Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy, Revised and Updated

THE SYNERGIES OF SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA AND PUBLIC RELATIONS

Consider that the public relations (PR) you do or social media you become involved with will live well beyond the initial publication or post.

For instance, consider a restaurant. In years past, a positive write-up in a newspaper or magazine might result in filled tables the next weekend. One neighbor recounting a delicious meal to another neighbor while walking the dog might get the restaurant an additional reservation that week.

But consider how things have changed with our increasing reliance on search. When visiting Bologna, Italy in 2009, I decided to venture into the town for lunch. How did I pick a location in a city famous for its food? With the help of a search engine, of course. Searching for “best place to have lunch in Bologna Italy” brought up an article in The Guardian called “24 hours in Bologna: Foodie Heaven” that listed five promising choices. These five restaurants didn’t only get the lift in visibility during the week that article initially ran in the paper or among regular readers. The article was written in 2000 and was still showing up on the first page of search results—thanks to one positive customer review.

I did the same search in December 2011 and that article is still not only listed on the first page of the search results, but is also now ranking even higher than in 2009. That’s 11 years of payoff for one piece of public relations.

Also in the top five was a discussion of Bologna restaurants ...