Defining Moments: Yahoo News, Blue Ticks and EEAT
Over the last month, we witnessed some big changes at Twitter HQ, Google Bard joined the AI scene, PRWeek UK recognised Definition Group as the fifth fastest-growing agency in the country and OTM Create joined the group!
But don’t worry, we’ve also got all the #B2B #MediaRelations, #SEO, content, and social media updates you need to know.
Let’s get stuck into this month’s newsletter.
??? Highlight reel: Cielo ???
Cielo Talent is a global talent acquisition partner that helps organisations across the globe attract and retain the best people. We’ve worked with Cielo for many years to keep their thought leaders at the centre of constantly evolving conversations about talent acquisition, retention and more.
In just the past few months, we’ve given Cielo experts a platform to discuss important topics like burnout, neurodiversity, DEI&B, workplace conflicts and support for parents and caregivers.
We’ve also helped Cielo share its deep expertise in the manufacturing, life sciences and tech sectors. These sectors are uniquely affected by talent shortages and falling retention levels – but Cielo’s thought leaders and industry influencers have the advice to help them weather the storm.
We worked with these experts to develop content covering how each sector is affected and what businesses can do to stay one step ahead. Then, we launched a bold media relations play to get these insights into sector-specific publications.
The results were great – in the trade media and beyond. Cielo’s thoughts on neurodiversity in the workplace were?published on Yahoo Finance, and their industry leaders have featured on platforms such as?People Management,?IT Pro,?Industry Today,?E&T and more.
Within the first three months of working on the new strategy, we secured coverage with top-tier, sector-specific publications with a combined reach of just under nine million.
Watch this space for more…
?? Definition coverage check ??
Here’s a small selection of hits that we earned for our clients (and a few for our team, too!)
?? Social media low-down ??
Elon Musk's new rules on Twitter verification mean changes to how businesses operate on the platform – you now need to be verified to run ads on Twitter. Verification currently costs ￡1,140 per month for large UK businesses (and around $1,000 elsewhere in the world). It looks like smaller businesses will pay a smaller fee. This wasn't communicated in the official announcement and was confirmed by Musk on his own Twitter earlier this month. The exact cost and process for SMBs to become verified have not been confirmed... yet.
Before committing to a verified account, businesses need a strong case to justify the cost. If your business relies on the platform for customer service, it might make sense to pay for verification. Consider the risk-versus-reward carefully – and if you need help deciding, don't hesitate to reach out to us!
Whilst Twitter faces backlash, LinkedIn is investing in its editorial divisions. The platform is rolling out FREE verification. It’s currently only in the US, but it won’t be long until it reaches more countries.
As more businesses, thought leaders and journalists leave Twitter, investing time and resources in LinkedIn is a good idea. Why? For a start, the platform offers a huge opportunity for business leaders to apply Google’s EEAT (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) framework to build credibility and value.
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?? Pitch perfect ??
Journalists have plenty to write about, so they need to know why they should prioritise your story NOW. When we're working on stories, one of our main focuses is finding the right?'hook' for the right journalist. Some will be interested in an anniversary of an important event (you’ll often see IT trade publications cover anniversaries of significant cyberattacks), while others will be more open to covering awareness days (national consumer newspapers will often write about health-related awareness days). Broadly speaking, B2B-focused reporters like newly released data.
There are all sorts of hooks you can use, including:
Anecdotal evidence can be used as a hook, but it needs to be strong – you must show that it’s replicable and factual.
Some valuable resources for finding news hooks include:
?? A slice of SEO ??
Our SEO team recently worked with a company who were really struggling to improve its priority keyword rankings. It didn’t take us long to spot a major issue. We found over 70,000 indexable website pages (pages this company was suggesting Google should include in search engine results) only one folder away from the homepage, e.g. www.example.com/one-subfolder.
Google has previously discussed having all your website pages only one subfolder down in your website directory structure. It makes it difficult for search engines to understand the importance of different pages on your site and can also make it difficult for users to find the content they’re looking for.?
This company was effectively telling Google that at least 70k pages were as important as each other. It also meant the experience, expertise, authority, and trust (EEAT) equity signals from successful PR campaigns were spread over thousands of thin pages instead of focusing on the most important pages designed to generate traffic and leads.
Our tip: Use a hierarchical directory structure with your most important pages at the top level and the less important pages further down. This will help search engines understand your site’s hierarchy and improve the rankings of your most important pages.?
?? The write stuff ??
When a brand gets its tone of voice right, most people don’t even notice. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make an impact. Without the reader realising, tone shapes the way they think of – and even feel about – a brand. Is it serious and professional? Approachable and friendly? Trendy and energetic?
Tone is more of an art than a science (although there’s still plenty of science involved, just ask our colleagues at Schwa ). There’s a lot more to it than we can hope to convey here, but check out these three quick tips:
That’s all for now. Hit the subscribe button and we’ll update you with something new and exciting every month!