Build your Online Reputation with the right Key Words
23 Oct 2019
23 Oct 2019
The internet and its all-encompassing role is a phenomenon that has taken the world by storm in recent years and is now shaping the way we do things and even conduct businesses. Key word marketing or SEO is a fallout of the growing role of the internet in new age marketing. Picture this, anyone who is looking for anything from buying a house, to going on a vacation, to buying white goods, etc today will first do their bit of research online before narrowing down their options. Search Engines like Google have grown to become the one stop shop for any and everything that you are looking for in life from finding cures for your illness, to meanings of words to something as arcane as how to achieve nirvana.
Marketing Analysts across the globe acknowledge this trend and emphasise the need for companies to wake up to this reality and start adapting themselves to this market reality. Creating a digital footprint for a brand and its offerings is vital today for the success of the company. This is where one needs to adopt a suitable online media strategy that contributes sufficient influence to the brand online. The typical options available for your strategy include Owned, Earned, Paid and Shared media. Building a strong online reputation typically depends on how your harness the earned media opportunities though.
This is where PR and a good content marketing strategy really comes into play. Using the right key words in your PR and messaging approach can do wonders to your online reputation. Here are a few thoughts on how companies can achieve this through their PR campaigns.
Today attention spans are shrinking and the chances of someone finding your content and moreover clicking on it will depend entirely on its title. So invest the right amount of time to come up with a creative headline for your posts. However, keep in mind that your title cannot be advertising speak, it needs to be functional and catchy at the same time. Hence bringing in the right key words in a crisp yet creative manner is key to a powerful title in PR messaging.
The body of your articles needs to reemphasize the key messaging of the brand using the right key words in various contexts. This helps build credibility and will project the article as being authentic and original as opposed to being plagiarised. Today just key words are not sufficient as one needs to factor in catch phrases that people would search for as well. So in the case of a Market Research firm phrases such as ‘Global Market Research firm’ could be useful. This trend is also reflected in Google Adwords where the settings prompt users to not just adjust key words but also search phrases as well.
Optimizing the press release in such a way to make the content topical and crisp will help build influence for each release. It is impossible to insist to the media to cover your press releases but optimizing your release in a creative way and making it topical will definitely encourage them to cover it and also ensure wider circulation and virality. Such releases also earn better rankings on Google searches due to its viral influence.
The media and messaging around is constantly changing and we have to keep on top of new key words that are trending. Just to give you an idea, about a decade ago there used to be only ecommerce startups that were trending and today you have so many more startup categories such as Fintech, Foodtech, Mobility, VAS, etc to name a few. Updating the right key words to your blog posts and other external messaging through PR is another crucial aspect of building a digital footprint.
While the above examples revolve around Earned media examples, Shared Media which is in the area of Social Media is a not so distant cousin of PR in itself. Amplifying all blog posts and media coverage that appears online through your social media handles is another way of building your online reputation. Social media handles on platforms such as Linkedin with sufficient followers will further help amplify these messages from the company and also in encouraging conversations around the brand/ product.
In summary your online reputation or your digital footprint is a permanent history of your existence. Making it positive and complementary to your marketing efforts depends entirely on the way you nurture and shape it. Investing that little time regularly on your online reputation management will go a long way in brand building for your company and the much needed credibility for your offerings.
