UPDATE 12/29/08: Voting is closed and the winner, Best Podcast Social Media, DishyMix by Susan Bratton of Personal Life Media. Congratulations Susan!

Congrats also to the runner up, User Friendly Thinking by Bizzuka’s John Munsell and Paul Chaney.

There are many ways to acquire information on the topic of social media ranging from blogs to books to Twitter. As part of our efforts to aggregate useful resources for Online Marketing Blog readers on topics related to digital PR, search and social marketing, we bring you this fine list of the best podcasts on social media.

Where did this list come from? I started out with a small list of my own and then reached out to the 5000+ people following @leeodden on Twitter as well as direct queries to some of the most respected social media marketing and public relations professionals on the web. The same podcasts were recommended repeatedly.

Of course it’s not really an official OMB “best” list until readers vote for their favorites. Please have a listen to the podcasts below and then take a moment and pick your favorite podcast on social media in our poll at the bottom of the list.

SocialMedia.biz – JD Lasica runs one of the oldest blogs on social media and produces a nice collection of videos and podcasts on social web platforms and people. (Subscribe)

For Immediate Release (FIR) - Every Monday and Thursday, UK based Neville Hobson and California based Shel Holtz come together for this well produced podcast covering PR and technology topics including social media issues and news of the day.   (Subscribe)

Marketing over Coffee –  This highly regarded podcast by marketing veterans John Wall and Christopher Penn covers both traditional and new media marketing/social media. (Subscribe)

Talk Social News – Kipp Bodnar and Wayne Sutton create and publish this weekly podcast about news and innovations in social media through interviews with industry leaders and also share their own opinions.  (Subscribe)

Buzz Marketing for Technology – As Global Director of Integrated Marketing for BearingPoint, Paul Dunay has a lot to say about B2B marketing and social media through how to and interview podcasts.  (Subscribe)

Managing the Gray – C.C. Chapman produces this marketing podcast focusing on new media, social marketing and PR with a mix of tips, insights and occasional interviews. (Subscribe)

Marketing Voices – Jennifer Jones runs a marketing consulting firm and has one of the few podcasts dedicated to social media and does so for Podtech. Her podcast  talks about social media and how it is impacting marketing today through a series of insightful interviews.  (Subscribe)

6 Pixels of Separation – Digital marketing rockstar Mitch Joel gives a “marketing wake up call” with with his expertise and insightful interviews on many social media centric topics from blogging to crowdsourcing.    (Subscribe)

Across the Sound – Joseph Jaffe produces a weekly podcast that discusses the world of new marketing, media and PR. (Subscribe)

Marketing Edge Podcast – Albert Maruggi of Twin Cities based Provident Partners operates one of the longest running podcasts on marketing and PR but the focus is definitely on social media. (Subscribe)

Find and Convert – Bernie Borges publishes one of the few podcasts that combines social media and search engine marketing.  (Subscribe)

New Comm Road - Bryan Person’s podcast about the best tools and tactics in new media (Subscribe)

DishyMix – Susan Bratton interviews successful media and internet execs, many of which are involved with social media.  (Subscribe)

Be the Voice –  David Spark produces a very interesting mix of interviews with social media luminaries and thought leaders.  (Subscribe)

User Friendly Thinking – Bizzuka CEO John Munsell and marketing director Paul Chaney discuss topics congruent with their company services including web design, content management, Internet marketing and social media through discussion and interviews. (Subscribe)

Inside PR - Toronto PR professionals Terry Fallis and David Jones along with appearances by Martin Waxman and Julie Rusciolelli combine expertise and wit to create this public relations podcast that focuses on their observations of and experiences with social media in the PR world. (Subscribe)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2008. | Best Podcasts on Social Media | http://www.toprankblog.com

Along with other forms of media coverage on the topics of search and online marketing, internet radio has been a great source of content for listening live or via podcast. Some SEO podcasts and online radio are basic and others are very professionally produced. The content varies greatly as well from industry gossip to practical tactics.

Earlier this week I ran an informal poll with about 40 respected search marketers and almost half admitted they didn’t listen to podcasts much, if at all. In fact, some were publishers of podcasts that didn’t listen to other podcasts. Is is it the case that these people were so busy with clients, speaking, writing, testing that they didn’t have time?

One respondent pointed out having to dedicate time to a podcast while multi tasking simply wasn’t productive. The return on time spent wasn’t enough to justify it. Still others, provided 2-5 favorite podcasts along with their urls in a few seconds. Maybe they are the people with long commutes?

WebmasterRadio.FM (TopRank OMB interview with Daron Babin here) is the largest single source of online radio and podcasts on the topic of search marketing that I can tell, so their shows are well represented in the following poll:

For reference, here are links to each show page, feed and a list of everyone involved.

• Daily Search Cast – Danny Sullivan – RSS Feed
• SEO Rock Stars – Todd Friesen aka Oilman & WebGuerrilla aka Greg Boser – RSS Feed
• Good Karma – Greg Niland aka GoodROI – RSS Feed
• Rush Hour – Neil Patel aka Princess, Carolyn Shelby aka Cshel & Cameron Olthuis – RSS Feed
• Net Income – Jeremy Shoemaker aka shoemoney – RSS Feed
• Marketing Pilgrim Podcasts – Andy Beal – RSS Feed
• eMarketing Talk Show – Cindy Turrietta, Brooke Schumacher & Todd Sarouhan – RSS Feed
• Web Analytics World – Manoj Jasra – RSS Feed
• SEO Radio – Brad Fallon & Bryan Azorsky – RSS Feed
• The Pulse – Barry Schwartz, Chris Boggs, and Ben Pfeiffer – RSS Feed
• The Alternative – Jim Hedger & Dave Davies – RSS Feed
• Beginning SEO Podcast – David Brown & Brian Mark – RSS Feed
• MR SEO – Joe Balestrino – RSS Feed
• Strike Point – Mikkel deMib Svendsen & Dave Naylor – RSS Feed
• RSS Ray – Brian Offenberger – RSS Feed

This is not a comprehensive list, but is a list that represents the podcasts and shows suggested when I polled 40 different search marketers on what their favorite search marketing shows were as well as a few others. Additional suggestions in the comments are welcome, although they will not be added to this poll.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2007. | Reader Poll: Best SEO Podcasts | http://www.toprankblog.com

Spotlight on Search – Interview with Amanda G. Watlington, Ph.D., APR of Searching for Profit

Photo by Jeremy Zawodny

I first bumped into Amanda Watlington via AIM, (Association for Interactive Marketing) and then in person at a WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference several years ago. Further collaboration occurred through involvement with the next iteration of AIM, the Direct Marketing Association’s Search Engine Marketing Council, of which Amanda was a past chair.

Amanda is famous for her in-depth knowledge of blogs, RSS and podcasting and she has one of the first popular books on the subject. However, this long time marketer’s roots are in public relations and she also has an extensive background with search marketing.

In this interview, Amanda talks about getting involved with search marketing, her appreciation for being hands on with the work, her thoughts on marketing via Second Life, the DMA Search Engine Marketing Certification program, tips on business blogging and the power of networking.

Please describe your background and how did you get involved with search marketing? What are your areas of focus today?

As I blogged recently, I have been involved in search marketing since 1995. I got involved when I was working in public relations, and we were discussing doing a fax newsletter for a client. I suggested that we dispense with that idea and build a site instead. Since we were in the business of relevant readership, search marketing was a direct outgrowth. Since our clients wanted accountability for such projects, I developed an early interest in Web metrics. This in turn led to a call for improved results, and I think the continuation of the cycle is pretty obvious.

Today my practice is really still gaining visibility in search for online assets. These are no longer just Web pages. They cover the length and breadth of the types of information that we consume on the Web – blogs, audio, video as well as more traditional Web pages. Most of my clients are the new type of search marketing client – very knowledgeable, yet looking for strategic and tactical advice.

I’ve found that my practice blends strategy with tactical recommendations. I am often called upon to interpret the technical requirements for the Web development teams that support my marketing clients. Although I do not write code myself, I have over 25 years of experience in information technology. I am fluent in geek and marketing – so to speak.

You’ve worked with a large SEO/SEM agency and you’ve run your own consulting practice. Which do you prefer? What are some of the pros and cons for each?

During the early 1990s worked for a major search marketing firm, where I had the opportunity to develop a lot of cutting-edge methodologies. The early days were very heady fun. SEO was new, and all of us, the early practitioners, were learning and developing what are today the best practices. An axiom that I have found in business though is that the higher you go in an organization, the less your contact is with the work itself.

When you are the head of a small consultancy, you are deep in the work. I enjoy search marketing. It still fascinates me. When you run your own consultancy you are also deep in the marketing and promotion and management of the business. It is a different kind of balancing act.

Getting to choose my own projects and managing my own future has enormous appeal to me. I like being able to take on work that interests and challenges me. I also very much enjoy charting my own course. With this freedom comes the inherent risk and concerns over business prosperity.

As someone who is active with the Second Life communities, do you feel there is a genuine and significant marketing opportunity there?

As if there are not enough opportunities for all of us marketers in first life, now we should be looking toward Second Life. My interest in Second Life and online worlds is not something new. In the mid-1990s I was teaching college, and a group of us (digital experimenters) wanted to build a Palace environment for teaching online. I had done some experimenting with the MUDs and MOOs and found the graphical interface of The Palace environment very attractive. The problem was getting through the firewall. It is the same issue that some users of Second Life encounter.

Just as I saw a teaching application for The Palace, I see lots of opportunity for marketing both in world (on Second Life) and for promoting products that may exist in either or both worlds. It is really only a matter of what the imagination will create. Who knows what the future holds?

What do you think are some of the biggest mistakes marketers have made so far in Second Life and what do you think marketing on Second Life will look like in 3 years?

The biggest mistake that marketers can make and are making is of trying to jump in without understanding the social mores of Second Life. It is a community and success is based on networking and building credibility. Just because a business is well accepted in the real world, it is a false assumption to expect it to transcend to Second Life. Join the community and take part in its life before launching a business effort. We’ve been active in Second Life for sometime now, and we are just moving forward with a business/marketing effort that is directed at this community. Go slowly to go fast.

You’ve been charged as the architect for the DMA’s Search Engine Marketing Certification program. Please share your thoughts on the DMA’s motivations and the industry’s need for such a program.

Search marketing has enjoyed explosive growth in the past five years. Today, there is an absolute need for marketers at all levels to know the principles and the best practices of search marketing. It has become a core marketing skill. There is a need for talent at the strategic and tactical levels, and this is the need that the DMA is addressing.

Where can people turn to learn what they need to know about the discipline? How can they evaluate what has been learned? Yes! There are programs available or they can send staff to conferences with a list of sessions to attend, but there must be a framework to set the valuable tactics within. You don’t jump into a novel writing workshop if you have never written a paragraph.

With its broad experience in direct marketing and large constituency of direct marketers, the DMA is a natural fit for developing training in search marketing.

What do you think are some of the more promising marketing opportunities of the new media, web 2.0 and social media sort?

I really must admit that I don’t mentally separate new media or Web 2.0, social media etc. out. They are morphs of their predecessors that require morphed thinking on behalf of marketers. Marketing in its purest form is facilitation of an exchange relationship. Of course, you can throw into the mix that marketing creates and expands the demand for products and services. The task of finding opportunities then becomes relatively simple. First, you must learn how the new media works and then begin a process of using it to move the agenda forward. It there are no current marketing examples for jump starting your thinking, revert to the definition and ask how it applies.

Technorati is currently tracking about 59 million blogs and counting. Blogs have also begun to be used more commonly as marketing tools. How long before companies accept blogs as they do web sites as a normal tool for marketing? Or will they ever?

Blogs are normal tools for marketing with different rules of engagement. I am finding it quite amusing the continuous mishaps and missteps that some of the biggest agencies are experiencing as they attempt to make the blogosphere conform to their view. Blogs are not regular Websites. The technology that underlies blogs can be used to power websites, but once you extend beyond the platform, the rules start to shift. The mores of the blogosphere are by now reasonably established. Two years ago I would not have said this, but today flogs are still reviled. Since the goal is readership, then the charge is to make something that is reader-worthy. We are all so challenged for time that our tolerance for disinteresting, badly written materials is limited. It invites the delete click.

You speak at conferences quite often about blogs, RSS and podcasting. Can you share 2-3 of your most valuable tips for aspiring blogs or podcasters out there that want to get noticed?

Here are three short tips:

1) Create interesting content
2) Apply the principles of SEO to all files – image, audio file, etc.
3) Track your results

What could search engines be doing better in terms of communicating with the SEO community? Are there tools for search marketers from the search engines that you would like to see?

From my point of view, I am thrilled that they no longer view us as complete enemies. I still find the communication a bit opaque but that is slowly changing. That being said I would still do the same tactics if I had the so-called algo. on my desktop – since I look as SEO as marketing, not algo-chasing.

The one tool that I would like to see is a less laborious way of reporting egregious spam. – a bulk upload feature so to speak.

What advice can you give to those that are trying to stay ahead of the game on SEO and social media in terms of keeping up with industry information, strategy/tactics and best practices?

Read broadly, there is a wealth of information available. Don’t scrimp on the time it takes. I read for several hours each day just to keep ahead, and this is with an RSS reader to assist. No! I am not a slow reader, but I am an avid link follower who wanders widely as I read and learn.

The second bit of advice is to talk to others involved in the work, not just the usual suspects (your close friends). I speak at and attend a number of conferences and always find that I learn from everyone and everything that I take part in. The difficulty is taking the time to absorb the information and to think deeply on it. I call this noodling on an idea. Sometimes in the crush of getting the work done, we don’t spend enough time in reflective thinking. Blogging is great for prompting this type of reflection.

Thanks Amanda! Find out more about Amanda Watlington on her blog, “Blogs and Feeds” or her company web site.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2007. | Interview: Amanda Watlington on Second Life and Blogs | http://www.toprankblog.com

Yesterday for the second time ever, I personally used PRWeb’s Podcast service that’s available when you select a $200 or higher option for press release distribution. As with the first time, I was totally impressed.

The process is pretty simple. You order a press release to be distributed and pick the $200 level. As you go through the process of enabling or activating the various options for the release, you’ll have the option of scheduling a PRWeb Podcast. Pick a date and time that works for you and you’ll get an email with the phone number and access code.

When you call, a member of PRWeb’s staff will give you a rundown of how the interview will happen and then ask you questions about the topic of your release. The great thing about this service is that no matter how many “ummms”, “ahhhs” and rambling that you do, the PRWeb staff that edits the interview audio file can make you sound great.

We distributed a press release this morning on the upcoming Pubcon conference and here is the result of my podcast interview with “Mr. Charisma” Mario, from PRWeb. Mario made it effortless and the editing team took care of the rest.¬† The podcast is embedded as a link in the press release page hosted with PRWeb. It’s also available on the PRWeb Podcast web site.
You can use the audio file anyway you like. After the press release is distributed, you can use the audio file in your pitching efforts to the media and/or link to it from your web site. It’s also great content for the social media press release format.

The best part is, this option comes at no additional charge for the $200 distribution fee. That’s a no brainer in my book.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | PRWeb Podcast Rocks! | http://www.toprankblog.com

• Opportunity
• Push and Pull PR
• Blog Optimization & PR
• Blogger Relations
• Case Study

The “opportunity” section explains how many journalists are ignoring the noise of getting pitched by so many PR firms and company PR staff. Whether it’s a pitch by phone or email, many members of the media go online (98%) to find news sources (76%), story ideas (92%), experts and to research press releases (73%). The percentages come from a study done by Middleburg/Ross.

So if journalists are going online to find this kind of information, that presents a tremendous opportunity for companies to make it easier for the media to find their news. This introduces the notion of Push and Pull PR.

Actively going out and contacting the media with story ideas and press releases is the “Push”, not unlike the concept of advertising as “push”. Optimizing messaging across corporate communications (website, blog, press releases, white papers, audio, video, email, case studies, social media, you get the idea) so that this information is easily found, is the “pull”. Working together, a Push and Pull PR program can be very effective, which I will illustrate in the case study.

Because I only have 10-15 min to speak, I am limiting the “pull PR” tactics to:

• Keyword Messaging
• Blog Optimization
• Blog-Enabled Media Room

Some of the benefits of keyword messaging across corporate communications includes:

• Targets audience based on search behavior
• Enables keyword exposure on multiple channels
• Builds credibility and affinity with your brand
• Facilitates perception of thought leadership
• Attracts visitors most likely to take action

I will also present some free and paid keyword research tools along with a breif description of building a keyword glossary.

The blog optimization suggestions pretty much come from a blog marketing tips post I did previously. However, for this presentation I’ve brokend them down into sections:

• Keywords
• Blog software template tweaks
• Build links
• Publicize
• Blogging habits
• Interact
• Metrics

There are many benefits to blog optimization including: improved visibility on different types of search engines for blogs, web sites and social media. Optimizing your blog should also improve user experience through use of keywords in categorization and in the posts as well as some functional tweaks that can be made to the blog template. Blog optimization also encourages sharing of content (via RSS) and links, because we all know bloggers love to link to things of interest to them. So how do you get them to do that? Be interesting!

The last “Pull PR” tactic I’ll present concerns the use of blog software for an online media room. Even as popular as tracking news via RSS is, the vast majority of companies that maintain “press” or “media” content on their web site do not offer an RSS option. Blog software provides a very customizable, search engine friendly and journalist friendly way to aggregate previous coverage, press releases, thoughts from executives as well as different media such as audio interviews, podcasts, webinars and video summaries. What ties this all together is RSS so members of the media can subscribe to the news published about your company on their own terms and without being “pitched”.

A blog enabled media room also provides a competitive advantage over web sites that do not offer a blog or RSS feed because of additional exposure on blog and RSS search engines. ie, you can’t get in Google’s Blog Search unless you have a feed.

The next part of the presentation touches on blogger relations and offers tips on finding relevant blogs and considerations for pitching them. Many of those tips are described in this post, “Blogger Relations 101“.

The presentation ends with a case study involving a company that used: optimization of their web site, optimized press releases, blog enabled media room, traditional PR pitching, email and a direct mail campaign that were all integrating  keyword messaging. Website traffic increased 400% and revenue was up 100% over the previous year.

If by chance you are at the DMA06 conference and attend this session, please do come up after the presentation and say hello.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Online Public Relations and Blogs | http://www.toprankblog.com

1. Free Trials
2. Webcast
3. White paper
4. Blog
5. Podcast

Of course, if you’re a really good marketer, you would be able to tie in four or five of the above into one campaign, especially when integrated with a blog. Not that you need to offer all five to have a successful campaign, but providing options for how to interact or make contact with your company allows you to reach more of your target audience. A podcast may work for some people, a free trial or a white paper for others. One of the new features of this report is the 13 prospect personas of prospects such as CIOs, IT professionals and business owners.

It is interesting that newsletters are not on the list, especially since blogs and email newsletters are such complementary marketing tools. If you want a broader view of how companies are using blogs, take a look at the recent research from Porter Novelli and Cymfony where 76% of respondents reported increases in web traffic and media attention as a result of their blogs.

Another great resource for lead generation is InTouch CEO, Brian Carroll’s new lead generation e-book.

Full results of the Marketing Sherpa survey are available in the “MarketingSherpa’s Business Technology Benchmark Guide 2006“.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Blogs and Podcasts for Lead Generation | http://www.toprankblog.com

With a slight delay, this standing room only session started off with Moderator Henry Copeland of blogads.com introducing the speakers which included: Michael Moore of Nestle Purina Pet Care, Robert Claypoole “Consumer and Professional Relationship Marketing” for Johnson and Johnson Vision Care division, Heather Sefcik of Henkel Consumer Adhesives (Duck Tape) and Brian Bloom of Ligget Stashower, a marketing PR firm that works with the Duck Tape brand.

Heather and Brian Bloom did a tag team presentation with Heather starting things off by offering a quick Duck Tape 101 history. Starting in WWII, Duck Tape today is a household name with a cult like following. Duck Tape has “become cool”.

Duck Tape decided to do a test with podcasts to supplement programs and expand market reach using some pretty creative ideas including: A Duck Tape prom, a contest where kids were encouraged to attend prom wearing outfits made of duck tape. The promotion received local and national play. They also sponsored the world’s largest duck tape flag day, with a flag the size of a basketball court, Rock About the Roll, which was based on user submitted songs about Duck Tape and the Avon Heritage Duck Tape Festival which highlighted product features and uses.

Next up was Michael Moore of Purina to talk about their new media and podcasting efforts available at http://www.purina.com/downloads/
The first version of Purina downloads was launched in 2005 offering mobile ring tones and wallpapers, pet care tips via SMS and RSS feeds. Version 2 launched early July 2006 with an enhanced mobile offering, aggregated RSS feeds and audio/video podcasts.

Purina created the podcasts by taking radio show content and editing the audio with bumper music. They also segmented video into 5 minute portions as video podcasts. The focus of the initiative was offer existing content in a way that would be appealing to their audience without creating new content.

Examples repurposing content included: Customer dog pictures available as RSS feed. Cat advice, consumer generated stories about their pets and dog care advice from veterinarians all available via RSS feed.

Success metrics for Purina showed that ring tones were most popular followed by wall paper and tips via SMS. It was interesting that audio podcasts far more popular than video podcasts. Overall usage of the content is growing and the effect of promotions could be seen with slight peaks. Purina’s agency was even able to get iTunes to create a dedicated page for Purina called Purina Petcasting.

Next up is Robert Claypoole of Johnson and Johnson. Podcasting was a great choice for a “test and learn” and to establish benchmarking for other emerging media.

The podcasting initiative started out by creating five episode talk shows over five weeks targeting teens. The shows were hosted by a pair of teens “Heather and Janelle” who helped create the editorial strategy. Initial podcast branding of Acuvue was very subtle, but by the last show was much more direct.

Johnson and Johnson attracted an audience to the podcasts through emails to super advocates and internal data base, distributed content via iTunes, word of mouth, banner advertising, celebrities and shout outs from other podcasts.

Results exceeded goals in terms of listeners, downloads, brand connection, buzz with internal and external PR. Five weeks turned into a 5 month project, “thanks to lawyers”.

What did Johnson and Johnson learn?. Measure everything: high level to detail. It’s also important to find authentic chemistry with hosts. Production of the podcasts should be good, but not “too good”. Listeners appreciate forums for participation and feedback. With editorial, insist on authentic language. Keep in mind that the approval process can heavily impact the release schedule. One particularly important lesson was the need to integrate into existing marketing. The audience is savvy, so be transparent about the brand as far as the content.

The final slide showed this message: “If only our lawyers were excited about this as everyone else” to the laughter of the audience.

The presentations were followed by a Q and A.

For J&J podcasting is more workable because there is a bit more control over the content and exposure/interaction with it compared to blogging. There are legal issues to be dealt with in blogging

Audience: How do you make podcasts search engine friendly?
Purina: It’s something we’re working on.
J&J: Linking has been important for rankings.

Audience: What were the direct response results?
Purina: We do a lot of direct response via email and the open rate results they are seeing with podcasts are similar to email.
J&J: Direct response was lower than their lowest expectations. For repeat programs, they will be sure to incorporate with other marketing programs.

Audience: What do you think about advertising on existing podcasts rather than creating your own?
Purina: Tried that and audience perceived it as an overt branding effort. It was easier to create podcasts with repurposed content.
J&J: In order to work in the branding for J&J, they needed to create their own podcast rather than reaching out to a similar podcast because it would probably ruin the podcast if that happened.

Audience: Where do you see budgets going?
J&J: The budget follows what you’re trying to accomplish: PR, branding or direct response.
Purina: Seeing a shift in budgets more towards new media.
Duck Tape: Have not traditionally any advertising, so podcasting worked well.

Audience: What about vidcasting?
Duck Tape: Looking into it, but budget is a concern. Vidcasting should be an ideal medium.

For the most part, this session seemed to focus on podcasting more than on blogging or vidcasting. But that makes sense since podcasting offers more control than outright blogging.

For more coverage of ad:tech Chicago 2006, visit the ad:tech blog.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | ad:tech Chicago – Big Brands and Podcasting | http://www.toprankblog.com

Of course there is a search marketing blog category and Online Marketing Blog (aka TopRank) has been nominated along with several other very popular SEO blogs. Rather than voting for just one blog in each category, you can rate each blog in each category as “excellent”, “not bad” and “blah”.

It’s kind of funny that while this blog is clearly titled, “Online Marketing Blog” many references from other blogs, press and these contests use the text from the url instead, “TopRank Blog”.

Please take a moment and vote for “Top Rank” in the “Blogs on search marketing” category.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Search Marketing Blogs | http://www.toprankblog.com

The good people over at Web Certain have started a new “Ask the Experts” feature for their newsletter and in a brave move, decided to do an interview on SEO and blog marketing with yours truly. Topics range from Google dominance to how clueless most corporate executives are about blogging.

While I’m at it, here are some other TopRank resources on the topic of public relations and search engine optimization that have been popular:

Karen Sams from our PR Firm in a short video case study on SEO and PR.

Lowdown on Press Release Optimization – most popular post on this blog about the topic.

Blog Optimization – my post over at Search Engine Journal

Also, here are some presentations on combining facets of Public Relations with SEO for marketing:

ACCM Catalog Conference: 15 Sizzlin Hot Search Marketing Ideas (my five tips were all about the SEO and PR thing)

Bulldog Reporter: Mastering SEO for PR: How Search Engine Optimization Can Supercharge Your Results

WebmasterWorld Pubcon: Search Marketing and Public Relations

MIMA Search Engine Smarts: Organic SEO, Online PR and Blogs.

Coming up next week is the DM Days conference in NYC where I’ll be providing online PR tips for a volunteered web site in a session called, “Search Engine Marketing – Basics and Beyond“. It will be a “pimp my site” sort of session without the funky hats.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Podcast Interview on SEO and Press Releases | http://www.toprankblog.com

Undoubtedly one of the companies that has had a major impact on the convergence of public relations and search engine optimization is PRWeb. David McInnis and his talented team have created more innovations surrounding press release distribution than any other wire service.

While I’ve used PRWeb in one way or another since 1999, it wasn’t until 2003 that my company impelemented press release optimization for both our SEO and public relations clients. In the past 2 years PRWeb has grown immensely and has led the way as a Web 2.0 wire service. Many new online wire service companies have sprung up trying to emulate the services of PRWeb and a good number of “old school” wire services have added the kinds of services to their mix that were originally pioneered by PRWeb.

While we bump into each other at Search Engine Strategies and other conferences thoughout the year, PRWeb CEO David McInnis and I participated on a public relations panel together for the first time at the recent Boston Pubcon conference. He presented an array of new services available including: PRWeb podcast, press release trackbacks, free high res image hosting and many others.

As a CEO of a very fast growing company, you can imagine how busy things can get. However, David recently took the time to answer a few questions about how PRWeb was started, the addition of recent patent pending services, new social bookmarking, content recommendation and expert profile ranking features, changes in PRWeb metrics, the PRWeb editorial and Q/A process, the launch of the PRWeb Evangelist program and McInnis’ answer to my “loaded question”.

Tell us about your background and how did you start PRWeb.com?

I completed my BA in International Business from Texas State University in 1995, but my career experience comes from the marketing and database technology industries. Having a background in marketing has given me unique insights into the world of public relations and has helped me to identify areas where the marketing and public relations disciplines should converge online. Having the technology background has been a great advantage to PRWeb because the marketing side of my brain can conceive things that the technical side can build.

I founded PRWeb in the early days of Internet chiefly as a disappointment I experienced with one of the larger wire services. I spent a lot of money to get my message out to the media and, apart from a few online places that picked up the wire feed, I did not see any results. No media coverage. No increased visibility. Just disappointment. While I was out mowing my lawn one day, it came to me: There must be a way to market press releases on the Internet and monetize that traffic through advertising; remember the $40 CPM rates? I did the math and got really excited. I could create a free service and take in tons of corporate and organizational news, and market that content through a search engine optimization strategy. Okay, we did not call it SEO back then and Google wasn’t even on the radar yet, but the final idea was to make this news content highly visible online and capture the ad revenue.

We have remained constant in PRWeb’s goals and mission from our early days. Our goal was, as it is today, to help our users get the maximum visibility for their press releases and corporate news. The idea was that by driving traffic to our users’ news releases, we would serve their needs (increased visibility for their press releases) and our needs (the need to drive page views and associated advertising revenue). Here is what we found: We were only successful on the first half of that equation. While we drove tons of traffic to online press releases, we were never successful in monetizing that traffic using advertising revenue.

In 2000 and 2001, I decided to build on our success and continue to build a toolset for maximizing our users’ press release visibility online. We dropped our advertising-based revenue model in favor of something completely new, especially to corporate America; voluntary financial contributions. Essentially, we asked our users to contribute financially to the service while we continued to build our suite of visibility services. The response from our user base was overwhelmingly positive. We reinvested every available dollar to build the very first online visibility platform for corporate news content.

I first started sending out press releases through PRWeb in 2001and a lot has changed with PRWeb in that time, especially in the past year. What’s your plan for PRWeb and how do you plan on leveraging the Web 2.0 types of features you’ve been adding?

You were an early adopter. I guess you saw early PRWeb firsthand as we struggled to keep the idea alive.

Now, about Web 2.0. We are really pleased with our position in the industry. Since the early days of the Internet, we have expanded our staff to include a top notch development team, which is now headed by our Chief Technical Officer, Al Castle, and we have recently established ourselves as the only Web 2.0 enabled wire service.

Of everything that we have released in the past six months, I am most excited about our inclusion of TrackBacks and PingBacks into press releases and other Web 2.0 initiatives. We have even filed patent applications for our implementations of these technologies into a wire service and press release distribution platforms.

What’s next? We have a variety of initiatives that we are working on. Most of these technologies are tied directly to promoting online visibility of our users, their products and their services. I prefer not to get too specific on our product suite, but I can speak generally. Generally speaking, we are working on new social bookmarking, content recommendation and expert profile ranking using principles of Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is more than the deployment of any one single service. For example, we saw recently that a service entered into a relationship with the leading social bookmarking platform to claim Web 2.0 status. Web 2.0 is much more complicated than that. It is about making your platform part of a larger application. We are working on APIs that will allow others to interact with our content in revolutionary ways.

PRWeb has really pioneered the notion of distributing optimized press releases. AT least one other major wire service has added this service after it become popular with PRWeb. There also many more wire services out there now than in the past 2 years. How would you characterize PRWeb: As as SEO tool, as a tool for public relations, both or something else?

I am glad you bring this up. PRWeb was the driving force for SEO optimized press releases. We built our platform from the ground up using sound SEO principles. Other services out there are trying to retrofit their sites to do SEO. We will see how that plays out.

PRWeb‚Äôs SEO value is a product of our mission to gain maximum visibility for news release content for our users. No, I would not characterize our service as an SEO platform. We are much more than that — and we are much more than a newswire, which is why last year we re-branded ourselves as The Online Visibility Company‚Ñ¢. We have dubbed what we do as direct-to-consumer press release distribution.

PRWeb is essentially a new public relations function; a layer on top of existing wire services. By just using existing wire services, PR professionals are only doing half the job. The fact is that press releases can and should be re-purposed for the Web. This is all about making your corporate news work harder for you.

A lot of SEOs seem to confuse the distribution of press releases with the pickup or media coverage of a release. Distribution of the release is the means, not the end. What’s your opinion and what are some other common misconceptions you hear of from SEOs and online marketers about online PR?

Media pick-up is rapidly becoming an outdated metric. In fact, we are in the process of reworking our statistical reporting to de-emphasize the importance of this metric. In the current environment, it is more important to measure the consumers’ interaction with your news. This is much more valuable to all parties, including the mainstream media. TrackBacks, for example, give you instant feedback on your news and provide a jumping off point for the media. The discussion is right there.

Statistics are also tricky on a number of levels. First, low statistics bring into question the value of the platform and not the value of the message. Most releases fail because of the content, not because of the platform. Stats are also tricky because they don’t measure the effectiveness of your news in relation to other stories in your space. We are tackling these challenges right now. You will see new comparative metrics with our software release.

Some wire services often get knocked for poor editorial quality. What does PRWeb have in place to ensure quality standards?

Each and every press release distributed by PRWeb is reviewed by a human editor and scored with an editorial score of between 1 and 5. We also employ the delete and hold options as required. Our editorial staff works on a 24×7 schedule to assist customers with problem areas in their releases. Our Managing Editor, Kathy Sheehan, has established some tight guidelines for what can be distributed via PRWeb.

Also, it is technically possible to post a free release to PRWeb, but we no longer do any expanded distribution with these releases. In fact, we prohibit these releases from being spidered by search engines because we need to have an authorized sender as verified by a credit card payment.

PRWeb offers basic statistics on press releases including reads, pickup, prints, forwards, etc. You also offer keywords and referrer info for releases at a higher contribution level. Do you plan on adding or changing those statistics? Will you be offering any statistics in regard to the RSS feeds?

I have ideas on how to accomplish this, but there are problems in the RSS industry that make accurate measurement impossible. What we really need is a set of standards for RSS readers. For example, some RSS readers load every item description on load. This renders the inclusion of a tracking image useless. We will, however, be able to track click-through from RSS.

I see PRWeb listed as the official wire service sponsor of just about every conference related to search, interactive and new media. What are your long term marketing plans for PRWeb?

We will continue to support the conferences in our areas of expertise. We feel a sense of obligation to support these conferences because they provide value to our users. We haven‚Äôt done a whole lot of traditional marketing outside of the tradeshows. I can tell you this, we are assembling a killer direct sales team — very excited about that. We are also weeks away from launching our PRWeb Evangelist program, which will financially reward our long-time evangelists for building the PRWeb user base.

What are your favorite search engines and what are some feature improvements you’d like to see?

How can you not like Google? It is synonymous with search. I just heard a guy on the radio recommend to his users that they go to Amazon to “Google” an author. I had to smile.

I have an admiration for Ask.com. It has the ability to become the Southwest Airlines of the search space. It is my current start page.

As far as changes, I see interactivity creeping its way into search results in the future. We are already seeing some of these ranking schemes in the blog search space. I think it would bring an exciting element to search. Introducing human recommendation into search could be valuable. A9 can do this with the Amazon recommendation technology.

I worry about the longevity of PPC. As PPC gets more expensive, other technologies will emerge. Hey, banners never went away, but they are less important today than they used to be back in Web 1.0. I see the same shift on the horizon for PPC.

What are some of the resources you rely on for information on web 2.0 and online marketing? Best practices, news, industry information.

That is a loaded question. I really pay attention to what is happening in the blogosphere. This is where things are happening first. I do think that there is a lot of intentional misdirection in the search space. It takes common sense to weed through it all.

What’s the weirdest press release you’ve ever seen submitted to PRWeb?

The craziest ones never make distribution, and there are simply too many. Needless to say, our editors are kept entertained. (Come to think about it, maybe I should charge them to work here.) We have had everything from alien abductions to Andy Kaufman is Alive releases.

I like catchy headlines the best. The problem with headlines that get too clever is that they tend to lose SEO value.

Thanks David!

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Interview with CEO of PRWeb David McInnis | http://www.toprankblog.com

I thought the Public Relations panel in the morning went well. Robin, Lawrence and David all made strong presentations. What I liked best about the session and this is corroborated by feedback I received from attendees, was the diversity of perspectives offered.

Lawrence Coburn offered a small company’s inside perspective of what he called “dumb luck PR” and how to take advantage of that and snowball it. Very cool story actually. Television personality and CNN maven Robin Liss shared her perspective on getting TV coverage. David McInnis gave a rundown on press release optimization and some of the new features available at PRWeb. My presentation covered the notion of applying search engine optimization principles to blog and press release optimization.

This was a great panel and I hope to speak with this group again at the Las Vegas Pubcon. I will either make a summary blog post on the main topics and tools from my PPT later this week.

Shortly after the PR session, I hustled back to my hotel room at the very impressive Hotel Commonwealth, (rooms are bigger than most suites I’ve had) to do a teleconference on Public Relations and Search Engine Optimization with Jamie O’Donnell of SEO-PR and Sally Falkow of Expansion Plus for the Bulldog Reporter’s PR University Audio Conference Series.

There were some big names in Public Relations that paid to listen/participate in this teleconference and I was not sure how it would go since I’d not done one with Jamie and Sally before. However, I think it went really well and I am very appreciative to Jamie O’Donnel for inviting me to participate.

This teleconference offered an impressive amount of detailed information on applying search engine optimization to press releases including keyword research, document optimization, SEO and some unique insights on internet public relations, particularly from Jamie and Sally, that were priceless. I can tell you that public relations firms of all sorts are sizing up how they can take advantage of search engine optimization in their practices. The desire for building up in-house expertise in this area is very strong.

After the teleconference it was time to get back to Pubcon where I caught the tail end of the Super Session, “Search Engines and Webmasters” with Tim Mayer of Yahoo, Ramez Naam from MSN, Matt Cutts of Google and Rahul Lahiri from Ask.com. Lots of great info in this session, unfortunatley I did not blog it. Ramez showed some interesting features of Live.com especially the Windows Live Local Virtual Earth preview that lets you drive through city streets and see it first person.

After the super session, it was a short happy hour on the conference floor and then off to dinner at an Irish pub with Christine Churchill, Jill Whalen and Craig. There is simply no substitute for being able to share stories and info with industry veterans and I am forever grateful for the priceless insight from others in the search industry. Especially after a few pints of Guiness!

Thursday is the actual “Pub” con and that’s where all the networking happens at this conference. Should be fun AND productive.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Pubcon Boston Day 2 | http://www.toprankblog.com

The “elegance” in RSS is in the distribution possibilities: Desktop reader, email addon, web browser and mobile devices.

The art of RSS is evident in blogs, sites, pdc, vblogs, rss search engines and web 2.0 applications. (press releases via PRWeb)

Build your RSS feeds right the first time. Considerations:
- What do you want to feed? (content sources)
- How many feeds?
- How much content is needed to keep the feed fresh?
- How much content should you include in each feed entry?
- What kind of content will the feed include? test, audio or video?
- How will you ping the feeds at first and then on each update?
- How to measure performance?

RSS is not just for blogs:
- Syndicating your content on other web sites
- Product announcements, tips, articles and customer communications
- Press room
- Jobs

How to optimize a blog and feed
- Optimize the blog
- Socialize your blog
- Submit you blog

Customize your templates
-Archive structure for shorter urls
- Tweak CSS for H1
- Titles so keywords are first
- Add a robots.txt
- Add a Favicon
- Validate code

Use plugins to increase functionality
WordPress
- Google sitempa
- related posts
- customize feed
- handle 301 redirects
- social bookmarks
- create tag clouds

MoveableType
Google and Yahoo maps, related entries based on keywords, anti spam filters, link checkers

Optimize the template once. Optimize the content on an ongoing basis.
Use basic search engine optimization tactics:
- Keywords
- Text markup
- Give each post a theme
- Link out to authority websites
- Breakup long posts

Socialize your blog
- Inbound links by with socializing other blogs.
- Cross link your blog and web site
- Notify other bloggers about your blog via email
- Reference other blogs in posts
- Become a link hub

Ram up your traffic
- Submit feeds
- Ping on each post
- Claim you feed at Technorati
- Subscribe to your own feeds at My Yahoo and My MSN (which will submit your blog to those readers)

Make subscriptions easy
- Chicklets
- Add bookmarking links
- Use auto discovery
- Each feed should have a keyword theme
- Use images for branding
- Make feeds available for syndication – feedroll.com
- Use media specific feeds for iTunes and Yahoo Media

Measuring Results
- Feedburner
- Feedcraft
- Simplefeed
- Nooked
- MeasureMap
- SiteMeter
- Technorati ratings

Berkman Center, Baker House – Thursday 7pm 1587 Mass ave

Next up is Daron Babin of Webmaster Radio.

Things you should be aware of if you want to get into Podcasting. Considerations and pitfalls.

1. Start small – Buy basic podcast recording hardware.

One thing you need to be prepared for is bandwidth consumption. Daron relates a story about how he hit 1 Terra byte of bandwidth per month. Need to consider content syndication networks that can handle the distribution. A CDN will push a file out on an on-demand basis, rather than connecting to your primary servers and eating up your bandwidth.

Compelling content is the one thing that will eat up your bandwidth.

2. Need to focus on high quality content. Be very aware of the techincal quality as well. Think about the branding of the program long term. When you name your programming you need to take that into consideration. Also take into account the episodic titles. This is akin to the site title. Also consider the description of the episode.

Also take into account the ID3 tags. Use a ID3 V2 editor. That will allow you to add all sorts of information (think keyword optimization) to the media file.

Optimize every aspect of your RSS feed. iTunes is like Lycos in 1999. It’s there for the taking.

Next up is Greg Hartnet from Best of the Web (botw.org)

How you can get the most out of the blogosphere? The more you put in, the more you get out. It’s not a minor undertaking, it’s a lot of work.

Your readers are going to judge you based on the quality of your writing. Consistent grammar errors will reduce your credibility.

Optimize for Performance
Titles, descriptions, rewrite with just post title in url, categorical archives, enable ping service

Get on the Map
Submit your blog to search engines and blog/RSS search engines – Monster Blog Directory list at www.toprankresults.com/blog-submit-list.htm

Get Social
Subscribe to other feeds. When you find good resources, be sure to blogroll them. Post about other bloggers to get their attention. Take advantage of the vanity characteristic of many bloggers.

Participate in the Conversation
Comment on other people’s blogs. It is very important what you say in other people’s comments. Witty, insightgful and compelling makes you (and your blog) stand out and can drive traffic. Make sure whatever you say contributes to the conversation. If you don’t have something intelligent to say, keep it to yourself (or put it on your own blog).

Community Sites:
gabbr,cin
digg – Favors technically oriented posts. Graywolf blog has articles on digg.
del.icio.us
myspace.com – Referenced article by Roger Monti (martinibuster) about the myspace landgrab.
slashdot
craigslist

The Power of Pictures
Images convey an emotion and can be transmitted easily. Images are cross-cultural and

Flickr
Zoto

Nothing will attract eyeballs to your blog like video.
YouTube
Google Video
Can include your url in the video itself as part of the image, or in the description of the video.

(note: Need to consider video distribution as a traffic generator for blog/site)

Heavy Traffic
Once you get a lot of traffic, be sure to be prepared to handle it.

Q/A added Jeremy Zawodny and Matt Cutts

Q (David McInnis of PRWeb): How do you go about picking a Content Delivery Network
Daron: It’s a tough thing – pretty much by trial and error. Have a network engineer monitor and adjust. Ask what kind of back end reporting features there are. Spend time with them asking questions. Make sure there is a firm commitment to bandwidhth. Ask for a free month to see what bandwidth usage will really be.

Q: What’s the lowdown on search engine performance and blogs?
Matt: It’s interesting that there are still people who want to exclude blogs. For the most part, search engines do pretty well and indexing blogs.
Zawodny: Relates that digg membership want people to post actual stories and not to blog posts about a story.
Greg says something about “craptastic” blog posts, but I didn’t catch what he said.

Amanda: As more plugins are implemented, blogs will look less like blogs and more like web sites. How do you define a blog and how do you define a web site?

Q: The word “blog” doesn’t mean much. Has a web site with a news section, a forum and information pages on each city. Should I convert all that to a blog?
Greg: Don’t change your site to a blog, but add a blog.
Amanda: The blog lets you produce a different voice for your content. Your main web site might be focused on factual information and the blog would be less formal.
Matt: Don’t be thinking of the maximum you can do with the miniumum of content. Think about the user and don’t duplicate the exact same content.
Jeremy: Use the right tool for the job. Blogs are not for everything. Each type of function usually has a corresponding type of software. Ex: Forums, blogs, web site, etc.

Q: WordPress blog using FeedBurner. My FeedBurner feed url is showing up in the search engines before
Daron: Burn all feeds with your branding, your domain name as part of the feed url. Think about it from the beginning. Use a master feed and commit to it. Then if Feedburner tanks, you still have a url under your control.
Jeremy: Points out the auto discovery tag. Explains the issue of auto discovery showing one feed and a FeedBurner link as a link on the page causing dilution.
Greg: Recommends not using Feedburner so he maintains control.
Daron: Recommends putting subscription options in as a pulldown menu and not showing all the chicklets. It simplifies subscription options.
Matt: A lot of feed chicklets gets to be a lot. Keeps it simple with his own feed.

Q: XML feeds show up in search results. Is Google working on that or a directory of RSS feeds?
Matt: You can add a -.xml operator to your query (audience laugh). Yeah, you shouldn’t have to see that. He’ll pass feedback on the Google team.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Blogs RSS, Podcasts – Pubcon Boston | http://www.toprankblog.com

Stephan Spencer also wrote up an informative list of Podcast SEO tips on his blog.

I would also like to point out a few things regarding how podcasts can support your online marketing efforts, particularly in conjuction with online PR.

The first is the very cool Podcast recording, production and hosting service offered by PRWeb Podcast. More details in this press release.

As an example, TopRank recently did a PRWeb Podcast in conjunction with Blogs, SEO and online PR press release recently for the upcoming WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Boston. David McInnis, the CEO and founder of PRWeb and I are speaking on the same panel about Public Relations.

My conference pals Amanda Watlington, Daron Babin and Brian Prince will be talking about RSS and podcasts at the Boston Pubcon conference along with Michael Levine from Yahoo, so be sure to check that out if you’re going.

We’re monitoring the effect of this service from a traffic perspective, but are rolling it out with all of our online PR clients. In fact, one of our Public Relations managers has had great success using podcasts in her pitching efforts to the media. Karen has posted about that over on her Media Relations Blog.

From an advertising perspective, this recent research from PQ Media shows that combined U.S. spending on blog, podcast and RSS advertising increased 198.4% to $20.4 million in 2005. This kind of advertising is expected to grow another 144.9% to $49.8 million in 2006. Those are some pretty impressive growth numbers.

So you can use SEO for more traffic to your podcasts, you can use podcasts to enhance your online public relations and you can advertise on podcasts. What else can you do with podcasts related to SEO?

You can stay on top of the happenings in the search engine industry as well as search engine optimization tactics by listening to the wide array of podcasts and live internet radio feeds over at WebmasterRadio.fm.

Danny Sullivan also posts a daily “SearchCast” from Search Engine Watch. Chris Pirillo did a series of podcast interviews at Search Engine Strategies NYC that are pretty interesting.

There are many others I’m sure, so post your favorites if you like.

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2006. | Podcasting and SEO | http://www.toprankblog.com