Reddit

Reddit is one of the biggest social news sites on the internet. If a story is up-voted on Reddit the resulting interest and site traffic is huge. Don’t believe me? Well here are some stats.

Given the site’s influence, you’d think that use of Reddit would be a priority for the public relations industry?

So why then are there so few PR people reading and contributing to the PR sub Reddit? Twitter is crawling with public relations people, literally teeming with us, the blogosphere is packed with consultants, but when it comes to Reddit… nothing.

Is the problem because of the sub Reddit’s lack of profile? The sub Reddit has been tweeted about and questions have been asked about its use on Quora, yet feedback has been zero.

Could the lack of use be because:
1. PR people don’t know that the sub Reddit exists
2. They are all using Digg (!)
3. The industry doesn’t see any value in social news sites (!!)

I’m baffled, so this is a call to action: “use the sub Reddit.” Read the Reddiquette and don’t be a spammer.

Keanu Reeves as a time traveller...

Why is the internet currently obsessed with Keanu Reeves?

This is a PR blog and the internet meme is an industry obsession, so I am really keen to found out more about what makes a good internet meme.

In an attempt to make sense of this phenomenon and blog on the topic, I am currently interested to find out why Keanu Reeves has become a cult internet figure, much like Rick Astley, with sites like Reddit posting about him regularly.

If you have anything sensible to say on the subject, please leave a comment on the blog, or answer my request here on Quora.

If I get some good insight from this I will be blogging about this topic here on my PR blog

**update** here is one answer via Quora, from Joseph Jegvan-Andrej Cir. He said:

I believe it stems from two events. The first was when the story broke about Keanu giving away $72 million of his own money to crew who worked on The Matrix in the believe that they had been unfairly compensated. There is a notable story in itself, worthy of some mention and bearing some repeating. That is the kind of justice the internets can get behind.

The second is a sub-meme which branched from this initial spike in popularity: the photo of him sitting on a bench, looking miserable, and eating a sandwich. http://img.timeinc.net/time/dail… This photo is basically asking to be shopped, and shoppery is a very effective means of spreading a meme.

I am basing most of this on reddit, which is lately the place where I put my fingers to feel the meme-pulse of the web

**Update two** @inkhuldra from Norway via Twitter posted this helpful link

This is the link from the tweet which details everything you’ve ever needed to know about the Keanu meme.

**Update 3**
This helpful answer was lifted from Ask Reddit:

Despite the huge movies that he has featured in and the millions of dollars that he has earned, he is has been an exemplary person. He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying motorcycles for all of the stunt workers from the Matrix because he felt that they did all the hard work. He has taken care of a sister for quite a few years who has been suffering from Leukemia. In addition to this, he actively donates quite a lot of money and does fund raising for Leukemia research. He has given up money for roles so that he can bring on other actors that he wants to work with. The list goes on and on.
Despite the opportunities and resources that he has, he lives a relatively modest life, giving what he can so that others can benefit more than himself. He is sort of a model for what celebrities should and can be.

The link between SEO and PR is nothing new but recently everyone’s been talking it. More and more public relations and optimisation consultancies are starting to truly understand the interrelation between the two disciplines, although there are lots of consultancies who talk the talk but can’t walk the walk.

In both the SEO and PR industries there is widespread debate about consolidation between the two specialisms, and I expect over the next few years that the big PR groups will be acquiring SEO companies (in fact a few mergers, buyouts and even senior appointments of SEOs are already taking place).

Despite this trend, too many SEO and PR companies just don’t understand the other’s profession.

Some SEOs think that PR is submitting content to newswires, while there are far too many PR people that don’t even know what optimisation is or why an in-bound link has value, let alone more advanced SEO concepts.

Those of us in PR know that, while submitting content to newswires and article sites has SEO benefits, very few techniques can create high quality links like PR. And when I say PR I mean, good old fashioned media relations, never mind the ‘social’ side.

For example, can an SEO company get you a link on the BBC website? Only good old media relations can do that.

Likewise, though, can the average PR, fiddle under the hood of a website to optimise your site for search purposes, The answer is of course ‘no’.

The two disciplines need each other.

As illustration of the similarity between SEO and PR, during a recent PR campaign I analysed how many links were created and now pointing to a client’s site.

Over a third of all the links created were from press coverage or blogger engagement. And we hadn’t even been trying to build links; this was merely a by product of our work.

There are other metrics too, like site traffic and bounce rates, but it is the basics (link building) that many don’t understand.

In summary, SEO and PR are incredibly complementary for these eight reasons:

1 – 65 per cent of Google rankings are made up of off-page factors, such as in bound links
2 – PR campaigns naturally create inbound links, almost as a by product
3 – It is very easy to measure inbound links and prove that they were generated by PR
4 – Good public relations consultancies secure their clients links on high quality sites, such as the BBC, or other national newspapers. The sort of links SEO companies can only dream of
5 – SEO professionals can provide insight for PR campaigns, such as helping define key messaging or campaign targeting. PRs should work with SEO professionals where possible
6 – PR professionals can help with on-site SEO, by developing fresh content, rich in keywords (e.g. a blog, social content)
7 – PR activity can also help dictate the nature of the anchor text (which is another SEO factor)
8 – PR can also improve your social graph. (yet another contributing factor to SEO)

If you are still reading this post, and want to find out more, here is some further reading.
10 ways to make press releases more SEO friendly

There are tips galore on how to make your writing SEO friendly

There are plenty of articles on the best press release distribution services

The world doesn’t need another beginner’s guide to SEO either, but this one is pretty good.