The Crowd Source is a blog about Web culture and its impact on search activity, brought to you by the digital strategists at Ketchum.
[AdAge Column] One Medium PR People Should Buy: Search
by Gur Tsabar | Fri, 06/19/2009 - 10:14
Viewpoint: Purchasing Search Ads Can Help Influence Consumer Conversation
A key distinction between PR and advertising has always been that public relations is earned media rather than paid. But now, just as search engines have revolutionized the way consumers access information, search marketing is evolving public relations.
At Ketchum, some of our newest PR offerings involve buying ad space online -- literally paying for the ability to reach the public with our clients' stories.
If you think that's odd for a PR agency, consider this: Google -- with upward of 5 billion views a month in the U.S. alone -- is essentially the largest publication on the planet. Tie your brand to the right search terms and you can instantly advertise your online offerings to anyone searching for topics that contain those words. But don't count on any real consumer engagement. That's where PR comes in.
Comments
Last week I bought
Last week I bought "THE TRUTH ABOUT: Search Engine Optimization" by Rebecca Lieb.
It's recently published, quick and dirty book on SEO strategies and tactics - 51 of them, to be exact. I recommend it to anyone who wants to brush up on search.
Like you said in so many words, one thing we as PR professionals can keep in minf is how we write releases and alerts. We should write them with search in mind. Let's admit it - buying space is always great, but the more organic search results we can generate for our clients through writing, the better.