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Atomic's VP of Digital, Shannon Coulter, was recently asked to speak on a panel hosted by Vidcaster about the future of content marketing. She shares her experience as a content marketer for a solar startup company competing in the super aggressive clean energy space. Shannon assures us that spending money on good content can be the difference between ranking first on Google or not at all. Click through to hear her story along with the perspective of 4 other industry leaders. http://blog.vidcaster.com/b2b-content-marketing-tips-content-marketer/

The one man town of Buford, Wyoming provided the inspiration for a campaign, orchestrated by Atomic, to raise awareness of the benefits of real estate auctions for client Williams & Williams. The campaign produced more than 1,700 media hits from top tier, regional and broadcast outlets including Associated Press, BusinessWeek, NBC Nightly News, CNN, MarketWatch, MSN, NPR, TIME, USA Today and Yahoo! News. 

By Andy Getsey Co-founder

There's always a lot of discussion about how traditional media will be replaced by digital and social media, how journalist produced content will be replaced by branded and citizen produced content, how PR people will be replaced by some other thing.  Much of the discussion makes it sound like a switch will be flipped, and suddenly the whole landscape and everyone in it will be these brand new alternative things. The evolution of science fiction tells us that this idea is wrong. The future of PR and advertising is and will actually be more like the future portrayed in the movie BladeRunner.  I said so as a panelist last week at PRSA Silicon Valley's meeting on #thefutureofPR. Thanks to all the folks who re-tweeted my comment.  Here's why it's true.  This is a bit of a generalization and I chose BladeRunner as a super mainstream film example.  Others saw something similar – but didn't mainstream it so hard.  The idea still works. 

Before BladeRunner, most sci–fi movies (like Dune or Logan's Run as popular examples) portrayed the future as all tall crystalline towers, airlocks and Jetson–style flying cars, telepathy, ray guns and all sorts of other fantastical things. More often than not, inexplicably, people in the future wore togas back then.  WTF?  Beginning sometime before the release of BladeRunner, the future started being portrayed as a mashup.  Some buildings are state of the art, modern fortresses of ultracool design. Next door might be old buildings from year 2000; run down. Some communications are completely corporately sponsored, others are renegade. Some media are super modern, but there are also billboards and blimps.  Some people are super modern, with bio enhancements, cool weapons and outlandishly modern hair and fashions.  Some are regular people with regular weapons. Others are poor, beaten down, old–fashioned people wearing a variety of raggedy clothes that could be from any era where poor people wore raggedy clothes, and really crappy weapons.  The future of PR is turning out to be more like BladeRunner than Logan's Run.  It's also turning out to be a lot like the adoption curve of radio, TV, email, social networks, etc.  They're all still here – none have totally replaced the other yet.  Each still has their place. But some are ascending in importance; others are receding.

Some agencies and clients have great tech; some don't. Some clients care, others don't care as much - yet. 

It's just like that with people.  Some are super quants.  Some are social media mavens.  Some are trans-media story tellers.  Some are awesome with bloggers. Some are super good at getting on TV and into the New York Times.   Some are good with everything.  There's no complete switchover yet.  It's a mix.  And most kinds of people still have their place. 

By Andy Getsey Co-founder, Atomic Feb 7, 2013 I was invited to talk at  a round table discussion last night about the Future of PR sponsored by PRSA Silicon Valley.  The panel was moderated by Steve Barrett, Editor in Chief of PR Week and included David Swain, director of technology comms for Facebook, Kelly MCGinnis, VP comms for Dell, Burghardt Tendrich, formerly Text 100 and Bite, now associate professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism.  And me. Here's a mashup of my thoughts, and those of the panel and audience - about the critical skills PR practitioners need to acquire as the field advances. Excellent writing and storytelling skills.  More than ever, good thinking, writing and storytelling skills are critical.  Brands are now self-publishing all sorts of content, the journalistic media world is more hard pressed for time and bandwidth, and these core professional communications skills are getting more important.  Still, many people in the audience feel that people with these critical talents are harder to find than ever. A healthy understanding of how powerful "traditional" media really are, still.  It's popular among many of the digerati, as well as many social marketers (both groups to which I belong) to propel the idea that traditional media don't matter any more (a myth I don't support).  Our agency has monitored and analyzed every campaign we've ever done over a twelve year period, and I can tell you that we have never had even one single instance where a client's web site has crashed because of traffic generated exclusively from online buzz.  We have dozens and dozens of client sites crash from traffic generated by exposure in traditional media.  Sure, their business models are under siege in many cases, but their ability to deliver massive audiences and persuasive impact is still real. Transmedia skills.  People with bright intellect, solid experience, good writing skills, and solid media expertise are always in demand. Add social media, SEO, graphic design, video production, event production and other skills and you are going to another level.  If you know how to tell stories and engage audiences in various ways, written, visual, experiential, through search returns, media, social etc, you can write your own ticket.  Since the lines between PR and advertising are blurring a bit at the edges – a stint working at an ad or digital agency wouldn't hurt you either.  Branding expertise.  Most of us in PR feel we understand branding, but it's actually a bit more of a formal discipline than many PR people like to think.  Future PR pros will be wise to have some formal education in branding.  A good way to get it, especially for students, is to take courses and intern at a pure branding consultancy.  For others, there are a number of great books, books on tape and videos about what a brand is and how brands are managed.  PR work gets better when it's informed with a knowledge of the principles of branding that CMOs work with every day.  Lack of real understanding shows. Business savvi-ness.  As communicators, we'd all like a place at the table in the C-suite.  But business is the language of the C-suite, and we need to understand business in general, the specifics of the client or employer business at hand, and specifically how various communications strategies, programs or events might or will impact the business itself. We need to be able to counsel C-level execs at this level to provide real value at the table.  Too many practitioners lead with pure PR- or publicity-driven thinking.  Business education or hands-on management experience is usually what it takes to build the knowledge needed to succeed at the table with the C-people. Sophisticated knowledge of and application of analytics for planning, consulting and program measurement.  Most of the conversation about analytics in our industry is about reporting in order to defend the value of programs. Or it's about listening in on social conversations. That same basic focus was in effect at the PRSA event.  There is actually so much more value in applying analytics to forward strategy and planning, in addition to simple listening and reporting.  With the volume of noise and data increasing dramatically across all channels, practitioners can elevate their skills considerably by becoming educated in a variety of communications analytics, statistical principles, and especially how to apply analytics and insights to strategy and planning.  Don't just justify to senior execs – lead!

Press releases may have become standardized and unoriginal, but the digital age provides the opportunity to renew creativity and maximize impact. This article from Mashable gives ideas on where to start.

Image source: Mashable

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. Did you know that just 14% of releases posted on major wire services have been optimized for search? Or that press releases including an image or a video get shared three times more than text-only releases -– and viewers spend up to 30 seconds more time with this content -– but nearly half of marketers do not routinely add images to their press releases? Many marketers are missing out on opportunities to get their news more widely viewed and shared. So before you issue your next press release, consider these four simple tactics to amplify the reach of your news.

1. Write Your Release With Search in Mind Image source: Mashable It’s no longer enough to write press release copy that tells a clear and compelling story; you must now also write your release in a way that helps searchers find you online. Reporters use search engines to find sources and story ideas, and comScore reports that in February 2012, U.S. searchers conducted 371 million news-related searches on search engines. Start by making a list of the keywords and phrases that are most relevant to your company, and then cross-check these terms using Google’s keyword tool to assess monthly search volume and competition for your core keywords, and to see suggestions for other related keywords. Once you have your list of keywords, use them in the headline and subhead of your release, as well as throughout the body of the announcement -– just make sure that the release still sounds natural and makes sense. Avoid over-repetition by using secondary and tertiary keywords, too. When including hyperlinks in your release, Mark Scott, Global Public Relations Manager for NCR, also recommends you link to what your product does or your keywords, not your product name. “I've seen both big and small businesses only link to their product name, which limits the SEO value of your release,” says Scott. “Don't put a link to just the product name because if it's new, there's not a single person who is going to Google that name. Link to a keyword phrase like ‘inventory management software’ instead, because that's what people are searching for." 2. Include Search-Optimized Images With Your Release Including images along with your release can make a big difference in coverage. PRESSfeed’s data shows that 80% of journalists and bloggers are more likely to cover news that includes an image. What kinds of images work? Courtney Walsh of Media Darling PR encourages clients to use images that really illustrate that news they’re putting out. “For example, if it's a new product, don't just include a product shot, show customers using it,” says Walsh.  “Also remember that images need to be high-resolution to be useful for most press.” Images can also work double duty in your search strategy if you optimize the images for search by naming and tagging them with keywords. Becca Bernstein, social media marketing manager at Picaboo, also suggests including the release headline or the related blog post title in the name and tags, so people can find your content through an image search. For example, this approach helped her company get a recent “How to Photograph Fireworks” blog post to the top of Google's Image Search. “When people search for photos of fireworks, my tips and tricks for taking photos of fireworks is now prevalent,” says Bernstein. Bernstein also recommends adding hashtags and the URL back to the blog post or news release in the Photo Title and Alternate Photo Title. “When I do this, it allows any image pinned to Pinterest to include a searchable hashtag and a link back to my blog. This drives more clicks and ultimately, a higher ranking on Google,” adds Bernstein. 3. Boost Press Release Engagement With Video

Video source: Mashable If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth? Data from PR Newswire and Crowd Factory shows that while adding a photo to a press release increases engagement by 14%, adding a video along with a photo actually doubles the engagement rate. “Based on my experience, video dramatically increases impressions, interactions and syndication of news releases,” says Jim Kemp, communications manager at software company ColumbiaSoft. “We frequently include video with our news releases whenever possible, and have seen headline impressions regularly increase by 130% over releases without videos.” When creating your video, James Crawford of Crawford PR suggests that you stick to the news -– no self-serving advertorials –- and avoid talking heads, to hold viewers’ interest. He also recommends using graphics or charts in the video to illustrate your point, and keeping the video to under two minutes. While you can use a service like YouTube or Vimeo to host the video, Kemp strongly recommends also distributing your video over the wire with your press release to boost syndication and SEO. “Simply placing a link to a video is not good enough. Having the video embedded in the distribution is a must,” says Kemp. Once your video is uploaded, make sure to tag it with your keywords, and even consider including a transcript of the video so that search engines can index the content. 4. Use Social Media to Amplify Your News Image source: Mashable The more backlinks that point to your content, the more value search engines will assign to it … so you should consider executing a mini social media “blitz” right after your news hits the wire, says Tom Corson-Knowles, author of How To Make Money With Twitter. “I've developed a system over the years that has been incredibly useful in boosting SEO results of press releases and other announcements for my small business clients,” says Corson-Knowles. “Basically, it involves creating a coordinated social media promotions campaign that launches within 60 minutes of the press release or news announcement.” Corson-Knowles recommends this process:

Post the news on your web site

Tweet the news with a link to the announcement on your web site (and have employees tweet it too)

Post your news with a link to the announcement on Facebook (and have employees post it too)

Pin any relevant news-related images or videos to Pinterest (with links back to your news page)

Create and post a video on YouTube talking about the announcement and linking back to the announcement on your website

Embed the YouTube video into a blog post and publish the blog post linking back to the announcement page

Post the announcement page on other social networks such as Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon

“In my experience, the combined effect of all of this promotion as soon as the announcement is made is generally a 4x to 5x increase in traffic thanks to the improved search engine rankings of the news,” says Corson-Knowles. Finally, write tweetable press release headlines. Data shows press releases that are shared via social media bring an average of six people back to the news distribution site to view the release.  When writing your headline, think about whether it's short enough to fit into a tweet, including a Twitter handle and link. Next, be sure the company or product name is in the beginning so it won't get cut off. Double check for keywords so the tweet is searchable, and make the headline punchy enough to generate retweets. What are some other strategies you’ve employed to get your press releases to spread?

Atomic PR is a leading public relations firm that provides creative programs guided by analytics. By utilizing sophisticated methods of analyzing situations, formulating strategies, and measuring results, the company has assembled an elite client pool.

Atomic PR Image Credit: worklifenation.com

In traditional public relations, clients are often those who belong to society’s upper crust—captains of industry, showbiz personalities, and behemoths of the consumer products sector. Only a decade ago, many sectors, such as schools, hospitals, and human resource facilities, did not need public relations in the traditional sense. They often needed no more than advertising or word of mouth to drive its business forward.

Atomic PR Image Credit: justoutthebox.files.wordpress.com

But today’s reputation landscape has changed. Atomic PR has, in its client list, Jobvite, a manpower sourcing company, and Hotwire, a hotel and car rental service. These are firms that once had niche markets established enough to prove public relations campaigns irrelevant. But because competition is rising along with simplified forms of advertising, even these markets are no longer enough for the companies to be able to hold out on their own. Hence, a more directed approach toward building a brand and an image has become a business imperative across the board. Hotwire’s strategy involved building client insight into the company’s services, aimed at reintroducing its service lines to its chosen market. The media campaign included several outlets such as print, broadcast, and social media. Jobvite’s approach was focused more on positioning the brand as an industry pioneer in the modern job and recruitment spheres. By highlighting high-profile clients, the campaign proved Jobvite’s power to adapt to a highly accelerated employment and recruitment environment.

From Atomic PR