Search Is A Function of Public Relations

There has been a great debate on Jason Falls' blog regarding the role of Public Relations in Social Media. Todd Defren followed up on it with some great points as well ... Without going into a semantic debate on the term Social Media or the intricacies of both of their premises, I wanted to bring up a different point I've been discussing at presentations and industry events. This following is another tenet of the Eyeball Economy.

Search Advertising is a Function of Public Relations

1. For years we have used the terms advertising and search without distinction or difference. By definition, advertising is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Advertising is exclusively a push endeavor which is "designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of 'brand image' and 'brand loyalty.'"


2. Web Search is a activity a user performs in order to find information he is familiar or unfamiliar with. "Web search queries are distinctive in that they are unstructured and often ambiguous."


3. The role of PR is to get information from the organization to the person looking for it. "Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics."


4. Marketing is an ongoing process of planning and executing the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place, Promotion (often referred to as the 4 Ps)) for products, services or ideas to create exchange between individuals and organizations.

Public Relations is there to provide people with information when they are looking for it, whether they know it or not. Advertising and Marketing is there to push brands, images, and slogans, whether they like it or not.

For over one year we have been combining our clients major news announcements to comprehensive AdWords campaigns. Shannon Whitley, who coined the term NewsAds, has been working on this integration for just as long. However, there hasn't been enough traction for our clients on this front.

Shannon Whitley:

"In terms of explaining what NewsAds are, I like to use the paper boy analogy. The paper boy would shout the news headlines of the day and that would draw the attention of customers who wanted to learn more. Shouting your headlines through Google AdWords (especially since the ads are targeted) is a great way to draw attention to your news and provide people the ability to dig deeper through a single click of the mouse.

"I see online ads as just another method of distribution. In those terms, I don't see why PR can't use them as part of an overall campaign. NewsAds are not a complete solution, but they can be used to support a news release by quickly drawing in thousands of eyeballs. Because the ads are targeted, the likelihood that the reader will be interested in the topic of the release is much greater."

As most of us know, Shannon is an incredibly valuable thought and action leader in the social media community. We all have to do a better job communicating how important leveraging search is. Beyond paid search, we need to be leveraging all other parts of search ... from paid to organic to video. Our clients need to make sure every click is covered. Search is, unfortunately, sometimes two steps beyond what we're telling our clients about. Regarding Multimedia News Releases ... why the heck aren't they the links on the company's mediaroom? Why are our clients and competitors clients linking to the text only version when they spent significant cash on an enhanced version?

For clients who have lost the VNR and other broadcast vehicles from their quiver, NewsAds is a replacement that will add the numbers you lost while leveraging the web and enhancing SEO. Additionally, for projects and campaigns that demand success, NewsAds are the best way to ensure visibility, pickup, impressions, and views.

(While I'm obviously precluded from sharing our client's data, the first project we worked on last May resulted in over 2 million impressions and over 200 click throughs ... all aside from the organic results, which were significant due to the compelling nature of the announcement.)

For feedback on Shannon's product launch:
Todd reviewed NewsAds last June , as did Tom Foremski.

For more information on integrating search into PR campaigns, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or Friendfeed.

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