We’ve been using PRWeb for different clients for quite some time now — we like the ease of use, the multimedia capabilities, and ability to add search-friendly links. There’s another thing our agency likes: the web traffic.

Traffic Spikes From Press Releases on PRWeb

PRWeb lives up to its direct-to-consumer model by sending a good amount of traffic to our client’s sites, which we use in our reporting back to them.

Using Tealium Social Media, we track both “click-throughs,” direct clicks on embedded links in the press releases, and “view-throughs,” which counts the number of visits from people who read the releases on PRWeb.com and come to the site without the benefit of a direct link.

For one particular client, we received an average of 121 visits (click-throughs + view-throughs) per release on PRWeb during the first quarter of this year. Those numbers will slowly increase over time due to the long tail of PR.

One thing we don’t like about PRWeb, however, is the coverage and distribution. Unless you upgrade to the Business Wire option, it just doesn’t seem like PRWeb releases get picked up by many outlets.

In March, we decided to use a different service, Marketwire, and analyze the difference in traffic.

Our first Marketwire release generated only five click-throughs, but 54 view-throughs for a total of 59 visits. Not bad, but much less than PR Web. We did a second release and the results were worse: one direct click and eight view-throughs for a total of nine visits. However, anecdotally, it seems like Marketwire did a better job of distributing the release to different blogs and news outlets, including MSNBC. Read the rest of this entry »

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How do you find people to follow on Twitter?

For me, I’ve found that one of the best ways is to search Twitter using keywords I’m interested in — words and phrases such as “PR measurement,” “social media measurement,” “digital PR,” “content marketing,” etc. I’m interested in these terms and want to connect with folks who share that interest. I’ll pick through the search results and look at different profiles and related Tweets and add people I think can add to the conversation. I’ve found it to be pretty effective, connecting with some great people.

This tactic works in reverse. If I’m searching for like-minded Tweeps using these terms, wouldn’t it behoove me to pepper in some of these terms in my own Tweets so people can easily find me as well? Yes and no. It makes no sense to throw certain certain terms in your Tweets in the name of optimization – you may show up in search results, but if it’s not meaty, people won’t care (or add you). However, it makes a lot of sense to think about your keywords if you’re delivering a substantive Tweet or engaged in a real conversation.

For example, a Tweet about measuring PR would be best served to use the phrase “PR measurement” than “PR metrics” or “measuring PR effectiveness” because that’s the term people are using by a wide margin. Likewise, the phrase “digital PR” seems to turn up better results on Twitter search than “online PR“.  More than once I’ve seen Twitter users promote a link to a story on “social media,” when the post is actually about social media monitoring or social media measurement. The point is, be specific.

Gaining followers is about engaging in conversation and having something new and interesting to say. It’s also about optimizing your exposure, including getting re-Tweeted, and increasingly, using the right keywords or phrase. Some of this may seem obvious to those with online marketing experience, but to others, maybe not.

By the way, I think I’ve just found a new keyword phrase to search for: “twitter keywords.”

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The buzz words and phrases being tossed around by many social media and PR professionals these days typically revolve around “listening,” “engaging,” “monitoring,” and “starting a conversation.”

Fine words all of them, but seemingly lost in this barrage of Web 2.0 lingo are words like “ROI,” “measurement” and “leads” just to name a few.

Why is that?

Case in point: I attended the Online Marketing Summit (OMS) in San Diego this week – a really nice, intimate conference with lots of great content. During a session about digital PR, the speaker (someone who was very knowledgeable) told the crowd that public relations isn’t about measurement and leads, it’s about influencing people. The speaker told the crowd that if your CEO asks about your bottom line impact, then you should tell him (or her) that’s not what PR is about (paraphrasing here).

When I followed up afterward with a question about how one tracks and reports success in the new direct-to-consumer PR model, the speaker talked about conducting pre- and post attitudinal surveys.

Sorry, but I just don’t believe that’s going to sell in the executive suite, especially during these extremely tough economic times. It’s also the wrong approach for marketing-focused PR professionals (not corporate communications) who need to embrace measurement, not continue to deflect or ignore it.

One of the problems to date is that PR traditionally has been a black box of measurement – quite impossible to track effectively. But with the rise of digital media and innovative new measurement and monitoring technologies, that is beginning to change. The effectiveness of PR and social media initiatives can now be tracked like any other online marketing campaign: in terms of traffic, conversions, leads and sales. That’s a new world, and one that most PR professionals aren’t familiar with yet.

One of my ROI-minded clients recently asked me whether all the press activity we’ve been generating recently has driven any traffic. It’s a fair question and one I can’t answer with, “well, PR isn’t really about generating traffic or leads.” In this day and age, that just doesn’t fly anymore. My client knows some of the intangibles of PR, but in these times, he also wants to see some bottom-line results for his money.

So, I’m currently piecing together a comprehensive report showing traffic and conversions from different online sources our agency has leveraged, including PRWeb, online articles, blog posts, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Facebook and more. Through new technology, I’m able to show traffic from both click-throughs (direct from a referring link in the story) and view-throughs (visitors who read an online article that contains no direct referring link, but still came to the site later on).

Because digital PR has such a profound impact on search engine results, I’m also showing rather dramatic monthly increases in organic traffic from Google and other search engines.

Is online PR as effective as search engine marketing – from a pure cost standpoint, probably not (I say probably because this is new territory), but it does generate significant results. Best of all, this data can now be placed in context of other online marketing initiatives, helping PR and social media gain credibility at the executive table, and also leading to actionable decisions that improve overall PR results.

I love the power of social media for its ability to engage people in entirely different ways.  Engage is, after all, the name of the business. However, just don’t let terms like “measurement,” “value” and “ROI” get lost in the ever-growing blitz of new buzzwords. These are words I’ve grown up with my entire professional life, and believe me, they never go out of style.

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Our friends over at Tealium, a web analytics technology and consulting firm, wrote an excellent blog post the other day on the myths and facts surrounding social media measurement. Quite familiar with their technology, I offer this companion piece focused on measuring PR from a marketing perspective.

Myth: Current PR measurement methods are satisfactory

Fact: Current PR measurement is all over the place, and completely unsatisfactory. In fact, PR measurement has been nothing short of a black box. PR professionals, through no fault of their own, have been flummoxed by measurement details, and have traditionally offered up weak statistics — advertising values anyone? — to marketers demanding some type of ROI data. Measurements like tone of coverage definitely have their place, but they don’t speak to true business results.

Driving better results through PR and social media measurement.

Myth: You can’t measure PR in terms of traffic and conversions

Fact: You absolutely can, thanks to new web analytics technology from companies like Tealium. PR (and social media) can now be measured like any other online marketing campaign: in terms of traffic, conversions, leads and sales. You can see exactly which media outlets — blogs, trade press, mainstream press, and social media — deliver the most traffic and results. You can even measure the impact of online stories or blog posts that mention your company’s name, but don’t contain a direct link to your site. That last detail is huge – it’s the missing component for true PR and social media measurement. For the first time, PR and social media can be measured for ROI.

Myth: PR isn’t about measurement and ROI

Fact: It hasn’t been, because no one’s been able to measure it thus far. PR, though not corporate communications,  is a marketing channel, and therefore should be scrutinized like any other marketing channel. Why not? Yes, PR is about starting a dialogue, changing opinions, influencing the influencers, etc. But at the end of the day, especially during this economy, when you ask marketing executives what matters most, they’ll tell you: revenue and ROI.

Myth: I can’t compare PR measurement to my other online channels

Fact: Because Tealium technology integrates into your analytics tool, you can get real-time ROI metrics right alongside your other online acquisition channels: search engine marketing, banner ads, newsletter sponsorships, etc.

Myth: You can’t make actionable decisions from PR and social media metrics

Fact: Yes, you can. That’s what makes it so exciting. You can make big decisions, both strategic and tactical. For example:

•    Which social media programs should I invest in?
•    Should I invest in PR?
•    Which media outlets — blogs, trade press, business press, etc. – drive the best awareness and results?
•    Which specific sites or blogs generate the best response? Should I consider advertising possibilities on those sites?
•    Was it worth it spending $30K to develop that ‘viral’ Facebook application?
•    Did our online video initiative produce anything beyond a lot of video views?

The list goes on. With the advent of real technology, best practices around PR and social media measurement will become a growth area (it’s something Engage already specializes in). The best part about PR measurement is that it finally gives PR folks a long-awaited seat at the marketing table. Why? Because for the first time, they can sit down and provide bottom line results for their work.

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Welcome to Engage Social Media, a results-oriented social media marketing and measurement firm. We specialize in social media monitoring and measurement — laying the groundwork for creating and optimizing successful social media marketing programs. Please have a look around the site and contact me with any questions.

- Erik Bratt

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