Sphinn Home » Search Marketing
Avatar Posted By: SEOhack 395 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://nakedpr.com)
Category: Search Marketing
Yeah, she comes off as a little hostile to the search marketing industry, but Jenn brings up some good points about letting PR people write press releases and what they really should be used for. Her most interesting assertion is that search marketers and SEO folks have ruined social media for everyone else to use. A good read! Sorry I didn't find it sooner!
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from MattMcGee 394 days ago #
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We've got a PR person complaining that SEOs are the "new spin doctors" -- that's priceless! She wants her crown back, I guess. :)

from dannysullivan 394 days ago #
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I get plenty of press releases from PR people who don't know how to write press releases. Being a PR person doesn't guarantee they'll be any good.

SEO has a PR component. If you're a good PR person, you understand that, understand some SEO or find someone that does.

SEOs don't necessarily have public relations skills. Many of them won't. If they're putting out that SEO is PR, that's wrong. If they're putting out that SEO has a PR component -- that's true. As long as they don't say it's a complete PR move, fair enough.

"If enough SEO people tell them that a press release is meant to do this, then they’re nothing short of lost when a PR person comes in and tells them that, no, a press release is meant to do that."

Um, well, see -- what a PR person thinks a press release is "supposed" to do might not recognize that online, releases can generate news search traffic, incoming links and some other search-related goodness. The reality is that both sides might overlook the multiple things a release can do.

"We’ve got PR people trying to get back to the basics of honesty and transparency"

As someone who gets tons of releases, they aren't necessarily dishonest or not transparent, but they are very often way off-target. In contrast...

"we’ve got SEOs (although certainly not all) out there trying to find any way to make the end run around the rules and systems."

Fair to say, they may try to find ways to rank wells, but they damn well know they'd better be relevant for what they come up for, otherwise they stand out like a sore thumb and get banned.

"When new promotional tools come about, Internet marketers find every way possible to use and abuse them until they become completely worthless, because they’re loaded with so much bullshit and spam (can someone say “press release distribution sites”?) that there’s no legitimate PR value for companies looking for real exposure. Then they move on to the next big thing."

Yeah, I understand her pain. But if a newspaper said hey, let's publish a paper and anyone can write anything they want, you betcha the PR people would be "abusing" that system until some controls were put into place. You know, sort of the way some of them have been behind fake blogs, right? Any marketing system will get abused if there are no controls and checks on it. And by the way, even without the flood of additional press release, most of them aren't that helpful. These days, you want to tell me news about your company? Put it out on your blog.

"It’s about the fact that these groups are becoming notorious for thinking that they’re the new PR gods in town, without an ounce of PR expertise to their name."

Fair enough -- but you know, the "old" PR gods lack plenty of expertise in PR for having failed to keep up in the space and allowing an entire new industry to figure out there's a PR component that was being ignored.

"If I want a piece of hyped up linkbait, I’ll go to an SEO."

Maybe you should go to a social media marketer, since they're more the ones who do link bait. SEOs might have those skills, or they might be focused simply on the optimization of a web page.

"And for the record (on the note of press releases), their purpose is NOT to get “tons of backlinks” and “lots of instant traffic.” Their purpose is to disseminate a news message to a target audience, build and maintain an image or reputation, build exposure, build goodwill, etc."

Seriously? Not online they ain't. I don't need a press release to disseminate a news message. I can blog it. And build goodwill? Do you know how many press releases from PR "pros" I get that fail to build goodwill? If anything, they lose it.

from SEOhack 394 days ago #
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@MattMcGee - heh, that was my thought too. Is the word I'm looking for 'irony'?

@dannysullivan - I don't think I could have dissected that and said it any better than that. So I'm glad you did!

I do think that there are some people in this industry that can write a PR (lord knows there are guidelines galore on how to do it online) just as there is the occasional professional spinner who can give decent SEO advice. I just hope the two aren't always considered mutually exclusive.


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