Integration and Incorporation of Communications – PR and SEO

The interconnected nature of the world, our society, and our economy is something we are all familiar with e.g. the effects of the problems in banking leading to a global economic crisis that has affected all of our lives in some way. In the modern world our communication and our communications networks integrate and combine to produce powerful results, as can the disciplines of SEO and Public Relations. So what are some of the ways that communications strategies and tactics incorporating these can be integrated, and mixed and matched to bring publicity, website visitors and ultimately sales and return on investment for our communications budgets and resources?

Targets and Tools

Although journalist have traditionally been courted and targeted by Public Relations people there are now many other platforms, groups and individuals in a network which could add value to a PR campaign, including journalists.

Bloggers can have a strong influence on opinions and which websites are visited and linked to by their target audience. Research is a valuable tool in establishing which blogs and bloggers to target and pitch to e.g. with a Search Engine Optimized press release. The research involved could focus on not just finding appropriate blogs, but also in establishing the cultural aspects and values of the bog so as to better target you PR communications to and establish a better relationships with the blogger. If possible, incentives such a gifts could go some way to strengthening this relationship.

Google is the source of much of the pro-active searching of bloggers and journalists, and just as the SEO aspect of promotions is important to other people’s blogs, so should it be to your own. For example, registering your own blog with high profile Blog Search Engines such as Technorati, Blogdigger, Feedster and BlogHub would be a good place to start.

In addition targeting other important bloggers with PR communications containing links to your own website, managing your own blog well can be an important part of your PR. Your blog can help to strength your credibility as an ‘expert in your subject’, and can strengthen relationships with and provide valuable and positive resources to your customers as well as the media, and increase your visibility in the search engines for important key phrases.

Incorporating current issues and events of interest in your posts can also mean greater chances of achieving visibility.

Comments submitted to yours, competitors’, and your target bloggers’ blogs could also provide important insights, ideas, and information for your own PR efforts.

By studying the PR efforts of your highly visible competitors e.g. reading their online and offline PR, you can use similar subjects and information in your own blog posts and website content. This could even attract visitors who are your competitors' customers.

Getting as involved as possible in social media platforms e.g. Twitter, and by researching competitor activity there, you may also gain some good tips on how to present your communications and how to drive more visitors – journalists and end customers – to your website content.

Getting Your Own Website Prepared

Using popular online newsrooms as examples e.g. the Microsoft and Google newsrooms, you could construct a detailed and helpful newsroom on your own website to direct journalists and bloggers to. Having the relevant information, photos, quotes, research and contact information in a format that’s easy to search and navigate could increase the likelihood of success in achieving greater visibility via your target online and offline opinion leaders.

Inter-Relationships

The interrelated nature and structure of the Web itself and how networks form on the Web means that your communications, or any reporting of them, reactions to them, or comments to them could mean that your message could be widely dispersed online and offline. The integration and incorporation of a variety of ideas and platforms coupled with the integration of SEO and PR can have a powerful, positive, and lasting effect on your business.