Public Relations Propaganda, Hype and Fluff – Words Not to Use

I was doing some press material editing recently and read the phrase “state-of-the-art.” That’s a big red flag for me and I know it’s a media pet peeve. So I decided to come up with a list of words and phrases that you should avoid in your public relations outreach. This included press releases, media kits, pitching, blogs, etc. These words lessen the credibility of what you have to say.

• Always
• Best
• Best-of-breed
• Biggest
• Boasts
• Breakthrough
• Cutting-edge
• First
• Flexible
• Never
• Next generation
• Only
• Out-of-the-box
• Perfect storm
• Revolutionary
• Robust
• State-of-the-art
• Unique
• User friendly
• World class

David Meerman Scott hits the nail on the head. Check out www.webinknow.com, and The Gobbledygook Manifesto -- Cutting Edge! Mission Critical! An analysis of gobbledygook in over 388,000 press releases sent in 2006.
If you have words you want to add to this list, please post a comment or send me an email. Gina (at) furiarubel.com.

Online Contest a Slam Dunk for Website Traffic

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) partnered with 5W Public Relations in New York to generate traffic to their newly redesigned website. The team devised a web based contest that I thought was absolutely brilliant and fun – check it out!

The web based contest, PetStyle Contest, invited animal lovers to upload their favorite picture of their pets. Piggy backing off of American Idol’s voting tactics, registered users were allowed to vote for their favorite picture. The top 10 pictures won various prizes.

This fun and innovative contest yielded great results for the SPCA:

Coverage by industry reporters on local and regional beats, publications and blogs
Viral penetration by “send a friend email option” which was utilized 9,500 times
Generated traffic – 1.5 million pageviews (doubling previous total)
Created new brand loyalty – 700 people offered to volunteer for SPCA
Active participation in event – 3,650 photos submitted and 12,500 voters

The next time you are thinking of a creative way to drive more traffic to your website and satisfy your customers – remember the SPCA’s creative efforts. It’s not only beneficial to you but also to your audience.

For more information check out http://www.spca.org/

Glossary of Web 2.0 and Social Media Terms by Digital Influence Group

For those of you still trying to figure out all of the new vocabulary used to identify all of the cool tools and features of Web 2.0 and social media, there is a great glossary of terms provided by Digital Influence Group - a company started by Larry Weber. Larry is the author of "Marketing to the Social Web" which is a must read!

Digital dark ages. Are you still asking, "What are widgets and who are Slide and RockYou!?

Business Week department editor Heather Green reports in this blog that

With 150 million daily slide shows served, Slide is claiming to be the biggest widget
company. Impressive numbers, but I was speaking with RockYou yesterday and they say that they're serving 100 million widgets a day. Of course, as folks start claiming big numbers, we're going to need outside ways of verifying them.

For those who are still in the digital dark ages, you may be asking, "what are widgets, and who are Slide and RockYou!?"

So to add a little insight:

Slide helps you publish and discover personalized Slide Shows of photos and other digital content. Launched in 2005 by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Slide lets you use photos and other digital content to publish and discover the people and things that matter to you. Slide can be embedded onto any website, viewed on your desktop or shared with your friends or fans.

RockYou! creates and distributes the most popular self-expression widgets on the web. RockYou!'s viral accessories can be used to enhance the look and feel of any blog, personal website, and are used on social networks like MySpace, Bebo, or Facebook. RockYou! widgets include photo slide shows, glitter text and voicemail accessories that enable people to stand out on social networks.

Widget: (As per Wikipedia since this definition hasn't hit Merriam-Webster's yet) In computer programming, a widget (or control) is an interface element that a computer user interacts with, such as a window or a text box. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a mouse cursor, vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with a finger. Widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits. Programmers use widgets to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Another definition can be found at dict.die.net.

Bottom line: These are all tools to help you communicate more efficiently and effectively in the digital age. How can attorneys use them ethically? That's yet to be discovered.

What's a Blogment

So, have you heard the term "blogment" yet? I have. It means that you have been mentioned on another's blog. The phrase was coined by C. Scott Rubel. Relative of mine? Of course. He's my husband. And I loved the term so much that I thought I'd add it to my blog and see if it catches on. So if you read this post, please pass this along and we'll see how soon it makes its way to Wikipedia.

Metadata

An excellent article about Metadata can be found at http://www.lawpro.ca/LawPRO/metadata.pdf. It's a must read!

SEO - Search Engine Optimization Measurement

There are so many ways to get your website noticed, yet SEO is an evolving science that calls for a strong knowledge of the marketplace. Today, I read several articles on SEO and how to measure your Web presence.

First, start with SEOMOZ.org. Click on the link in the green box that says "click here" then type in the URL that you want to search. How does your firm rank and do you know what that means?

Then, go to DMOZ.org and see if your site is listed. If not, find the right category and get your firm in there. Believe me, it helps. Every bit does.

You can also check out Spyfu.com. Enter your domain and get an idea of your overall visibility. Check out Alexa.com and find out more information. Then go to zippy.co.uk and get even more information.

One way to get your site notices is to serve as a contributor to Wikipedia. I haven't done this yet but I think I will soon start . . . .

Gina Rubel, Esq.
a.k.a. The PR Lawyer
Furia Rubel Communications, Inc.
http://www.furiarubel.com/