SmallBusinessNewz

Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing recently spoke on a panel at the Online Marketing Summit about the intersection of social, search, and public relations. He talked a bit about this concept with WebProNews in an interview.

Essentially, Odden equates journalists to customers, and emphasizes the idea of optimizing content for what journalists are looking for. As he says, you can get credibility, and sales as a result of media coverage. You can also get links, which can help you in search engines.

"Why not look at what it is you can do as a marketer to make it easier for journalists to do their job," says Odden. Based on a survey he was involved with, 91% of journalists say they use Google, 27% say they use social media to find people they can interview.

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One reporter he talked to, he says, told him he starts everyday with search. It's not unreasonable to assume that this is common practice among not only journalists, but bloggers as well, who can serve many of the same purposes, in terms of giving your business media coverage.

Odden suggests optimizing your news content for what a journalist is looking for, by adding words like "expert" for example, or adding specifications like credentials, trends, etc.

The survey Odden refers to was from 2008, and it is probably a safe bet that social media has become a more popular tool since then. It certainly has in general, so and just watching/listening to/reading the news, it's pretty evident that this is the case for journalists as well.