Blog readership in the United States is very healthy. 

As of 2007, there were 215,088,545 Americans (representing 71.4% of the US population) online. Of that segment, 48% (about 103,242,502) were online “Spectators” (including those who read blogs) in 2007 according to “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.”

How does that data translate in terms of consumer-buying behavior? Recently, the Opinion Research Corporation released the results of a survey indicating that “nearly two-thirds (61%) of respondents reported consulting online reviews, blogs and other sources of online customer feedback before purchasing a new product or service, with search engines being the preferred method of conducting the research.”  In addition, 83% of those surveyed said that online reviews and product evaluations had a direct impact on their purchasing decisions.

If you own a business and you want to stay “open” for business, you need to consider the implications of these trends. At one time, it was okay if your website was like the Sun – the center of your online universe. Today, your website needs to be more like Jupiter – massive in size – in terms of its online pervasiveness…with its multiple moons representing different facets of social media, including blogs. And Jupiter’s super-strong magnetic field would represent your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and your website’s interactive elements.

So what or who now holds the distinction of representing the Sun – the center of your universe? Your existing and prospective customers, of course.

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Leveraging the Web to Manage and Measure Public Perception
by Kent Lewis of Anvil Media, Inc.

Kent started his presentation with some stark statistics that underscored the importance of social media and search engine marketing public relations (SEM PR):

- 98% of journalists go online daily
- 92% use the Web for article research
- 76% search for expert sources
- 73% search for press releases

Source: Middleberg-Ross Pew Internet Study

Using real-world examples, Kent outlined the latest strategies for search engine marketing public relations (SEM PR). By offering a ton of valuable tips and tactics, Kent managed to nudge our our audience of communications professionals a bit closer to the world of online marketing for PR.

Some take aways from the presentation (My comments are in italics):

• Your website newsroom is not just for press anymore.

- Don’t password protect newsroom (I know there’s a statistic out there for this one…anybody out there know?)
- Newsroom version 2.0 features

o Email signup
o RSS feeds
o Webinars
o Podcasts

• Use the “3Cs” of search engine optimization (SEO) for your press releases:

- Content – Make sure your content is flush with keywords (But don’t do so at the expense of readability)
- Code – Modify your web URL tags to match keywords (This is like creating a strong magnet for search engines)
- Credibility – Keep content compelling and make sure keywords are relevant (Yes, searches are intelligent)

• Incorporate pay-per-click (PPC) in your press releases. Start with one important press release, purchase relevant keywords and test the results.
• Add links on your site to places that have already picked up your stories.
• Be sure to include articles in your SEO strategy

- Address an industry issue
- Optimize (See above)
- Syndicate to relevant industry sites

• Tweak your homepage “at least” once/per month with new relevant keywords to stay on top of Google’s search
• Manage your online reputation using social media

- Include your top executives on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc…
- Use LinkedIn’s Q and A feature, which can generate awareness, interest and leads
- Blogs, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
- Include competitor and/or naysayer sites in your PPC strategy

It was clear that Kent knew his stuff and I enjoyed being on the receiving end of truly “expert” advice. I visited Anvil’s website, too, and was pretty impressed overall (a rare occurrence for yours truly). In addition to being user friendly and simple, the site is a direct reflection of the company and it actually demonstrates what they preach. 

PRESENTATION TIDBIT: Did you know that the large PR firms were blacklisted from updating Wikipedia?!

Visit Web Strategy by Jeremiah for the 2008 list of web marketing tools and tactics.

Thanks for the valuable resource, Jeremiah.