PHASEOUS is pleased to announce the launch of www.burtontrent.com

Burton Trent is a multi-dimensional public affairs and communications firm that operates throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. They are recognized for both their experience and relationships that have been built on mutual trust, as well as their willingness to roll-up-their-sleeves, do research, and delve into nuances. They excel at assessing and anticipating the uncertainties of significant corporate challenges when dealing with elected and appointed officials and then provide actionable contingency plans. Their clients appreciate that when they commit to taking on an issue they are an unwavering advocate to help them achieve their goals.

PHASEOUS is pleased to announce the launch of the completely redesigned www.girlsfightback.com

Girls Fight Back empowers women and girls to lead safe and peaceful lives through motivational keynotes and workshops at high schools, colleges and corporations. GFB is comprised of professional speakers (trained in self-defense) and talent agencies working together to produce live events in cities worldwide.

When Facebook unveiled the ability for web content creators to embed their "Like" feature in third-party websites in April, it had the potential to be a game changer practically overnight. The concept of directly leveraging Facebook's user-base to drive traffic to one's blog was huge. But would it actually work?

Since in the world of analytics we like to see hard data, this week Mashable reported that after users of blog platform TypePad installed the Facbook "Like" capability on their blogs, traffic to their blogs increased by 50%. Since most modern CMS' like Joomla and Drupal (let alone WordPress) are essentially blogs on steroids, it is reasonable to deduce that the same benefit can be seen when implementing the Facebook "Like" feature on a CMS-built website. Just make sure that the content your are linking via the "Like" feature provides value, entertainment or both....otherwise you will loose trust and harm your online reputation.

PHASEOUS is please to anncounce the launch of the completely redesigned corporate website for Camp Bow Wow, North America’s provider of premier doggy day and overnight Camps and premier in-home pet care. Built from the ground up with the social web in mind, www.campbowwowusa.com was tailored to pet lovers who wish to interact, watch their dogs play (via camper cams) as well as provide information to potential franchisees.

Today it is more important than ever to understand and appreciate the nuances of how authoring content for the web differs from old-school press release and marketing copywriting. Gone are the long and elaborate introductory paragraphs. As search engines treat the information at the beginning of a string (i.e. title or sentence) with greater importance than the copy that follows later, it is critical to be terse and to the point. Get your message across as efficiently as possible and you'll be sure to reap the benefits of this new thinking. The way in which Twitter has become a real-time search engine further underscores the fact that brevity has its merits. Mike Kalil recently wrote about this topic over on SEOmoz.org. The following is an excerpt from that post:

 

Get to the point. Make it clear from the get-go what your release is about. Don't try to be cute. I used to get releases all the time from PR people who buried the news or tried to get creative with their writing. Sometimes, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what some releases were even about. If you're looking for a creative outlet, press release writing is not the avenue. Try writing a short story.

At least pretend you're objective. Obviously, you have a vested interest in what you're writing about, but it's still important to craft your releases like down-the-middle news stories. Avoid unnecessary adjectives; most adjectives are unneeded. You don't want your release to read like an advertisement. Pick out the newsiest element and concentrate on that.

Speak English. I see releases all the time that are stuffed with industry jargon that most people do not understand. Don't assume that what you're writing about is a familiar subject for the people who'll read your release. Dumb it down. Assume your release will be read by the densest guy in the room.

Send it out manually. Instead of just dumping your releases into submission sites and hoping someone important notices, email it yourself to media outlets and bloggers you think might be interested in it. If you're publicizing a new product, send your release to newspapers in the company's area. If you can, find out which reporters cover the relevant beat and send it to them directly; that usually only takes a phone call.

Have good timing. If you're looking for coverage, sending your release out on Election Day or after hours on a Friday is goofy. Those are good times to release bad news you're obligated to report – any White House spokesman will tell you that – but it'll do you no good unless your story is wildly sensational. News outlets are typically more desperate for copy during the summer months and around holidays.

Act like a human. Interactivevoices' post about getting a link from CNN.com – the only PR10 news site – illustrated this perfectly. There's no harm in picking up the phone and calling reporters directly to see if they're interested in your story. For all you know, the only thing preventing your news from being published is an over-finicky spam filter. Don't beg. When I was working as a reporter, I didn't realize why some sources were so hellbent on me including links in my stories. Now I know. If your link is relevant to the story, the reporter will probably include it. If not, you're still getting good publicity. Of course, all of this will only help if you actually have something worthwhile to say. If you think there's nothing interesting to say about your enterprise, you're probably wrong. You just need to think long and hard to figure out what it is.

In the end, content generation is about providing value. Give you audience something they can use and they'll be sure to be back for more.

Its no news that realtors are looking for innovative ways to generate leads these days. What is different is how they're able to efficiently leverage technology to achieve their goals and set themselves apart from the competition. As we've discussed in the past, merely having a website is hardly enough to make a difference. Furthermore, most realtor websites are merely sub-accounts on their parent-organization's main site. From a SEO (search engine optimization) perspective, this is troubling in that the individual agents aren't fully in control of their own site content and are therefore unable to effectively leverage SEO best-practices. In most cases, establishing a web presence outside of the parent organization is crucial to distinguish yourself from the pack. While plenty of SEO and social media experts will tell you that you need a blog to attract search engines to your content, the reality is that most people do not have the time nor the resources to properly maintain a quality blog that would attract search engine attention. Luckily, there is a simpler solution. Micro-blogging websites such a Twitter are ideal places for realtors to talk about their listings and easily publish links to photos and MLS information. This capability is further extended through the use of mobile devices that can post content on the fly to Twitter (especially with plugin apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and other PDA's). Once you combine this with the fact that Twitter is FREE and can be automatically linked with a Facebook account, the amount of reach to potential clients expands dramatically. Another effective, albeit expensive, option is PPC or pay-per-click advertising. Sure Google AdWords can be very effective. The issue comes down to advertising budget. Especially in saturated markets such as the north east, the cost of entry can be prohibitive for individuals. In cases such as these, it may be more effective to pool money in a co-op or through the parent organization as opposed to individually created advertising campaigns.

With the growing number of public relations agencies delving into digital & social media, the misunderstanding and misuse of these new technologies and capabilities appears to be the standard rather than the exception. David Henderson addresses this point beautifully in his post about The Changing Face of PR Leadership. If these major agencies are to survive, they need to evolve their strategies around these new capabilities rather than cramming their old sqaure tactics through the round hole of digital marketing and social media.

Even though its widely accpeted in the SEO community that flash based websites are not search engine friendly, this information isn't universally known, let alone properly understood. A recent discussion on this topic convinced me that this subject was worth revisiting. Put simply, the way search engines work is that when they get hip to your site (usually via a URL from another site they're already indexing) they will index your site. The indexing process involves the scanning the content of your site (called "crawling") and then associating the text content and meta data to a relational database. This is how search engines decide what your site is about and how to include it in their search directories. The important distinction here is text. Search engine "bots" can't read images, let alone text trapped in images. As FLASH content is image and animation based, its content is almost completely invisible to search engines. Its fine to use flash for media players and cool effects, but its a very bad idea to build the site entirely in flash. While accessibility is one thing (mobile devices, disabled users, etc can't display/understand flash), not even showing up in search engines is a whole other issue. Phaseous Phact: If you want your website to show up in search engines when users search for your proucts and services (not just your company name ur URL), do not build your entire website in flash.

This morning I happened upon this AP story from CNN.com where the author suggested President-Elect Obama may have to give up his Blackberry handheld because his emails could be subpoenaed and made public, not to mention the fact that consumer cell devices are rather easily tracked. As a technology expert and enthusiast, I have to take issue this this argument. The rule of thumb for corporate America is simple: do not put anything in a work email that you wouldn't want to appear on the front page of The New York Times. The same should hold true for any public official utilizing "official" equipment. While there are matters of national security to take into consideration, but most electronics manufacturers (let alone contractors to the Department of Defense) offer secure encrypted versions of their regular products for official use. Research in Motion (RIM), the company behind the popular Blackberry handheld offers a secure version of their product. In the end, it really comes down to judgement. People should not be afraid to use these technologies They just need to include common sense with their execution. It would be a shame fore the President-Elect to cease using his productivity-boosting devices. His campaign was revolutionary in its communications methods to its supporters, leveraging the best in social media (Twitter & Facebook) and email marketing. This is a key ingredient in this day and age if his administration whishes to contiune the transparency they've touted throughout the campaign. One key security issue I will agree with is cell signal triangulation. However, one would think that the military would have figured out ways around that. After all, that's their job.

While investing in SEO in today's market can be one of the most cost-effective and import things a business can do, there are certain cases where it may not be ideal. As discussed over on searchengineguide.com:

If you have created a completely new product that serves a completely new niche, there simply may not be enough people searching for it to make search marketing efforts worthwhile. If this is the case, you'd do far better to spend your money engaging a good public relations firm or working on a social media strategy that will help you break into the marketplace by engaging your customers in the places where they have conversations. You'll have to educate them before you have any shot at selling to them.

Akin to balancing your financial portfolio, its important to properly balance your marketing strategy. Sure, SEO can be incredibly impactful, but its not a magic bullet. Its critical to perform the necessary market reserach to best determine how much search volume there is about your particular area and what the best course of marketing a promotion should be in your case.