Exploring the White Hat Station

Maintaining a good online reputation is a critical to ensuring the success of your online business. This article will provide you with information about online public relations, or online PR, and how client testimonials can help you create a positive image. Whether you're a small business just starting out or a large corporation, the following information will be beneficial to you.

Online public relations, or online PR, leverages traditional public relations news to increase visibility and traffic, and marry them with online strategies such as search engine optimization and social networking.

Online PR - Who Needs It?
Online public relations can help just about any business or person. For example, let's say that you're a management company that recently took over a once riddled with problems business. Many of the loyal customers were turned off by the previous management company and there are a lot of bad reviews online. It's your job to tell them about the new management team and how the problems they once experienced will never be an issue ever again. But how do you go about doing that?
Well, there are several ways to get started implementing a positive online PR campaign for your business. Here are just a few of those ways:

Online PR and Client Testimonials
Client testimonials aren't always the easiest thing to get. Sure, your customers love your business - but do they love it enough to put it on paper or video? You can spend weeks, sometimes months, trying to get a few good testimonials for your website. This generally begs the question, are client testimonials worth it? The short answer is YES.

Most client testimonials do create a favorable impression and they're usually effective. In fact, a recent article in Scientific American, 'How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results,' explains why client testimonials are often more favorably looked upon than the factual product information on your site.

It may sound a little crazy, but client testimonials actually trigger primitive survival instincts in humans. There's a reason why so many effective marketing programs use on testimonials to promote a product or service. Humans pay attention and value stories from other humans - that's just the way we're wired. This is what makes client testimonials so effective!

So, the next time you're wondering whether it's worth the time and effort to gather client testimonials, you already know the answer - YES!

Online PR and Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a fundamental internet marketing strategy that takes online media such as websites, articles and blogs, and makes them attractive and relevant to search engines. Good online PR firms will integrate search engine optimization into your online public relations strategy to improve your organization's branding, which can result in direct improvement in the number of visitors, leads and sales your website receives.

By identifying target keywords and creating keyword-optimized press releases about your company, its products and/or its services that are distributed through online, you can increase your online visibility to potential clients or consumers. Once your optimized press release has gone out, you can then syndicate the release to ensure that it has been picked up by search engines to maximize your exposure.

Online PR and Social Networking
Online public relations through social networking is another method for generating publicity for an organization through social media outlets including online communities and websites. Tools such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds, blogging, and social bookmarking (Digg, Technorati, et al) can all be used to increase your online press release exposure.

A good online PR firm can help you develop an online public relations strategy that incorporates social networking tools that fit into the scope of your business. These tools will help your organization spread content across the web, increase the number of links coming into your site, make bookmarking easy and encourage your visitors to keep coming back for updates.

Leverage Online PR to Build Your Online Reputation and Increase Visibility
Build and maintain a positive online reputation by developing an online public relations strategy that incorporates keyword-optimized press releases that are distributed for maximized exposure. Your online visibility will increase, leading to higher traffic and greater sales.

About the Author:

Sheila Kloefkorn is President of KEO Marketing, a marketing firm specializing in innovative online strategies including search engine marketing and optimization, online advertising, social networking and media. Visit our website for more on online public relations services in Arizona.

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