Eliminating the Use of Impressions in Public Relations

All too often in the public relations world, you hear about impressions. Many judge the success of a release on how many page views it received.

However, out of those page views, how many people actually followed up on what you had to say? I don't think page impressions are an accurate judgement of whether your message was heard. For example, just because you have 1,000 Twitter followers does not mean that all 1,000 people will be viewing your tweet.

What are some better ways to measure response then?

Comments- When people actually take the time to read and comment on your blog, website, etc., it usually shows some sort of interest in what you are saying. It might seem obvious, but comments are a much better judgement of the amount of feedback you are receiving.

...but what if you aren't getting comments?

Another way to go past just looking at page impressions is to use a website like bit.ly when you post links on Twitter or Facebook. Bit.ly shortens your links, but it also analyzes clicks. You can see how many people read your message on Facebook or Twitter and were interested enough to click on the link.

This post might have seemed a bit too obvious, but I hear about page impressions so much that I thought I would write a brief message.

~Olga Ball

Blogging: How You Can Use a Blog to Enhance PR for your Company

A few entries ago, I discussed some tips from Lynn Hoppes on how to make money by blogging. But how do you use a blog to maximize your public relations efforts and build readership? Here are a few quick tips.

1)  Find your niche and stick to the topic. Don't try to do too many things with your blog. Establish exactly what you want your blog to be and stick with it.

2) Be consistent about updating your blog. Decide whether you are going to update your blog daily, weekly or some other designated time and stick to the schedule. This helps build and maintain readership and get your name out there. If people are interested in your blog, they will know exactly when to come back for a new update.

3) Incorporate multimedia into your blog. Add useful videos and make the blog more visually appealing with photos. Create a poll if you have a question for your readers and make your blog more interactive.

4) Promote your blog through social media. Use Facebook and Twitter to build interest. Do not simply state "read our blog." Instead you could say something along the lines of, "No one cares about the bologna sandwich you had for lunch. Read our blog to learn how to maximize your Twitter for public relations efforts."  and include a link to your blog.

I hope these tips are useful.

~Olga Ball

Big 12 Public Relations: What Can Be Done?

As I mentioned earlier, I wrote about Nebraska and Colorado leaving the Big 12 for my crisis management and media framing, discussing whether the Big 12 effectively managed the public relations crisis.

I could go on and on about the crisis, and the Big 12, but that's in the past. I want to briefly discuss what Dan Beebe (the Big 12 commissioner) can do in terms of public relations to help show that it is still a strong conference in the future.

One of the concerns for the Big 12 conference right now is stability. Conference realignment seems to be occurring more often, and the Big 12 needs to show that it is strong enough to hold together during all future realignment.

 Beebe keeps stating over and over again that the Big 12 is not interested in expanding. I think that this statement is a bad move. If the Big 12 wanted to show that it is a strong conference that will last, it should be stating that expansion IS possible. In the TV revenue business of college football, the Big 12 needs to show that it is willing to expand if other conferences are threatening to take more of the Big 12's members. I think Beebe should not be so adamant about saying that the Big 12 would not be willing to expand.

Beebe should be stating often that the Big 12 is strong and would be willing to expand if it would help te conference in the future.

~Olga Ball

Questions to Ask Before Posting on Twitter

I have compiled this by researching what other people have said and from personal experience. What is the best way to insure that your tweets will be read or even retweeted? Here are a few questions to ask yourself before tweeting for your company:

1) Did I use proper spelling and grammar?
Yes, this is important, even on Twitter. If you spell something wrong or use the wrong form of "your," it just makes you (and the company) look bad

2)Is what I am saying actually important or interesting?
Some people tweet just to tweet. No one wants to know that you had a ham sandwich during your lunch break. Especially if you are tweeting on a company twitter, make sure what you are saying helps build relationships.

3) Will this tweet help the public relations plan?
Along with the idea of whether the tweet is interesting or important, one should consider, does the tweet line up with everything else you are doing as a company? Does it help promote your image?  Sometimes it is easier to be negative about a situation on a social network so one should reread everything and make sure it is exactly how one wanted the tweet to come across.

~Olga Ball

Facebook's In-line Insights Feature

Facebook is in the process of launching a new feature called in-line insights to its Facebook fan pages. The feature allows for an at-a-glance analysis of every post an administrator creates on their page.

The analysis is divided into two categories: impressions and feedback statistics. Impressions is the number of page impressions that a post has received, but it is is not the number of times the post has been read. A page impression is calculated every time someone views the page containing the post. [it is also known as a page view.] With Facebook, an impression is added as a result of someone directly clicking on the page, the post appearing in someone's news feed, or a result of a shared post between people.

Feedback is the number of people who have taken action on the post, with either a "Like" or a comment, expressed as the percentage of the number of feedback compared to impressions.

So how can PR professionals use this information?

They can see what kind of posts really engage their audience, and what is the most effective time to post. Professionals can monitor the number of impressions they receive in the first hour and compare it to the number of impressions when a post is posted at a different time. Also, they can see what kind of content works best for their readers by seeing if people comment more on articles, videos, or photos. Practitioners have the opportunity to experiment and evaluate content, which could help improve future content on the page.

~Olga Ball

Effective Social Networking for PR

These days, most public relations practitioners are given the task to come up with an effective social networking plan for the company. 

A big problem that has been detected in those who are just starting out with promoting companies through social networks is redundancy and frequency of updates. Some will post the same link over and over again, thinking that it will reach more people. This is not the case. In most situations, it has the opposite effect - posting the same information on Twitter and Facebook can annoy your followers and cause them to stop following your account. 

Frequency of updates is also important to consider. Those who tweet very often can overload their readers with content to the point which the followers decide to no longer follow them. I spent some time researching how often is too often to tweet or post on Facebook, and most websites say the same thing: quality matters much more than quantity. Twitter and Facebook are about building relationships with your readers so keeping others interested is essential to effective social networking.

~Olga Ball 

What I Learned at NCMC 2010: Blogging

I just got back from the National College Media Convention in Louisville, and I loved it! The hotel was beautiful, Louisville was wonderful (and much colder than here!) and the sessions were amazing. One of the sessions that really made me think was Lynn Hoppes of ESPN.com's session on "How to Make Money By Blogging."

So how do you make money by blogging?

Hoppes said that one should find a niche that one is good at, that no one else blogs about. He said it needs to be specific, like covering the building of new stadiums and arenas.

Hoppes said to increase readership, one should use key words to increase search engine optimization. For example, if you are talking about LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, don't just say "LeBron" or "Kobe." Always use their full names to increase the chances of your entry appearing high in a search engine.

Also, Hoppes suggests writing like you are having a conversation with someone. Don't try too hard!

He also suggested using the "monetize" options and adding advertising once the blog increases in readership.

I will write more about the convention later this week.

Olga Ball