Most marketers have by now figured out how to use search engine optimization and ad placement optimization to yield better results from their digital marketing efforts. But they are missing a third tool to help them get the best results. In our work with clients we invariably find that earned media accounts for a sizable portion of all traffic and lead generation (it's not unusual to see it account for anywhere from 25% to 40%). Optimization experts often talk of ...

Republished From Institute For Public Relations Conversations Digest // "What do web analytics have to do with public relations?" It's a good question, given that web analytics are most often used by SEO professionals and online marketers to track visitors and sales from search results and content advertisements. The digitization of communications has enabled marketers to better understand the impact of their campaigns by directly measuring audience behavior. This is critical to companies that spend large sums on buying media placements ...

I saw a provocatively titled post on the PRSA wesbite yesterday, called, "Analog vs. Digital: Traditional Media Fights to Remain Relevant". Like everyone else, I've seen a lot of these stories lately and it seems that mainstream media has been pronounced dead. But, based on what I've seen in our own research on traditional and social media, calling mainstream media dead or irrelevant seems very premature and it misrepresents the actual dynamics and information exchange between mainstream and social media. The ...

We were curious to read the recently published study correlating social media engagement and financial performance for the world’s 100 most valuable brands (per Interbrand), published by the Altimeter Group and WetPaint, since it covers an issue we are particularly interested in: how do you link a brand’s social media activities to bottom-line results? To add to our interest, the study used very similar methodology to the one we used in a study we released earlier this year, where we ...

So says a new study examining traditional news and blog coverage of the 2008 presidential election. Researchers at Cornell used computer algorithms to identify, track, and pinpoint the origin of repeated phrases on 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs. While a small subset of blogs such as Hot Air and Talking Points Memo generated internet widespread memes, most blogs lagged behind mainstream media by about 2.5 hours. With Twitter getting all the credit for breaking the news of Michael Jackson’s death, ...