Waikato Business News July/August 2017

18 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS July/August 2017
Change the channel and your thinking
As a public relations agency, we often
get interesting requests from companies
approaching us with one goal and one goal
only: “get me on the six o’clock news.”
Before Campbell Live went off the air,
getting onto that programme was a request
we heard several times a month.
By HEATHER CLAYCOMB
HMC Communications
At this point I’m tempted
to go into a diatribe to
remind you, the reader,
of the importance of first
defining your goals, determining
if your audience is actually
watching the six o’clock news,
and establishing if media publicity
should even be part of
your tactics… but I won’t.
Instead, let’s assume you
do have a great news story to
proclaim through New Zealand
media channels. If that’s
the case and you haven’t been
in the media for awhile, before
you jump into the media scene
boots and all, you need to do
some research.
That’s because the channels,
their audiences and the types of
stories editors want have completely
transformed in recent
years - and continue to transform
at a rapid pace.
If you automatically assume
the six o’clock news – or NZ
Herald or Seven Sharp - is your
Holy Grail of media coverage
you may be sorely mistaken.
The worst outcome would be
to expend all the effort to get
your story on your preferred
media channel only to find your
audience didn’t see it and you
didn’t experience any benefit.
So before you launch into
your publicity plan (yes, I
can’t help myself, you do need
a plan) consider these points
first:
Clickbait is king
The day I wrote this article,
I checked out the NZ Herald
website at 4pm. There were 16
articles in the headlines at the
top half of the page. Half were
either stories about celebrities
or social media content (Kar-
Heather Claycomb
dashians and shark attacks).
One-third were about crashes
or fatalities and the remainder
included weather, sex scandals
and rugby. One of the 16 top
headlines was an article on how
often you should change your
sheets (God help me, I clicked
on it. Weekly is the answer.)
Check out many of the other
mass media online news channels
and you’ll find the same:
sensational headlines, often not
even happening in New Zealand,
that tempt us to click. And
who is deciding what stories
are displayed on the home pages
of these online news sites?
You... in a roundabout way. As
you click on these stories, automatic
‘bots’ use algorithms to
ensure the most-clicked stories
are on display.
TIP: If it’s a mass audience
you need to reach, you can’t
ignore these huge online news
channels. That means you’ll
need a sensational angle to
your story. Think: what’s going
to get my audience to click?
Don’t ignore social
Sources vary on the exact statistic,
but we know that a vast
majority - anywhere between
60-75 percent - of the population
get news from social media,
primarily Facebook and
Twitter. That means you can’t
afford to ignore social channels
when it comes to getting your
news out to your audience.
In fact, sometimes it is
much more important for your
news to be all over social than
it is to be in a mass media channel.
Again, it comes down to
meeting your audience where
they are.
TIP: To have impact with
a news story on social, ensure
your headline and first sentence
encourages engagement
– likes, shares and comments.
And most importantly, great
videos and photos are essential.
Communities are golden
We are finding community
papers, including specialist
publications such as Waikato
Business News and industry
papers such as Farmers Weekly
or Dairy News, are more wellread
than ever before. And
often, getting your company
news story picked up by these
publications is the very best
way to reach your audience
when it’s well defined by either
interest or geography.
TIP: If you want to get your
news into communities and
specialist media, ensure your
story has either a ‘local’ or distinctive
angle that appeals to
the channel’s unique readers.
Intelligentsia can be found
At the risk of sounding like a
news snob, you don’t always
need to be at the mercy of the
clickbait and social scene. If
you’ve got a news story that
demands more ‘space’ and will
create a serious conversation
among the well-read, don’t be
dismayed. There are still many
media channels that reach
those who desire investigative
journalism, thought-provoking
content and a good, long read.
The Listener, North &
South and Metro are stalwarts
with intelligent and thoughtful
content. Plus, there are many
high quality online channels
such as Newsroom, Business
Desk, The Spinoff and The
Conversation (which now has
New Zealand content).
And don’t forget radio.
Kiwis are listening in record
numbers and talk shows airing
at key drivetimes such as
RNZ’s Checkpoint and Newstalk
ZB’s Larry Williams
Drive or The Country have
excellent listener numbers.
And remember these listeners
are the ones taking your news
out of the car, the office, the
milking shed and into their social
circles throughout the day.
Radio is a great, influential
channel.
TIP: If you want to get your
compelling, engaging story
into these channels, the key is
having a provocative starting
point. If you’ve got more than
a one-angle news story which
demands a conversation, these
channels could possibly be the
best to reach your audience and
achieve your goals.
In summary, if you haven’t
tried to get your company news
into the New Zealand media
for awhile it’s time to change
your thinking. And depending
on the audience you want
to reach, it’s more than likely
time to change the channels
you automatically assume will
achieve your reach and message
goals.
Voice search a
major shakeup for SEO
You probably already
know that “SEO” stands
for “Search Engine Optimisation”.
It’s the process of
getting your website ranked
well in search engine results.
The truth about SEO is that
it’s always changing. One of
the significant changes that
we’re experiencing now is the
increasing popularity of voice
search.
According to Google, 20
percent of searches on its mobile
app and on Android devices
are voice searches. The expanded
use of smartphones and the
arrival of digital personal assistants
like Siri and Cortana has
led to this growth.
Home-based assistant devices
like Amazon Echo and
Google Home also use voice
search, and have exploded onto
the market with 10 to 12 million
devices sold in the 2016
holiday season alone.
So, what is voice search?
A voice search happens when
you search information by
speaking to your device instead
of typing. It’s like a two-way
conversation which aims to
help the user complete tasks
from their life in real-time.
A study suggests that 61 percent
of users state the primary
reason they use voice search is
the utility of it when their hands
or vision are occupied. 36 percent
said they primarily use
voice commands in the car and
43 percent stated their primary
use was at home.
The substantial improvements
in voice recognition accuracy
and ease of use over the
last few years is fuelling the
growth in popularity. The average
person can type around 40
words per minute but can speak
around 150 words per minute,
allowing for easy searches with
less effort.
So, what does this mean for
local businesses?
Data shows that mobile voice
search is three times more
likely to be local-based than
text search. This means voice
search is rapidly becoming the
way customers will find local
businesses.
What can be done?
Voice search on SEO is still
evolving and we do know that
optimising for voice search is
very different compared with
traditional search. Voice-based
queries are different than written
searches, in that they generally
are made up of longer
phrases, including complete
sentences and questions.
Improve your local SEO:
Update your business listing
on Google and Yelp, and on
Trip Advisor if working in hospitality
industry. Make sure the
listing is complete and comprehensive
with a good number
of positive reviews. Local
SEO is more popular than ever
with voice search, with consumers
more frequently using
searches like, “cafes near me.”
Verifying up-to-date location,
business hours, contact numbers
and other data that will be
relevant for local searches on
all your listings.
You should also have your
business listing on Apple maps
THE DIGITAL WORLD
> BY POOJA GUPTA
Pooja Gupta is Digital Media Executive at Duoplus
pooja@duoplus.nz . www.duoplus.nz
as more iOS device users use
Apple maps than use Google
maps. Apple gets its business
listings from a lot of different
places, so if you have a business,
you’ll probably want to
make sure it is listed everywhere
possible.
Question phrases: Optimising
FAQ page, having
as many relevant queries as
possible, as it both asks and
answers. Data pulled from
the search giant shows a 61
percent year on year increase
in question phrases. These
phrases include conversational
words like “who,” “what,”
“where,” “when” and “how”.
Such phrases have a higher
probability to occur in natural
speech, rather than in typing.
Conclusion
We’re on the rise of an enormous
change in how you can
get the search results you desire.
Voice searches are expected
to contribute at least half of
all searches by 2020. The best
way to prepare for the continued
growth search is to use it
yourself to understand how it
works and what kinds of results
it provides. Voice search
is not just an idea for the future;
it is here and getting bigger
by the day. By getting on
board right now will get you in
a position to thrive for the foreseeable
future.