“Traditional” is another word for “no longer working.”

I just read an article by Gini Dietrich in Social Media Today and it happened to be so matter of fact and what I suspected in my gut that I had to summarize it–in order to remind myself WHY I have to constantly shift the priorities of my marketing company. Because if I don’t, I die like any ‘traditional’ PR company is and any ‘traditional’ SEO company is. And we never were either. Why? The core of everything we do – passion – doesn’t have a shortcut. When you’re passionate you pick up the phone and call. When you’re passionate you write a blog and send it to people who can benefit from using it. You tailor your message. This article reminded me of how far we strayed but just using wire services; From the article:

The old way of keyword stuffing and using optimized anchor text are bad practices. Google is banning any form of news release distribution online as they consider it spam.

The old guard to me is when I started PR. We had to subscribe to a paper or magazine and read it. We had to find the right journalist for our client’s product or service and CALL THEM. We had to target our message specifically to what their readers, viewers, or listeners were accustomed to receiving.

OK, what if there aren’t any more online wire services?

What’s cool is RCM has positioned itself well for this. We do media relations the way we’re supposed to: By building relationships first and then pitching a story idea. You have much better luck sending a story idea to 10 solid relationships and get nine stories than to send 100 or 1000 news releases and get only one.

Today I’m advising my clients to stop mass distributing news releases. Because now there are legit consequences. Google will penalize you and your client if they’re not written for human beings. Write for humans. Don’t keyword stuff. Don’t optimize anchor text.

In summary: Google is actually doing us a favor. It’s not killing us. It’s not killing anyone who put in premium on content – and RCM always has. It’s forcing us to be better.

I have to admit though, I’m glad we’re not a ‘traditional’ PR company and I’m glad we’re not in paid search. (Don’t shoot).