Social Media & SEO

Mankind’s digital exhaust is social science’s Big Data. We create digital data with every post, purchase or picture. This offers social scientists access to previously unimaginable reams of data. Coupling that with new computing power and the possibilities are endless, argues Peter Zandan, global vice chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Brands can decode what makes ideas spread, how purchasing decisions are reached and who and what influences influencers. It’s time to prepare, he writes.

The expectation is that video will be about 80 percent of internet traffic in 2020. That means brands need to craft videos that are compelling enough to break through a great deal of noise. This mini-case study explains how a law firm’s marketing chief cleverly destroyed the recruitment video model. He also put a human face on what’s often perceived as a cold, impersonal profession.

Depending on where you live you might have the winter blues. Believe it or not, this is a real condition. As you will read in this case study, Arizona used the winter blues as part of a social campaign to encourage tourism. Turns out Arizona is the country’s sunniest state.

When you think of financial services, references to pop culture and current trends are likely not the first things that come to mind. Yet in a recent campaign, investment firm Vanguard managed to leverage some pop culture staples, along with adopting a more relatable vernacular across social media channels. In its “Invest Like You Own the Place” effort, Vanguard’s social team empowered and engaged current and potential clients with a combination of bold red visuals, humor, contests and fan stories.

In this first of a two-part series, SEO expert Luke Budka takes a basic approach to improving a company’s reputation using Google. For example, when you Google your business name, is it the first thing that comes up. Even better, everything Budka recommends here is free.

Our (almost) year-end look at social media engagement by B2C and B2B brands shows a pattern in both categories. Engagement is off year over year. Data is provided exclusively to PRNEWS by data partner Shareablee.

What’s ahead for social media in 2020? For starters, it appears the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will continue to hound brands and influencers who misrepresent themselves to consumers on social. Fortunately, the FTC has re-issued its guidelines in a plain-language format. There’s even a video.

If you’re seeing purple today there’s nothing wrong with your eyes. It’s World Pancreatic Cancer Day 2019, and purple is the designated color for the awareness campaign associated with this deadliest of cancers. Hill+Knowlton managing director Larry Krutchik offers social media lessons learned during the 2018 effort.

At PRNEWS, we thought about how to utilize Slack to connect our readership and community. How could we leverage the relationships we’ve built with amazing contacts to benefit those outside of our circle, and bolster an entire community? And with that, we created the PR and Communications Pros Slack group.

South Dakota’s PR campaign around the state’s methamphetamine epidemic accomplished what it set out to do—create awareness around a state-wide health crisis. But the play on words, “Meth. We’re on it,” superimposed over pictures of teens, farmers and older women, also ignited a debate about the high cost of quick-won awareness, and whether it’s true that “there’s no such thing as bad PR.”