Updates from September, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Oscar Del Santo 8:00 pm on September 29, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Online PR,   

    SEO 101: What every online PR should know 

      

    SEO 101: What every online PR should know about SEO

    I recently wrote about the SEO vs PR controversy and the need for both SEO and PR consultants to work together in synch in all sorts of web 2.0 projects under the supervision of a competent and suitably qualified online strategist.

    This great presentation by Lee Odden brings together the absolute minimum that any exisiting or aspiring online PR consultant should know in order to function effectively in the online medium. No excuses!

     

    Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

     

  • Oscar Del Santo 3:14 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: big idea, online agencies, ,   

    The Big Idea 

     

    The Big Idea (have you got one?)

    The Big Idea  

    As I argued in a recent post, search engine and social media projects are becoming increasingly complex, and in the more forward-looking digital agencies it is not uncommon for multifarious departments – SEO, SEM, analytics, web design and development and online reputation management amongst others – to work closely together under the guidance of the online strategist to ensure a harmonic, coherent and compelling end result that matches the expectations of our clients.

    And yet, no matter how many human and technical resources are engaged in the effort or how competent and experienced the agency, time and again projects that truly take off have one deceptively simple and yet often overlooked success quotient in common: a big idea. So much so that I want to advocate here that the first question we should ever pose ourselves before embarking onto any sizeable online initiative ought to be as straightforward as: ‘what is the big idea?’

    Which of course could be rephrased in various ways such as: ‘What are you about?’ ‘What is the one message that you are trying to convey in the online medium?’ or ‘What is the unifying theme behind this effort?’

    I can think of no better example to prove the validity of this philosophy than the successful London bid for the Olympic Games of 2012. Obviously there were all kinds of political arm-twisting and influence wielding going on behind the curtains, but London’s success was attributed in great part to the recurrent theme ‘London is a happily multicultural and diverse city’ that informed the bid and as such was echoed in the official website, communications, online/offline promotional efforts and even the London 2012 employment policies up to this day. This grand theme acted as a catalyst for the enthusiasm of Londoners and thanks to its consistency and underlying honesty it became I believe instrumental in swaying the initially reticent members of the Olympic Committee.

    Any organization that is serious about creating and managing a successful online presence should think hard before committing time and resources and not stop until a satisfactory answer has been reached to the questions posed above. Your business may be about uncompromising quality, cutting-edge innovation, superior tailor-made customer service, upholding traditional values or just cool, hip and trendy. But whichever the case, your commitment to that single big idea that reveals either who you are or who you aspire to be, coupled to your day-to-day demonstration to your clients that you intend to live up to its challenges, should constitute not only your trademark but also your best guarantee of online success.

     

    Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

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  • Oscar Del Santo 10:30 am on September 16, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: astroturfing, flogging, , ORM,   

    ORM and the Dark Side 

    Join the Dark Side of ORM at your peril! 

    ORM and the Dark Side: Astroturfing, Flogging and the Viral Marketing Campaign that never was 

    There are those in every profession who will be tempted to give in to ’the dark side’ and let the worst of their natures rule over them. My trade - that of online reputation managers (ORMs for short) - is no exception. In fact, and due to the sensitive nature of our work, I would argue that when we do give in, we do so at a greater risk to ourselves and the general public than say your average web developer, receptionist or window cleaner. The ‘dark knights’ and ‘dark ladies’ of ORM are quickly building a reputation for themselves as sinister New Labour-style spin doctors too ready to make empty promises, manipulate people and information and overcharge their customers. 

    To assist everyone in separating the wheat from the chaff, I would like to deal here with some of the ’sins’ that those lost souls engage in and which are anathema to the hard-working, ethically-bound ORMs who constitute the vast majority of the profession. Please feel free to add a few suggestions of your own in the comments section. 

     

    1. Astroturfing

    The Social Media have brought with them a change from the old broadcasting model to peer-to-peer reviews, consumer involvement and an emphasis on authenticity and credibility. In the new model, we are encouraged to be more honest, to add value without screaming or over-promoting, to socialise and to share. Astroturfing represents a betrayal of all these cherished principles, since it denotes an attempt to cloak an orchestrated PR, political or advertising campaign as spontaneous grassroots behaviour.

    We ORM pros can take some comfort from the fact that astroturfing was ‘invented’ by political advisors well before the advent of the internet era. Nowadays, and in the highly connected world in which we live, almost every serious attempt at astroturfing is a media timebomb waiting to explode. Unless the campaign truly catches on and it does paradoxically end up become grassroots, that is…                                                  

    2. Sock Puppetry

    Closely related to Astroturfing, sock puppetry refers to the attempt by an online individual to adopt a fake persona with the purpose of misleading and deceiving for his benefit or that of his cause - in the case of ORMs logically for the benefit of their clients.

    I get the distinct impression that this is more extended a practice that we care to admit. It is next to impossible to tell if a participant in a forum or review site is genuine, even in the case of the ‘strawmen sockpuppets’ who want to covertly discredit the point of view they seem to be defending. Luckily technology is coming to the rescue, since participation in the social media is becoming an increasingly integrated experience where our multarious accounts are linked and synched in a way that this type of behaviour can be more easily detected. Still, one to watch out for.

    3. Flogging

    Contrary to popular opinion, flogging – fake blogs ghostwritten in this case by ORMs – are not often the result of a concerted attempt to manipulate but the outcome of the lack of time, focus and talent on behalf of some of our clients. Cogent, clear and compelling writing is not a skill that abounds in some quarters, and we ORMs are regularly under pressure ‘to contribute’ following a previously established editorial line, usually (though by no means always) with a promotional or advertorial tone.

    Once more, the clumsiest cases of flogging are well documented, and many an unsuspecting reader has ended up nonplussed after discovering that big business was behind some of the more seemingly credible blogs out there. And yet, how many flogs or half-flogs populate the web? I dare not speculate about it. London ORM Nancy Williams from Tiger Two Ltd has advocated a disclaimer/disclosure policy in all blogs not personally or wholly written by their authors to disambiguate them from truly personal blogs, an approach I find very difficult to disagree with. VIP bloggers take heed!

    4. Viral Marketing (broken promises thereof)

    Even in the integrated digital agencies I have argued for elsewhere, it is usually online strategists and ORMs who end up bearing the bulk of so-called viral marketing campaigns. Viral marketing has quickly become the ‘Holy Grail’ of marketeers, sellers and resellers. And below-the-par agencies have been quick to capitalize on this trend and showcase themselves as experts in the scurrilous art of ‘word of mouth on steroids’.

    Neither them nor their unsuspecting clients are obviously familiar with the best literature in the business. For as online marketing and PR guru David Meerman Scott affirms in his essential e-book on the topic: ’It is virtually impossible to create a Web marketing program that is guaranteed to go viral; it requires a huge amount of luck and timing’. And as we guileless, tested pros both sides of the Atlantic know from painful experience, this axiom is simply true.

    This does emphatically NOT mean that one cannot in principle set in motion a sensible, well-thought-out online social media/marketing strategy that could potentially go viral  (been there, done that) but rather than noone – no matter how convincingly they may claim it -can guarantee for a campaign to go viral in the first place. In plain English: purchasing an off-the-shelf viral marketing/social media campaign combo is not the smartest of moves. Look around and it will take you no time to find many a sad marketeer full of melancholy out of the broken promises that shoud-know-better ORMs and digital strategist made in very rash, disingenious and downright foolish moments.

    Just as there are dark practitioners out there, we are lucky to have in our midst Master Jedis of online strategy who achieve remarkable successes by disciplining their claims, fine-tuning their abilities and constantly upgrading their skills without compromising their principles or selling their souls to Mammon. There is always a fine line between honesty and deception, and we ORMs are challenged on the ethical front more than we care to admit. What a relief it is to know that, more sooner than later, those colleagues who truly have their clients’ best interest at heart succeed in the online medium by upholding the best practices and principles.

     

    Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

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  • Oscar Del Santo 6:14 pm on September 12, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , PR, , ,   

    PR & SEO : Together We Stand 

    Communicate Magazine from London recently published a fascinating and timely debate between PR heavyweight Abigail Harrison from thebluedoor and her SEO nemesis Andrew Girdwood from bigmouthmedia about the pros and cons of using either a PR or a SEO agency to assist a company in their social media strategy.

    I do not believe there is currently a more urgent or pressing debate from the point of view of online strategy or online reputation management.

    The arguments used by the two participants are the ones we might have expected from the PR and SEO camps. See if you can guess who said what:

    • “PR, like the web, has always been about people. SEO is intrinsically and historicaly linked to Google bots and algorithms – not people, and certainly not reputations“
    • “I don’t think we have seen any evidence that the PR agencies have caught up with, or overtaken, the digital natives“
    • “I feel that SEOs… get in the way of the strategic thinking required for meaningful PR“

    And yet there were some gems to be found in the crossfire, like Andrew’s adroit assertion that “Social media is a discipline which requires online communication skills, alongside technical skills and analytical skills. A deficit in any one of these three key areas is a threat to success of the campaign.”

    Quite, Andrew! Bull’s eye! This is indeed what I have been arguing for quite some time: that SEO and PR are inextricably linked in today’s social media realities, and that any agency that is deficient in either is competing at a serious disadvantage. Which in turn explains why the more enlightened agencies are favouring a cross-pollination of digital and communication skills for new key roles – the likes of online reputation manager or social media strategist.

    Indeed, the leading agencies of tomorrow will be integrated communities where technical and communications staff work together seamlessly under the ovearching leadership of the online strategist, a professional whose qualifications and interests must encapsulate the best that the worlds of SEO and PR have to offer.

    Oscar Del Santo is an online strategist, publicist and trailblazing reputation manager. He helps individuals and organizations achieve their online goals through the implementation of tailor-made online strategies with strong social web and ORM components. He is a sought-after ‘de-mistifying’ trainer, key speaker and trusted & confidential advisor in online reputation crises scenarios .

    Add to FacebookAdd to DiggAdd to Del.icio.usAdd to StumbleuponAdd to RedditAdd to BlinklistAdd to TwitterAdd to TechnoratiAdd to FurlAdd to Newsvine

     

    • squidoo 4:34 pm on September 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      thanks for this interesting read, nice one, excellent.

    • Jose Llinares 9:00 am on September 24, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      As a person working in SEO I have to say that PR activity is providing to our work huge benefits and therefore is completely need to work close to each other.

      “SEO and PR are inextricably linked in today’s social media realities” AMEN

  • Oscar Del Santo 10:49 am on September 11, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: Facebook, , Seeismic, Tweetdeck,   

    Tweetdeck y Seeismic 

    In Spanish 

    Las nuevas aplicaciones de integración de las diferentes redes sociales están revolucionando la forma en que participamos en esta historia que estamos construyendo entre todos llamada Web 2.0

    En concreto hoy quería hablaros de Tweetdeck,  una aplicación que consigue integrar Twitter, MySpace y Facebook en un solo interfaz y que os resultará imprescindible si teneis un volumen considerable de actividad en cualquiera de estas populares redes sociales.

    Tweetdeck es un programa totalmente gratuito (aún en fase Beta) que podeis descargar en http://tweetdeck.com/beta/

    Para facilitaros las cosas os añado una presentación aquí en catalán de Dandelions (no existe una en castellano).

    Si teneis algún tipo de problema técnico con Tweetdeck – insisto en que está en fase Beta todavía y en ocasiones da algún problema - existe otra aplicación llamada Seeismic  http://seesmic.com/ que integra de forma bastante eficaz Twitter y Facebook.

    No cabe duda de que Tweetdeck y Seeismic representan los primeros pasos de lo que se va a convertir en estándar en breve. Realmente facilitan la gestión de nuestra participación en las redes sociales tanto para uso personal como profesional. Os los recomiendo.

    Quedo a la espera de vuestros comentarios y sugerencias con respecto a estas novedosas y útiles aplicaciones.

     

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