Press releases that utilize the following Search Engine Optimization (SEO) guidelines can also help occupy the leading search engine result positions for a wide variety of related topics.

1. Keywords: The most important part of any SEO campaign is keywords. When creating an SEO campaign, the first step is to identify at least 10-15 keywords that will be used on a consistent basis for any online-related activities. In order to indentify these keywords, find out how your target audience is trying to find you and your competitors via search engines. The SEO press release should incorporate the majority of the company’s keywords within the first 250 words, including the headline, sub-headline and lead sentence.
2. Headlines: Despite reasonable logic, headlines should actually begin with and focus on keywords and not the company’s name. Begin with keywords and remember that headlines should be written for web searching. Note that hyperlinks are not recommended in headlines.
3. Anchor Text & Hyperlinks: Keywords, company name’s and outside organizations should be hyperlinked in every press release to relevant and appropriate Web sites. Industry standards recommend including three to five hyperlinks as part of the press release body, as well as two fully written URLs – one in the body and one in the company boilerplate. Follow AP Stylebook guidelines when using fully written URLs (i.e. always use http:// portion of URL and place entire URL in parenthesis after the anchored link). To increase reach and relevance, be sure to link to at least one URL within the corporate Web site that is not the homepage and to at least one outside organization.
4. Documentation & Extras: From pullout quotes and side bars to images, videos and charts, adding additional documentation to your online press release will enhance web searching. Be sure to properly label and name each file with an appropriate caption.
5. Distribute: When preparing your SEO press release for distribution, consider using online distribution services. There are both paid online distribution services (i.e. Businesswire, PR Newswire, PRWeb) and free online distribution services (i.e. PR.com, PRLog.com, OnlinePRNews.com) available and each offer their own advantages and disadvantages. Paid distribution services   Some have additional costs but offer their own search engine optimization as well as share tools.
6. Share: Utilize social media tools to post your SEO press releases, release topics and links. Social networking sites (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) and social bookmarking tools (i.e. Digg, Del.icio.us, Stumbleupon, Reddit) facilitate sharing and can improve relevance and web searching. Each works differently and can potentially reach a different audience so determine which tools work best for your company. Be sure your corporate newsroom has share tools linked at the bottom to allow users an easy way to share your news with their own fans/followers.

Here are some helpful links to get you going:

• SEO Tools: http://www.seomoz.org/tools
• SEO Tools: http://tools.seobook.com
• Google Keywords: http://www.google.com/sktool
• Top Free Distribution Sites: http://www.bignews.biz/blog/?p=6

Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7

Instead of just jumping in and creating accounts on a number of social networking sites, we recommend to our clients to take a step back and create a plan, just like you would for any other part of the business.

Here are some basic steps to build out a social media plan:

1. Define your purpose/goals – What do you want to get out of the time and energy put into social media? Do you want to build brand awareness? Generate new leads? Become a leading source of news and information regarding a specific topic?  By defining your purpose and goals, you create a overarching guideline for every tweet, post or message you deliver via social networking sites. If a particular message does help reach those goals, you are wasting your time sending it.
2. Determine your target audience – There are millions of users are social networking sites and you certainly can’t reach them all. So define your primary, secondary and tertiary target audiences based on your main purposes and goals. Be specific. Beyond your basic customer, what other audiences are important to your business? Think about related associations, societies and organizations. Don’t forget about editors and reports from target publications that can potentially help spread your message.
3. Understand the social media environment – There is much more to the social media environment than just Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Hundreds of niche social networking sites exist, each with specific target markets. Take the time to research these networks to determine the most relevant online communities and outlets for your target audience. Where are you more likely to be able to engage in conversations most effectively? Be sure to track your clients, competition and industry leaders to find which platforms they use most.
4. Develop valuable content you expect to deliver – Now it’s time to develop a list of key messages and topics relevant to both your purpose and target audiences defined in first two steps. As mentioned in our previous blog post, “Connecting the Dots Between Traditional and Digital Marketing,” be sure that your online and offline messaging is consistent. Also, keep in mind that social networking sites provide opportunities for two way conversations so the content you develop should attempt to engage conversation with your audiences.
5. Identify a spokesperson – A business/brand needs one, single voice. Whether the spokesperson is the small business owner, a marketing person or even an intern, be sure the messaging and voice is professional, well-crafted and consistent.
6. Develop specific strategies and tactics for each social network – In order to reach as many of the ‘right’ customers as possible, you are more than likely going to need to use multiple social media outlets. Web sites, blogs, share tools, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online communities each has its own benefits, and each requires its own strategy and set of specific tactics to maximize those benefits. Research best practices for each social media outlet and use the tools offered to your advantage. Also, be sure to use the “Multi-Touch” approach by cross-referencing your social media efforts. If you post pictures on Flickr or a video on YouTube, be sure to tweet a link to your Twitter followers. Blog posts on your corporate web site should be shared across all your other networks.
7. Measure your results – Finally, be sure to measure your results. Has your online traffic increased? Were you successful in creating customer interactions and conversations? Did you generate new sales leads? Did your brand awareness increase? Using online tracking tools, you can quantify your impact and answer all of these questions and more.

Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7

But many communicators are struggling to find the most efficient and effective way to connect traditional marketing tactics and digital marketing tactics.

When connected effectively, traditional and digital marketing tactics offer immense opportunities to build market recognition, increase brand awareness and provide the foundation for strong and sustainable growth. To do so, successful marketers must turn to the “Multi-Touch” approach.

The “Multi-Touch” approach combines traditional marketing (advertising, public relations, events, etc.), which offers opportunities to reach the masses, with digital marketing (social networking, SEO, etc), which offers a more personalized, one-on-one communication opportunity. This integration allows marketers to offer consistent messaging that resonates to as many of the ‘right’ customers as possible, through all the proper channels.

The integrated marketing campaign that is created through the “Multi-Touch” approach provides marketers to use existing assets from traditional marketing for search and social media marketing efforts, and vice versa. Utilized by smart marketers, the “Multi-Touch” approach and integrated marketing campaigns can generate the measurable results needed to build your business quickly and effectively.

Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7

If you are a technology nut like me, you are always interested in trying out the latest applications or tools available. Several months ago, I was lucky enough to get an early preview invite to join Google’s new communication and collaboration tool, Google Wave. The online tool is reinventing email one wave (conversation) and blip (message) at a time.

The platform combines email, instant messaging and online collaboration into a real-time system. It can be used by two people or a whole group of people. Instead of cc’ing a person on a message, you can add that person to the conversation. Users apart of a wave can follow messages in real-time, play back the entire conversation timeline and even add to or edit any part of the conversation.

While it seems confusing at first, these videos shine a light on Google Wave’s simplicity and functionality: http://simurl.com/simplewave

Although my time on Google Wave has been limited, I can already see the value in this new form of online collaboration. Instead of having an inbox full of emails back and forth between two people or a group of people, Google Wave provides a live timeline of events and updates with full editing functionality. You can even collaborate on documents in real-time as a group and embed photos, videos and maps in to the conversation.

More than one million users are actively using Google Wave in preview mode. New outlets and publications like RedEye Chicago are hosting daily waves to discuss timely and relevant topics with their readers.

There are still some kinks for Google to work out, but once Google Wave advances past preview mode and catches on with the masses, I can see this as a revolution in the business world. A

Blip me at www.googlewave.com/jabraha7

Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7

What Should You Blog About?

Start by defining the audience with whom you want to have a relationship. Presumably they are your customers, partners, suppliers and your broader industry as a whole. You should think about what kind of information they would find valuable. You should also try to talk about something that is differentiated from what other blogs in your field cover, even if your approach is just slightly different or new.

Make sure the topic is something that you’ll have a passion for writing about on a regular basis. If you’re not going to keep up with your blog, you shouldn’t start one in the first place. It’s a commitment, believe me. If you pick a topic that relates to your customers, but you’re not that passionate about it, then you may have a bigger problem on your hands!

So you know you need to blog, and you’re convinced you ought to write about something you’re passionate about and that speaks to your customers. How can you create something that people will want to come and read every day?
1. Be authentic
2. Be transparent
3. Get inside your readers’ minds
4. Solicit feedback
5. Don’t be offensive or take big public risks
6. Have fun

Continue reading:  HOW TO: Create a Successful Company Blog for greater insight from Mashable.

FFWD Brands is giving away a FREE custom designed Wordpress Blog Style Website to a deserving (Friend/Follower/Reader)!!!

Rev-up your company’s current site and make 2010 your most profitable year! Adding a Blog style site to your marketing efforts is the next step in increasing your company’s online presence and increasing your status as an industry expert.
FFWD’s marketing experts are offering their expertise and time for a deserving company. Enter today!

Winner will be announced 3-31-10
The Winner will Receive:
-A dynamic and eye catching Wordpress (Blog Style) Website for your Company
-1year free hosting courtesy of FFWD Brands
-Your Company’s Brand integrated into the Template Layout, highlighting your company in a very professional and creative light
-‘Contact Us’ Section that is linked to your email address, capturing all your followers’ information
-Free Digital Marketing & SEO consultation/analysis
FFWD will ensure that your site implements the Top 5 Blog Plug-In’s, which include:
-All in One SEO Pack
-FD Feedburner
-Sociable
-WR-Superache
-Google XML Sitemaps

1. No purchase necessary to enter the FFWD Brands, LLC.  contest. The contest will end on the date stated in the posting.
2. FFWD Brands, LLC. Contests are open to all companies and non-profits, individual entering much be 18 years or older and legally allowed to participate in such a contest as allowed by their local laws and corporate structures.
3. Players must submit the required materials for each contest which will register the player on the spot, for a chance to win. Players will be informed if they are a winner on or after the contest end date. Limit one attempt per person, per section of the promotion. FFWD Brands, LLC and its subsidiaries are not responsible for: incomplete, lost, late, damaged, scrambled or misdirected entries or other errors of any kind whether human, mechanical or electronic, which may limit a user’s ability to participate in the contest. FFWD Brands, LLC reserves the right to cancel or modify the contest if fraud destroys the integrity of the contest as determined by FFWD Brands, LLC in its sole discretion. All entries become the property of FFWD Brands, LLC and will not be returned or acknowledged.
4. Employees and families of FFWD Brands, LLC and its affiliates and subsidiaries are not eligible. Void where prohibited by law. All Federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
5. Prizes will be assigned to those who have been identified as winners.
6. Acceptance of prize offered constitutes permission to use winner’s name and/or likeness for purposes of advertising and trade, worldwide in perpetuity, without future compensation, unless prohibited by law. Entering the contest is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.
7. All programs and guarantees are subject to terms and conditions.
8. FFWD Brands, LLC reserves the right to update the terms and conditions at any time without notification.

Google Buzz is now the new shiny, and represents Google’s big push into social networking meets mobile social meets location services. We know it’s still the early days for Buzz, but it seems like a good time to gauge the opinion of our readers thus far.

Have you had a chance to spend some quality time with Buzz? Do you like the service? Are there parts about it you don’t like? Does it draw you away from other social networks or complement them? Let us know your vote for best social service in the poll below, and be sure to let us know why you picked your favored winner.

Some of the emerging trends in 2010:

Top Trends for Businesses

• The most apprehensive and most traditional companies will start dipping their toes in the water (cause everyone else will have already dove in).
• Each business will begin to set metrics for measuring ROI instead of measuring obscure levels of engagement.
• Companies will begin enforce social  media policies (like the NBA).
• Small business will begin to emerge in the space (via apps like FourSquare).
• Media agencies will begin to expand their offering or partner-up with others who got the skill set they need.

Don’t just take my word for it…check out what the experts have to say!

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

About Seth Godin

Seth Godin is an entrepreneur and blogger who thinks about the marketing of ideas in the digital age. His newest interest: the tribes we lead. Full bio and more links

“Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age,” Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. “Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas — usually, but not always, his own.” In fact, he’s as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves.

After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.

“[Godin] is a demigod on the Web, a best-selling author, highly sought-after lecturer, successful entrepreneur, respected pundit and high-profile blogger. He is uniquely respected for his understanding of the Internet.” Forbes.com

As part of its Wave report on Email Marketing Service providers (ESPs), Forrester reviewed 15 vendors against 69 criteria and ranked Responsys and ExactTarget at the top of the pack. All eight Leaders were narrowly separated and achieved Leader status through innovation and a commitment to advancing client education and sophistication.

Evaluated vendors included: Acxiom, Alterian, BlueHornet, ClickSquared, Datran Media, e-Dialog, Emailvision, Epsilon, ExactTarget, Experian Marketing Services, Lyris, Responsys, Silverpop, Yesmail, and Zeta Interactive.

Forrester’s March 2009 US Interactive Marketing Forecast Online Survey found that 92% of respondents are currently using email marketing and spending is expected to balloon to $2 billion dollars by 2014.

When Forrester surveyed 218 clients of the vendors in this wave on how the current economic situation is altering their email programs, very few marketers cited budget cuts. Instead, clients are more demanding of their email service providers because marketers are increasing the relevance of their programs. Email marketing frequency is growing and marketers look to ESPs to offset staffing losses, according to Forrester. The full report included vendor and executive surveys as well as executive interviews.

The report found among the leaders best aligned for large enterprise deployments, Responsys was noted for its comprehensive offerings and functionality, as well as its client satisfaction with its innovation.

ExactTarget was noted for its ability to cater to any market segment. Forrester referenced the company’s “highly usable self-service application and growing services organization that offers the ability for its personnel to be deployed at the client location. With high satisfaction scores and online community, ExactTarget can successfully meet marketers’ complex business needs.”

Another vendors singled out in the report was e-Dialog for its comprehensive application functionality, the ability to quickly segment and query large amounts of data and automate the testing process. Acxiom was acknowledged for quick integration with mobile and social functionality to meet the growing needs of the email marketer. Acxiom is well equipped to manage large global enterprises particularly in a full-service manner.

Yesmail’s variety of self-service and collaborative self-service was called out for its ability to serve a vast selection of market segments. Forrester cited the vendor’s robust tool for managing all aspects of email campaign deployment, including visual tools, a marketing calendar, and OLAP analytics for campaign analysis.

Experian Marketing Services’ platform was credited for excellent production services capabilities as well as a comprehensive self-service application (Experian CheetahMail) that caters to the 40% of its clients that work with the vendor in that fashion. It earned a perfect customer satisfaction score and has a long history of complex data integrations as well as a global footprint.

Epsilon’s DREAM messaging platform was noted for its comprehensive offering all of the necessary functionality to manage and execute mailings. According to the Forrester report, 70% of Epsilon’s clients engage with them in a full or collaborative service manner. Overall, 60% of their clients are full-service, and most are satisfied with the overall account service.

Download the Full Report

+++

Scott Hardigree is CEO at Indiemark, a full-service email marketing agency and consultancy based in Orlando FL.