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Public Relations Online | Blogs, Press Releases, and Websites (Oh My!)
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I got a few more questions about starting a public relations plan online, so I thought I'd share my answers. Below, find some tips on where to blog, where to submit press releases, and how to get traffic to your website from those press releases.

Blogging: Wordpress Versus Blogger

Creating a blog through Blogger or Wordpress is simple, fast, and easy. I recommend doing that instead of trying to build one yourself on your website as that can get a bit tricky and messy. Whatever method you decide, it is vital that you link to your blog from your website and make it clear that you have a blog. Also, try to keep a similar feel to your blog that you find on your website, perhaps even replicating the same design there; that can help to make the transition from the website to the blog (and vice versa) a little more pleasant and can help keep your "brand" visible in both places.

The only downside with using Blogger or Wordpress is that you have to rely on their services to be working, their storage limits, and the limits in terms of design. For example, I was trying to update my blog post with links, and received an error message for half an hour. When it works, though, it works well.

If you don't have an IT team or web design group and know little HTML or CSS yourself, using one of the two blog sites can be very beneficial and time efficient. (There are other sites that let you make blogs as well, but those two are the most well-known, making it easier to find plug-ins, widgets, add-ons, and templates.)

I like Wordpress a little better than Blogger in terms of the use, but to my knowledge, I can do more with Blogger without the same run-arounds that Wordpress makes you do. (For example, I tried to upload a custom blog template to Wordpress, but ran into some issues as WP requires you to upload the template to an FTP site and then to your WP template folder; long story short, it was a pain, and I never did figure it out.)

Press Releases

So far as posting a press release to your blog, feel free to do so. A better solution: create a Newsroom or Mediaroom on your website to post press releases to, articles that you are featured in, news about you on other sites, etc. The media room creates a place for you to post press releases that will stay live as long as they are relevant. (If things change in the company that make a press release irrelevant or detrimental to keep up, take them down.) Sites that let you post free press releases to, like the ones I list here, may only keep your press release live for so long. Thus, posting them to your website can help increase traffic with the keywords you use there longer than the press release sites might do.

So, following from that, yes, people can find your press releases through Google, but you have to post them somewhere first for them to show up in a search engine result. That means that you must submit them to your blog and/or newsroom or some of the free sites at the link above. Then, search engines will help drive traffic to your website or press release. It is crucial that you use keywords that are optimized for search to bring in traffic. Be sure to pay attention to the longer keyword phrases that you may have read about in this post: SEO & Your Blog | Pay Attention to the Long Tail. It is very important to pay attention to the keywords you use in your website and press release copy as that can help to make or break your success.

Your Blog, Press Releases, and Calls to Action

Lastly, just to reiterate, make some calls to action clear in your press releases. Really drive traffic to your website if you post press releases on one of the free sites to help move people through the sales funnel. The first step is getting them to your blog and interacting with your website. People love choice and they love free things, so give them some free things and lots of options on your website in terms of places to click. Make it clear what their next step should be, like reading the recent study you did or the recent piece of advice you're giving away on your blog.

Do you have any other tips for people looking to improve their online PR? Share them in the comments!