From buzzword to bullsh*t: celebrating 144 years of ‘influencer marketing’
The first known instance of ‘influencer marketing’ was in the late 19th century.
Ian McKee
Why UGC is the future of social media in travel and tourism marketing
Relying on user generated content (UGC) in social media marketing can be a gamble.
It can work if you have a great creative idea, a sizeable existing audience and a brand that people want to engage with.
But if you’re lacking any one of these elements, you could find it’s a steep hill to climb.
The ad-blockers cannot be allowed to win, but they can move the goalposts
My view on ad-blocking has always been pretty hostile.
I can’t understand why the same people who seem to value the web the most are the most likely to not want to make some kind of contribution to it.
Value this content, network or platform? Either pay for it directly or accept that you will have to make some other trade-off.
Seven digital fundraising lessons from my London Marathon experience
I’m not sure how it seems to you, but to me the London Marathon on Sunday is looming like a giant planet that has been slowly encroaching into the Earth’s orbit for the last four months and is suddenly about to make impact.
Can marketing attribution models save PR measurement?
The reason the old standard models of PR measurement no longer cut it can be summarised thusly: the internet.
The shocking truth about SEO: it’s not as complicated as you think
As you probably know by now, SEO and PR are getting more closely related. But there is one aspect that both have always had in common, and that is that both have long been labelled a supposed ‘dark art’.
PR and SEO; mysterious art forms that deal in the unknown, experts fixing things unseen, like wizards behind the curtain.
It has suited both industries, to be known this way.
“Oh, yeah, we just need to curbudgle your whojamaflip. It’s absolutely essential, or you’ll get befluddled. You don’t want to get befluddled. Yes it’s an extra thirty grand.”
How are the UK’s fastest growing companies using Google+?
It’s a common declaration; ‘Google+ is a ghost town’. The search giant has amassed huge user numbers registered on its social network, but the lights are on while nobody’s home.
The numbers seem to suggest as much, with apparently just 35% of Google+’s users active on a monthly basis, but anyone who’s a regular user will tell you the reality is more complicated than that.
The social network has hidden depths, they say. You’re just not doing it right.
In our annual review of how the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 are using social media, we’ve found that the UK’s fastest growing technology companies are flocking to Google+, to the point where it’s on a par with Facebook in terms of businesses having a presence there.
There’s no such thing as online PR
As we all know, digital marketing ceased to exist last year. In January 2013, Forrester announced it was to be the year that ‘digital marketing’ became just ‘marketing’.
I’d like to posit that something similar happened to PR. In fact I think it happened earlier, though we have yet to have had the debate.
There’s no doubt that the internet has changed marketing’s function and activities, but its impact on PR has simply been to expand the discipline’s footprint.
In a world where everyone is a communicator, PR’s influence is all-pervasive. It’s for this reason that I find the term ‘online PR’ to be so reductive.
SEO is now PR, but are PR agencies still not ready?
PR is no longer the future of SEO. It already is PR.
SEOs recognise this, and the majority are now carrying out online PR: whether they call it that or not, all decent SEOs are now creating content and reaching out to online influencers.
General marketers realise this. In a survey we recently conducted of 250 UK marketers, 52% said that PR and SEO work closely together in their organisation, and a whopping 71% think their PR agencies are experts at SEO.
But how are those PR agencies performing in their newfound position as SEO experts?
Here’s why one does not simply ‘learn to code’
‘Learn to code’. Now there’s a phrase that’s been a regular feature on many people’s recent New Year resolutions lists.
A quick check of Google Trends will tell you people started getting interested in late 2008, but it’s really caught on in 2013.
It’s been particularly picked up in the digital marketing community, and quite rightly. A fundamental understanding of the backend workings of digital properties is invaluable knowledge for any digital media or marketing professional.
So firstly, to clear up any confusion, I by no means want to discourage anyone looking to learn, or to be negative about the subject at all. I just want to call for some clarity on what ‘learning to code’ really means.
How Google could fix the press release
The press release, the original tool of the PR pro, is broken.
It happened in stages. First there came email, prior to which press releases had been faxed or posted to editors, the laboriousness of the task forcing PR people to choose their targets with appropriate care and attention.
But with email, you can grab a list and not think twice about bunging it out to all and sundry. The result was laziness leading to abuse.
Then came the SEO industry. The press release’s power for generating link juice was spotted. Stick a press release on a wire and regardless of its quality or newsworthiness, its content and links will get replicated across the web, even on some authoritative domains.
Once again, the result was laziness leading to abuse.