| The New News | | | | and improved care they generate. If Loki found |
| Do you think Google should help people find articles | | | | someone at a credible news source who has written |
| and posts from the news companies that are suing | | | | something about EMRs, then he'd cite him or her on |
| them over copyright issues? The search giant has no | | | | the newsblog. Loki would often add quotes from |
| choice but to send traffic to people who are willing | | | | George Halvorson's writings to his posts, integrating |
| to make their content available on generous terms, | | | | the client's views with the current debate online. |
| and to avoid indexing content that others claim | | | | Optimizing a Blog Post |
| copyright to. This has always been a factor driving | | | | What makes this a complete process for us is when |
| online citizen journalism. It turns out that corporations, | | | | we hook the hired journalist in with the rest of the |
| nonprofit organizations, religious groups, and political | | | | team. Loki suffers from spellus atrocious, which not |
| campaigns can also be journalists, and that their | | | | only results in typos but also in an aversion to |
| journalism can have just as much influence as citizen | | | | spell-checkers. So prior to being published, his posts |
| journalists or media moguls if it's well researched and | | | | were passed to an editor, the amazing Rachelle |
| well produced. | | | | Matherne, owner of FiveByFivePR firm. Rachelle |
| The Origins of Newsblogging | | | | wouldn't just fix the spelling, though. She'd |
| "Newsblogging" is a term I more or less invented to | | | | fact-check, link-check, grammar-check, then optimize |
| describe a style of blogging we stumbled onto in | | | | paragraph length, sentence length and keywords, |
| 2007, and then refined at the online PR firm, Patron | | | | categories, and tags. Finally, she'd tweak the headline |
| Saint Productions. Our process was innovative and | | | | and schedule the post for release. We got so used |
| our results were extraordinary, so I spun the service | | | | to Rachelle's treatment that none of us blogs without |
| off into a separate company in 2010. I partnered with | | | | a net anymore -- it's too dangerous. |
| a former employee, David Reich, to create SixEstate | | | | Images That Won't Get You Sued! |
| Communications. I believe that newsblogging will | | | | Then there's the art department. We decided right |
| rapidly spread in the coming years and we'll see an | | | | away that every post had to have a piece of |
| increasing proportion of news stories produced by | | | | artwork that somehow went with the story, and |
| private organizations, not media outlets. Let me | | | | that we had to have permission to use the art. We |
| explain why this is happening. | | | | quickly expanded the definition of artwork to include |
| No Time to Blog | | | | images, video embeds, slideshows, or any other |
| We came up with newsblogging when we found | | | | visual component. Most of the art we found through |
| ourselves between a rock and a hard place with the | | | | Flickr using CreativeCommons.org, but we now have |
| new technology. The rock is blogging. It enables | | | | several sources, both paid and free, that we draw |
| "principals" -- CEOs, celebrities, spokespersons, political | | | | from. We also created rules for artwork credits and |
| leaders, etc. -- to communicate directly with their | | | | citations. It's still stunning to me to see how many |
| constituents. The thing is, those constituents no | | | | blogs use copyrighted artwork without permission or |
| longer want to hear from me, the PR guy, the | | | | citation. They are begging for trouble. |
| intermediary. They want to hear from the Big Kahuna | | | | Good Content is the Best SEO |
| herself or himself. The hard place, however, is that | | | | As time went on, we've refined the formula based |
| the Big Kahunas don't have the time or journalism | | | | on watching the stats. Every post had to have a |
| skills to blog effectively. The Big Kahunas are | | | | news citation from a credible news source and a link |
| supposed to manage people, make appearances and | | | | to that source. We found that mentioning celebrities |
| run companies, for the most part, not write. They | | | | caused traffic to spike, then drop back down. It's |
| don't have the two hours of concentration required | | | | very seductive to analyze traffic results and engineer |
| each day to research and write a post worth reading. | | | | blog posts that pop in the Google Alerts, but the |
| Ghost Blogging Gets No Respect | | | | focus has to stay on good journalism. One of the |
| The answer some PR firms and marketing | | | | main benefits of a newsblog is that it gets your |
| departments came up with was to hire ghost | | | | viewpoint across to the media. If a journalist visits |
| bloggers; but ghost blogging defeats the whole point | | | | your blog and sees the posts are nothing but a bunch |
| of blogging, because readers want to hear from the | | | | of keyword-laden references to celebrity news |
| Big Kahuna directly. If you don't disclose that you're | | | | stories, it doesn't advance your cause even though it |
| using a ghost blogger, you violate all kinds of ethical | | | | brings traffic. |
| guidelines regarding transparency, authenticity and | | | | A Visibility Machine |
| disclosure. You risk breaking securities laws. And you | | | | At one point, I stepped back and looked at the |
| risk being outed in a potentially embarrassing way. If | | | | beast I had created: the newsblog. What amateur |
| you do disclose you're using a ghost blogger, people | | | | blogger could compete against a professional |
| lose respect for the credibility of the blog. While | | | | journalist, proofreaders, copy editors, optimizers, and |
| people are comfortable with the idea of politicians | | | | traffic analysts? Some amateurs can compete with |
| using speech writers, they're uncomfortable with the | | | | pure passion. But there are only five top spots for |
| idea of blogs using ghost bloggers, even when this | | | | any keyword or phrase. You have to manage several |
| fact is disclosed. | | | | blogs to afford the overhead of a blog-polishing |
| Blogging's Increasing Importance in Marketing | | | | department, but the rewards are worth it. If you run |
| For my firm, the biggest problem became that | | | | a top-five blog, you're not only at the top of the |
| blogging is too important to leave to the principals. If | | | | blog search results for your term, but you also make |
| the Internet is going to be how people discover and | | | | the Google Alerts for that term, which are sent via |
| learn about your organization, and the main way of | | | | email to other people watching those terms. |
| navigating the Internet is via search engines, and | | | | The Power of Google Alerts |
| those search engines display a strong preference for | | | | The reach of a top-five blog is stunning. You don't |
| content on blogs, well then you'd better be blogging, | | | | only make the alerts for your target keyphrases. |
| whether the CEO's good at it or not, because | | | | Because you're a "top blog" you make the alerts for |
| otherwise you will become invisible over time. It's not | | | | almost anything you say. If you mention a healthy |
| that blogging is a good idea; it's blog or disappear. We | | | | restaurant on your health care blog, you might hit the |
| found a way out of this tight jam with newsblogging. | | | | alerts for the restaurant's name because you're a |
| Enter Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson. | | | | "top blog." Your reach is also magnified by RSS, which |
| Kaiser is one of the largest HMOs in the U.S. and | | | | makes it easy to parse your content. Anyone who |
| Halvorson is the company's outspoken leader. In | | | | was following the term "health care reform" using |
| 2006, he put together an outline of what he thought | | | | Google Alerts would see top blog posts from Kaiser |
| was a compelling plan for health care reform, | | | | Permanente's newsblog in their daily alerts. That's |
| published it in a book called Health Care Reform Now!, | | | | why blogging is too important to leave to chance. |
| and pushed it to the center of the health care | | | | Blogging is the road to online visibility -- if you blog |
| debate as U.S. presidential candidates took their | | | | effectively, your content gets visibility in numerous |
| stands leading to the 2008 election. We were hired | | | | search engines and alerts engines. |
| to push this agenda online. | | | | Adding Social Networking to Newsblogging |
| Goldman Sachs and Blog Tours | | | | Does this newsblogging thing sound like a juggernaut |
| I had stopped doing blog tours after a fiasco with | | | | to you yet? Let's add gasoline to fire: hook the |
| Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman Robert Hormats. If | | | | newsblog up to Twitter, Facebook, and the other |
| folks think there's no civility at town hall meetings, | | | | social networks. The newsblog we've created for the |
| they should see the comment streams when | | | | radio industry, Radio 2020, was our next big |
| controversial figures do blog tours. The ugliest side of | | | | experiment. The following image shows the blog |
| America is revealed in the anonymous nastiness that | | | | traffic graph when we added the social networking |
| passes for "discussion" on the Internet. There is no | | | | hookups at the end of 2008. When you hook the |
| way I would recommend a top CEO try to engage in | | | | blog up to your social networks, you can blog in one |
| an open debate on the Internet on a subject as | | | | place and have it appear throughout the network, as |
| supercharged as health care reform. The | | | | a tweet or status update, or a post. |
| conversation becomes dominated by rude and | | | | Credible, Reliable, Transparent |
| profane people who chase the intelligent commenters | | | | If you're like me, your head is spinning right now. |
| away. | | | | How could this be possible? How could corporate |
| Newsblogging is Born | | | | journalism outscore conventional journalism? Where's |
| For Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson, we | | | | the credibility? The reliability? The transparency? In |
| suggested a compromise. We would produce a blog, | | | | newsblogging, they're all there. We don't originate |
| but instead of it being ghost-written by someone | | | | stories as much as call attention to them. That turns |
| pretending to be George Halvorson, we would hire a | | | | out to be a very valuable service. In fact, that's what |
| journalist to blog the news, and Halvorson would add | | | | a good news anchor does, isn't it? -- guiding us |
| the "color commentary" when he had time or when | | | | through stories rather than being the story. Our |
| the news begged for it. At the time, I had George | | | | journalism wins out because it's better produced, |
| "Loki" Williams on my payroll. George runs the blog | | | | more accurate, more "fair" than conventional |
| SocialGumbo -- a top social media blog -- and has a | | | | journalism because we can't take a stand. We're |
| long history of investigative journalism at the local | | | | hired guns. Our news doesn't have the slant of the |
| level. So I put him on the health care beat. | | | | pundits or the authority of the CEOs. It's just the |
| "Riding the News" | | | | news. Told well. From an organization's perspective, |
| Every day, Loki would ride the news feeds for the | | | | transparently revealed. |
| biggest stories in health care reform, then write them | | | | Is Corporate Journalism Legitimate? |
| up on the blog. His job was to find good journalism | | | | Is newsblogging good journalism? Why is Rupert |
| on the issue, summarize it and point to it on the | | | | Murdoch's journalism any better than, say, the United |
| newsblog. Rather than adding one more voice, the | | | | Auto Workers' journalism, when it comes to covering |
| blog was a survey of other voices, and as such it | | | | the auto industry? Both publishers have an agenda. |
| became quite successful. How successful? The | | | | Ratings is an agenda. The question is whether or not |
| screen capture below shows the Google Blog Search | | | | the agenda is revealed and whether or not the news |
| results. We were the number-one "related blog" on | | | | is well reported. After seeing what passes for |
| Google for the phrase "health care reform" 30 days | | | | journalism these days -- video news releases |
| after we launched the blog. | | | | provided by corporations who pay to have them |
| The CEO Stayed Hands-Off | | | | inserted as stories in newscasts, sometimes even |
| In 30 days, we had a top-five health care reform | | | | without disclosure -- newsblogging adheres to a |
| blog. We didn't lose that position for a year, and only | | | | higher standard. If your reporting is good and you're |
| then because we stopped blogging. Our original | | | | transparent, there's no reason your news shouldn't |
| contract was to produce the newsblog for 90 days. | | | | have market share just because it's produced by |
| That became six months, then a year. In all that | | | | your organization. |
| time, Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson, | | | | Why Search Engines Love Newsblogs |
| never added commentary to the blog. There was no | | | | Going one step further, I would add that search |
| need to. In 2007, our experiment was over, and a | | | | engines prefer news made this way to news made |
| whole new way of blogging was born: newsblogging. | | | | the old-fashioned way, with gatekeepers to stories |
| It's Not About YOU! | | | | who charge a price for admission. Search engines |
| The way we newsblog, we don't cover news about | | | | want to point people to the best, most authoritative |
| the company. Our focus wasn't reporting on Kaiser | | | | matches for their searches, but if they're prohibited |
| Permanente. Our focus was to report on health care | | | | from scanning the contents of your news, it makes it |
| reform and generate awareness for Halvorson's | | | | difficult for them to know what you have and send |
| prescription for change. By hiring a journalist, we | | | | readers your way. On the other hand, if you produce |
| could be sure to get a daily post up on the blog, | | | | your content on a blog, essentially copyright-free, the |
| which is essential for search-engine visibility, but is | | | | search engines can see it, index it, and point to it. |
| difficult for principals to commit to. Every newsblog | | | | Search engines like and reward those news providers |
| post contains: | | | | with meaningful information and targeted traffic. |
| 1. Copyright-Permissible Image | | | | Newsblogging and PR |
| 2. Optimized Headline | | | | Newsblogging gives organizations the PR opportunity |
| 3. Transparent Byline | | | | they've always dreamed of: the ability to tell the |
| 4. News Post | | | | news your way. NewsCorp gets their say on Fox |
| 5. Quote from Respected Source | | | | News, in The Wall Street Journal or The New York |
| 6. News Citation | | | | Post. Even Comedy Central gets to tell the news its |
| 7. Image Citation | | | | way, through The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. |
| It's About The News | | | | Newsblogging allows you to tell the news your way, |
| To give an example, Loki would set up a Google | | | | with a professional journalist and supporting editors |
| Alert for "electronic medical records" to see who's | | | | and optimizers. As long as your news is well |
| covering that issue. Electronic medical records, or | | | | researched and well produced, and the process is |
| EMRs, are a major part of Halvorson's platform and | | | | transparent, you have as much credibility as the |
| have been adopted as a major plank in virtually | | | | news produced by these corporations. And you'll be |
| every health care reform proposal, in part because of | | | | rewarded with a premiere position in the search |
| Halvorson's compelling evidence about the efficiencies | | | | results for your target keywords. |
