to prepare before stepping in front of the camera.  A single unintentional comment can throw off all good intentions.  And all good intentions are meaningless if the underlying problem - in this case the blown well - are unresolved.

The books are closed on 2009, and the various account teams at RH Strategic have been busy working with clients on their 2010 PR and marketing plans.  Here are some tactics we are recommending to clients and anyone else who wants to compete more aggressively for business in the healthcare, government, and technology markets this year.

This checklist is not a carbon copy of last year's recommendations.  That is because the landscape has been altered by current events (recession, stimulus spending) and the new ways prospects are gathering information (Twitter).

With that, here is the short list:

Move your best customers to the front.  In 2010, buyers will be cautious and looking for evidence that your solution is low risk - particularly in the government and healthcare markets but anywhere the recession has had a deep impact. Document your customers' best successes and market them through online case studies, speaker placements, press coverage, and awards. Sometimes a single case study becomes industry lore that generates returns for years!

Catch up with Twitter.  If you are still a cynic, it's really time to take another look.  Chances are good to excellent that some of your prospects are being heavily influenced by just a few people on Twitter.  You should be one of them - however avoid the bland corporate tweets that read like press releases. Focus on issues and ideas.  If you're already tweeting, focus on tagging to build followers.  Healthcare is surprisingly Twitter-friendly.

Update your web site with an inexpensive video or two.  The days of the $50,000, 15-minute corporate video are long, long gone.  The cost of web-quality video capture and editing has come way down.  Like down to a few thousand bucks.  And it turns out web visitors are much more likely to watch a 30-second video than they are to read web copy for 30 seconds.  Get a product developer on camera, a customer service rep, or your best customer.

Tie your messaging into what's happening in D.C. Let's face it: D.C. is the private sector's new partner in capitalism.  Buyers are looking for clues that you are in tune with directives coming from the top.  Creating jobs, fostering transparency, keeping Americans safe, improving patient safety - the list goes on.  Work it into your collateral, web site, and talking points.

Spruce up your proposals.  It will be important to show that you not only survived 2009, but you are leaping ahead in 2010.  A fresh, professional look and updated messaging communicates confidence and permanence.

Keep your web site current.  A regular drumbeat of press releases announcing customer wins, events you will be attending, and blog posts all show your company is current, relevant, and has momentum.  No one wants to call on a company whose last press release was April of 2008.  Regular content updates also do wonders for your search engine rankings.

And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t note that RH Strategic is happy to help with these or any of your communications needs in 2010.  All you need to do is drop me an e-mail at john (at) rhstrategic (dot) com, reference this blog post, and leave me an e-mail or phone number.  In most situations we would have a conversation about your needs and review some initial ideas from our team.  Then we will quickly craft a proposal that includes pricing for you to consider.  It’s pretty simple!

All the best for 2010.