The public relations profession has long based its rationale for being on delivering “credibility” to clients via positive media coverage. This has traditionally meant coverage in the business and trade press, news and personality magazines, programs, etc. But in our digital age all this scatter shot media exposure has been distilled to a single word – “Google,” both verb and noun, which has emerged as one’s most important credibility quotient.
What has been called “G cred” is the sum total reflection of one’s personal brand as defined by a Google search for your name, business, product, association, etc., Should your Google citation list be short, well, then that is the current state of your professional credibility and industry leadership. From the perspective of the searcher, who may be a prospective client, employer, employee, lover, whatever, Google has become an especially telling measure of one’s reputation and standing.
To succeed in the global business world of the 21st century, one must realize that your persona is your brand and that brand building mandates a high priority and requires one’s constant attention. Building a personal or corporate brand requires an ongoing communications campaign that consistently produces online (read Googled) media coverage that results in a growing collection of quotations, bylined columns, blog entries and comments, podcasts, websites, etc. In the aggregate this list of online citations is the new 21st century resume.
Moreover, many stakeholders and thought leaders (including the mainstream media) get their information primarily from searching the Internet. The first 10 results in a search for a key word determines which sites will get the lion’s share of traffic, who gets requests for interviews, RFPs, and on.
While corporations and institutions rely on PR agencies and squads internal communications professionals, the small business, consulting firm or professional can level the playing field and attain his/her fair share of Google credibility. Whether you can afford to fund a public relations campaign, or must go it along, there are a number of techniques that can cost effectively deliver results. However, whichever way you go, remember you must be committed to partnering effectively with outside counsel or investing the time in your own effort.
The following tactics may not fit every business situation, but the right mix of techniques will, over time, deliver the desired results.
1. Specialized PR agency – If you have the budget, check in with editors of leading industry trade magazines and ask them what PR firms or consultants they respect. Too much PR is boilerplate newswire transmissions. It takes a working knowledge of your industry and key issues to succeed in an environment where journalists are digitally inundated with emailed news releases day-in-day-out.
2. Blog it – Cheap, easy, and accessible to search engine spiders, the blog is the new newsletter. Every field has its leading blogs, but there is always room for another knowledgeable and opinionated voice. Be forewarned, however, creating a successful blog requires constant care and feeding, a minimum of two posts weekly. And, then there is the need to grow links to related blogs, which requires an additional investment in time.
3. Comment on it – If a blog of your own is too onerous a task to take on, make a pledge to comment several times a week to the industry blogs that you regularly read. What, you don’t subscribe to RSS feeds from the top bloggers? Do it now and when a posting hits your sweet spot, spin out a comment.
Articles published in the online editions of publications, such as The Wall Street Journal, are carrying the email addresses of the author. When you have something insightful to share, drop a note to the writer; you may find yourself a source (i.e. quoted) in an upcoming story.
4. The Issues – Make a list of six issues that are changing the face of your industry. Write up an abstract of each (use conference agenda copy as a guide). Then release one issue every two weeks, and viola! you have a twelve week communications program.
(Note, this approach requires that you have access to a source of media contact lists, such as Cision, to gather the email addresses of appropriate journalists. When handled effectively an ongoing issues campaign will deliver a steady stream of interviews (quotes in articles) as well as offers to write bylined columns; so be prepared to deliver on such requests.)
These are a few of the many techniques that can quickly get you into play with key journalists, who are always on the lookout for new, informed voices. The best part about it all is that as you get the routine down and develop the habit of communicating, the job gets easier.
Over time, your list of journalist friends will grow, and they will come to seek your insights, which creates a positive feedback effect that will enhance your Google quotient, not to mention deliver media assets for use in your out-bound marketing campaigns. But, that’s a topic for another column.
Len Stein is president of New Rochelle, NY-based agency Visibility Public Relations.
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