Adaptation and Opportunities in Digital Media. Presentation covers issues old media professionals need to tackle to transition to the new media world.

1. Adaptation and Opportunities in a Digital World

2. Today’s Topics: Building Your Online Assets Educate Yourself on Digital Understanding Online Article Marketing Opportunities Broaden Your Horizons

4. LinkedIn

5. Twitter

7. LinkedIn Strategies: Groups – join groups in your niche and participate with no sales pitching. If you’re helpful, they are more than likely going to check out your profile. Profile- Profile is an in-depth resume. Profile should have links to website, blog, and other social networks. Add-on Applications - Link up your blog to your Profile page. There are applications to showcase PowerPoint presentations or other portfolio work. Answers - Section where people post questions in different categories and anyone can answer them. Great source for getting ideas about blog posts/material for products-like reports or other services. Network with Peers - If you find the right group, you can get some really helpful information on resources, etc.

8. Twitter Strategies: Personal versus business. Does sharing personal news impact image? Shelf life of a Twitter post is 20 minutes. Follow other people you can learn from. Follow other PR people or writers in other industries outside of the outdoors to see how they do things. Use hashtags. A hashtag is a way to unite tweets around a topic. How to find hashtags people are using. #hashtags.org, Twemes.com, Wthashtag.com.

10. Go to your topic of expertise, find the un-answered question that has the most followers, and assuming that you have an opinion on it, write an answer. Use it as inspiration for your blog post.

11. Build a presence. Use your real name, mention your business, and have a full, succinct profile. Quora, like Twitter, is not a social network where you follow friends a la Facebook, but rather, you should follow thought-leaders in your industry.

12. Ask good questions. Just as important as answering.

16. Check the links on major industry sites: Look at websites that link to the top known competitors in the space as well as those sites ranking high in searches on important keyword phrases. Examine the Incoming Links In-bound links are one of the top ranking factors by search engines. Run one or more link tools on industry sites and their blogs if they are not part of the site, as well as sites ranking high for your important keywords etc. Some of these sites will be industry news, magazines, blogs, etc. Add these to your media list and gather information about them now or later.

18. LinkDiagnosis -A Firefox tool that identifies links based on Google PageRank and the number of outbound links.

19. Wordtracker Link Builder- You can specify web sites to look at, but it will also look at the top ranking sites for specific keywords.

20. SEOmoz's Open Site Explorer- SEOmoz's Open Site Explorer is based on SEOmoz'sLinkScape web index. It identifies strong links using their own ranking model.

22. Blog Searches: Blog searches - Try Google's blog search at http://blogsearch.google.com. You can also search on "blog search" in Google or Bing and you'll find many other blog search engines. For example, Google lists 380,000 blogs for deer hunting and 21,800 blogs for deer hunting in Utah. PostRank - This used to be a "go to" tools for finding top blogs. You used to be able to scan or search for blogs and see engagement data such as the number of comments, tweets, bookmarks, etc. PostRank was acquired by Google and is in a state of flux. Now they offer a Chrome or Safari extension that is supposed to show engagement data in Google Reader, Google News, Reddit, Digg, Delicious, even in Google's main SERPs. To give it a try go to: labs.postrank.com/gr.

23. Blog Searches: Also check out: Technorati Blog Directory. You can scan the directory or search on a topic. www.technorati.com/blogs/directory/ BlogRank. BlogRank collects data on a growing number of blogs and ranks them based on a number of criteria including RSS membership, incoming links, Google PageRank, number of visitors, popularity in social sites, etc. AdAge Power 150. If the topic is marketing, check this list on AdAge .

24. Page Strength and Traffic Tools: Most of the websites and blogs that you find at the top of the search listings are probably worth examining. You can also check them with some of the Page Strength tools that are available. Most show PageRank and other indicators of page strength including social media info etc. Tools include SEO Site Tools on Chrome and SEOBook and SEOquake on Firefox. You can also check if Compete.com or Quantcast.com has traffic data for a site by searching on the domain. Take any traffic data with a "grain of salt" as they are often inaccurate (usually off by 50% unless site is “quantified”. However, the fact that traffic data is even available for a site in Compete or Quantcast (or even better; in both) is a good indicator. Influence measurement sites like Klout.com. Disregard Alexa. Not accurate from a traffic perspective.

25. Educating Yourself on Digital: “I don’t talk Google” Learn how Google Analytics works. Its free at: http://www.google.com/analytics/education.html Use Google’s Keyword Tool. Also free: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__c=1000000000&__u=1000000000&__o=cues&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none Research topics on Google Trends: http://www.google.com/trends Take advantage of free tutorials and presentations on Google on YouTube, Slideshare.net, Scribd.com, and Docstoc.com.

26. Educating Yourself on Digital: Stay up-to-date on the digital industry on a daily basis Recommended digital industry sites: paidcontent.org, techcrunch.com, mashable.com, and businessinsider.com. Sign up for Media Post emails at http://www.mediapost.com/publications/. Publications on everything digital including TV, video, email, social media, analytics, and mobile. Others include smartbrief.com, hubspot.com, streamingmedia.com, seoreel.com, SEOMoz.com, SearchEngineLand.com, socialmediaexaminer.com, emarketer.com. Sign-up for Webinars even if you can’t attend. They usually archive online. University of San Francisco Online Certificates - http://www.usanfranonline.com/online-certificates/internet-marketing.aspx

27. Understanding Online Article Marketing: Sigh–I am sad. I remember when content used to be called writing. I must be missing something, but this sounds like an SEO job… A good content marketer is a combination of literary agent, publicist, and white-hat SEO. If businesses have something to say but don’t pay for content marketing, either they’re doing it themselves and possibly winning, or not doing it at all and losing. Too many messages are competing among a limited, weary and jaded audience for businesses to cling anymore to the principle of “if we post it, they will come. Effective article marketing is not about submitting articles to article submission sites. Effective article marketing is about writing quality articles that are useful or interesting to your market, using some on your own website and getting some published on other related websites.

28. Impact of Pandora (Google algorithm change): The new SEO, at least as far as Panda is concerned, is about pushing your best quality stuff and the complete removal of low-quality or overhead pages from the indexes. Which means it’s not as easy anymore to compete by simply producing pages at scale, unless they’re created with quality in mind. Impact on content producers is that websites will be punished for low quality content that is cranked out by content farms like Demand Media. Quality will be rewarded but will come at a cost for website owners.

29. Goals of Online Marketing: Improving Organic Search Results (Getting found for more keyword searches and helping to increase rankings). Help Attract Incoming Links To The Site. Building Awareness And Reputation Building. Increasing Targeted Traffic From Related Sites. To Help Make A Web Site More Unique And Useful

30. Market to your Media List: Prioritize your list if necessary based on traffic, Google page rank and industry reputation. Online magazine and entertainment sites. Bloggers “Announce Articles”

31. Marketing to Online Magazines: For our purposes here, by online magazines we mean sites with a number of authors, editors, and often an editorial calendar as opposed to a blog that has one key person to interact. Get to know one or more contacts personally such as associate editors or look for authors of articles and reach out to these journalists. Let them know you are available for expert industry quotes for their articles.

33. Ask if they'd like to receive notice of any of your press releases early or would entertain exclusive PR ideas.

35. Marketing to Top Bloggers: Submit their very useful articles to some of the social sites you use. They'll likely see this. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook etc and they will hopefully do the same in response and may see your article announcements. Submit useful comments, suggestions, answer questions. Include your signature with a link if allowed (Don't spam, it will probably get deleted anyway)

36. Marketing to Top Bloggers: After you've built up some level of a relationship - Ask if they are interested in specific article ideas or help with research, surveys, industry expert quotes etc. See if they accept "Guest Blogger" articles, buyers guides etc Contact them about writing about or testing your exclusive products or services. Ask if they will be a guest writer for you.

37. Announce Your Articles: After you publish your content online – Announce articles on your social networks and other communications like email newsletters or email blasts. If they are truly useful articles some people, including some of the folks at these top industry sites with whom you've built up relationships, will share them or link to them. This can help improve rankings and get more people to read your articles and learn what you have to offer. MyOutdoorTV example – produce new video clips on turkey hunting and reach out to turkey hunting blogs to let them know that they can link or embed the video clip.

38. New Opportunities – White Papers: White papers may very well be the green eggs of the writing world. Foul food or fantastic fortune—which could the white paper be? Do you like to persuade? Want your writing to be referenced? Motivated by money? If you think "yes," then give the white paper a try. Whether you are a seasoned journalist, a technical writer, a business communicator, a master of marketing messages or a wanna-be writer, there's something for you in white papers.

39. What is a White Paper? White papers are cross-breeds of magazine articles and corporate brochures. They blend the informative and authoritative content of an article with the persuasive elements of a company brochure. White papers are used to help educate and influence business prospects. White papers are hot and corporations desperately need them. Consider that in 2001, Google only registered a mere 1 million hits on the term "white papers." By 2006, the number launched beyond 300 million! Demand is driven by the need for quality lead generation. Businesses are struggling to get their message in front of prospects. Research shows there's simply no better tool to attract leads than the white paper.

40. What are the Opportunities? Demand exceeds supply: There are not enough writers who know how to write white papers. Businesses are aggressively looking to write more white papers. Master the art and count your dollars. White papers bring prestige: White papers can bring significant recognition to the writer. Many writers place their names on the byline of a white paper. If the white paper is well-received in your industry or goes viral, your name will be associated with the excellent ideas presented in your paper. You can charge more for a white paper: White papers help businesses generate leads and close sales—thus they are directly tied to revenue. For many businesses, only one or two sales from a white paper return the investment.

41. What are the Opportunities? Businesses pay top dollar for white papers: Word for word, nothing beats a white paper. A good white paper writer charges between $3,000 and $10,000 for a 10-page white paper. This is the most lucrative writing business out there. White papers can be multi-purposed: A well-written white paper can be converted into a contributed article or used as content on a website. This adds more value to a white paper project. Many businesses need multiple white papers: If you prove yourself with an excellent white paper, there is a high likelihood the company will want other white papers written. This can generate a consistent pipeline of work. Check out www.writingwhitepapers.com/book/

42. New Opportunities – Audio/Video/Photography The key to surviving the clear cutting of print publications: Redefine and re-imagine. You’re no longer just a writer, you’re a multimedia producer. You produce, you create, not just words on the page, but images, sounds, stories. You don’t have to go back to journalism school to learn to use multimedia tools or spend a lot of money on equipment

43. New Opportunities – Audio/Video/Photography Get the Tools. Check out Poynter Institute’s “10 Best iPhones Apps for Journalists” for apps that shoot and publish good video, or programs that help you edit images quickly. If you want to go more pro, keep in mind that you will be able to pay off your gear with increased number of gigs you land. Product videos are a rapidly expanding opportunity for video producers. Audio. Next time you go to do an interview, bring a professional quality recorder with you. The Marantz PMD620 is a professional grade digital recorder that you can slip in your pocket. Offer to provide a transcript the audio for the website. Audio can be integrated with photos to make video-like product.

44. New Opportunities – Audio/Video/Photography Slide Shows. Online publications are in desperate need of photos for their sites. Photo galleries are some of the most financially lucrative parts of websites, so many publications have been hard pressed to add one or many photos to their sites. Consumer grade digital cameras basically take a photo for you. Bring one along for your next story and you can add a couple extra dollars onto your story. Video. Video is the most highly valued content on the web by advertisers and viewers. Video is also extremely useful for getting in-bound links and indexing content with Google. Flip-type cameras can easily capture video and video editing is now much easier with the rise of numerous software tools. Web quality does not need to equal TV quality.

45. Broaden Your Horizons Internet is characterized by pulling demand, versus pushing distribution via a cable channel or a magazine subscription. Audience levels for content is heavily determined by how many people are looking for the content via search. Total Google Searches per Month: 12,500,000,000 Total Disney World/Land Vacation Searches per Month: 138,769,000 Total Searches for Outdoor Lodges/Outfitters/Guides per month: 4,915,000

46. Broaden Your Horizons Total Google Searches per Month: 12,500,000,000 Total “Outdoor” Searches: 308,952,000 (2.4%) Health (33%), Travel (29%), Automotive (22%) Consider other categories like camping, hiking, and bird watching.

47. Outdoor Media Resources: Additional comments provided by Sherry Kerr - Develop network of people with different skills that you can sell into a client. In a “consulting” world, people pull people into clients. Meet clients online (90%), particularly through Twitter Market yourself digitally through social media and blogging. Don’t limit connections to people in the industry. Engage and talk to people online. “Follow Back” to those who connect with you, particularly associations like POMA. Writers, get out of the mentality of writing an article and getting a check. Economy has impacted this model.

48. Questions