I've taken a trip to the dark side ... and I may just stay here for a while!

Ok, the title and the Darth link are a little bit extreme; I haven't developed a penchant for heavy breathing, a powerful, bass-like voice or a habit for reckless over-usage of a light saber. Yes, you can breath a sigh of relief, the reference to my new position on the dark side is more of a metaphorical reference to my conversion to enthusiastically singing the praises of SEO (previously I whispered them out like a shy little chorister, now I'm belting them out Mariah Carey style).

However, my new dark side is just as geeky as an obsession with Star Wars. SEO has that reputation. But, and here's my first revelation, it's not rocket science. It's not a secret code or IT language that only the enlightened few can understand. It takes a bit of time and thinking but there's a lot of common sense involved. Most importantly it works.

As a writer and marketing professional I've known about SEO for a long time; I understood the theory, the reasoning and had written pieces of basic optimised copy here and there. But as someone who prides themselves on embracing new communications methods, marketing tools and best practice, this didn't feel enough. So, during a few quiet evenings in dull old January, I decided to get into the knitty gritty of SEO and optimise my own website - from key words/phrases, page title tags, meta tags and meta descriptions to internal hyperlinks and external links, I made my way through my site.

And it wasn't just good practical experience of SEO for me. My Google rankings have improved, traffic to my website has gone up (measured on Google Analytics) and I'm already receiving more work enquiries (that have good potential) directly through my website.

SEO is not a scary concept and it's not the dark art you might imagine. But it does involve a certain amount of copywriting skill. A pet hate of mine is websites that you can see have been SEO'd due to the clunky and clumsy inclusion of key words and phrases. When badly written, SEO can disrupt the flow of your text, put your readers off and give your website an amateurish feel.

There is no need to fear SEO but you do need to plan it, integrate it subtly and most importantly get the measurement tools in place so you can see the results of all of your hard work.

What's happening to business news?

The media is changing; regional newspapers are dropping like flies as advertising revenue evaporates, print publications are getting thinner and more and more of us are relying on the internet to feed our hunger for business news. The business news world is changing so does business need to respond by updating its approach to media relations and PR too?

I went to an interesting panel debate this morning at the University of Warwick. Chaired by BBC Media Correspondent Torin Douglas, a panel of experts (David Arnott – Associate Professor of Marketing & E-business, Warwick Business School, Marc Reeves, Editor of the Birmingham Post and Richard Lambert, Director-General of the CBI and former editor of the FT) debated:

“Does business news no longer make for good business?”

The answer … in its current form no. The media world as we know it is balancing precariously on crisis point. No longer subsidised by advertising revenues, the traditional style daily business pages are no longer profitable or sustainable.

David Arnott started his opening presentation with the Chinese letters for crisis: one symbol representing danger and the other opportunity. His message – look for opportunities in the danger the internet presents to the dissemination of business news. Marc Reeves’ explanation of the struggles the Birmingham Post is experiencing in finding a profitable business model for regional news, clearly demonstrated this is easier said than done.

What is the danger? The internet has enabled the democratisation of information – if someone hears about something they have the power and the technology to find out more about this and spread this further. We no longer rely on newspapers for information.

As marketing professionals, we need to accept this reality. Instead of focusing all of our time and PR effort on the traditional print media, we should embrace and leverage the new ways to build profile through electronic word of mouth. Look for new media outlets to channel our messages. Use social media (blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) as signposting tools to grab readers' attention and drive traffic to our websites. Make our releases and posts stand out amongst the masses of information by saying something exciting, insightful or challenging. As the media changes, work alongside it to become a trusted source of information and build your own followers (and in turn customers).