GoDaddy Fails Crisis Communications Test
I’m a huge fan of WordPress for building web sites. I’m also a fan of GoDaddy, although I know many people don’t share my opinion. If you haven’t heard, WordPress and GoDaddy are very much in the tech news these last couple of days after a massive weekend hack attack that infected untold numbers of WordPress-based sites that are hosted on GoDaddy.
To read more about what happened, check out the coverage on the WPSecurityLock.com blog.
This hack hit me particularly hard, affecting five client sites — three that were live and two more that were being built. Fixing the problem was time-consuming but not terribly difficult once I figured out the problem. I’m not writing this post to compete with other coverage of what happened or how it happened. What interests me from a PR perspective is GoDaddy’s response to this attack. Here’s the statement from them that has been posted in many places:
Measures are in place to protect the overall security of the shared hosting server on which your website resides. The compromise of your account is outside of the scope of security that we provide for you. Virus scans are performed on the content that is hosted, but they may not pick up everything, largely due to the fact that hackers tend to upload custom scripts which are not picked up by traditional malware scanners. However, if a virus is detected, you will be notified. The overall security of your password and the content within your account is your responsibility, as password compromises and compromises due to scripting can only be prevented by you.
Uber-Hot Betty White Partners with EndGame PR Client
Please excuse this obvious shilling for a client. We’re pretty excited about this.
We have Betty White and we’re not afraid to use her.
EndGame PR has been working with SleepBetter.org, a sleep advice and information site run by Carpenter Co., since December of last year. EndGame PR is responsible for web site management, SEO, and social media activities for the site. We’re part of a larger team that manages public relations.
Back in December and January, the PR team began working on a new project that would begin in the spring. After tossing around a number of names for a spokesperson, they settled on Betty White. This was after her appearance in the movie “The Proposal” but before she truly broke back into the spotlight with the Snickers Super Bowl Commercial seen to the left.
That commercial pushed Ms. White back into the public consciousness in a way that may have never been seen before with an 88-year-old. It shows that Super Bowl commercials are not completely dead as a social shared experience. It also shows how they can spark a viral sensation. The YouTube video of the Betty White Snickers commercial has nearly 2.1 million views. I call that significant.
Back to the client news, now. We made the announcement at the end of last week that Betty White will be working with SleepBetter. She’ll be assisting with a project that focuses on helping people, particularly children, get a better night’s sleep. I invite you to read the announcement and keep your eyes on SleepBetter this spring!
The PR Circle of Life
I’m probably not blogging anything that hasn’t been blogged before when I type this, but I’ll type it anyhow: There are more tools available to the PR professional now than at any point in the industry’s history. You probably think I’m referencing social media and social networking. I am, but there’s so much more to it. And, it all connects in a way that precious few public relations pros seems to realize.
If you look on the EndGame PR services page, you’ll see a pretty long list. There’s a reason for that. I want to be able to do everything I can to help my clients. I’m talking about not only social media, social networking and traditional PR tactics such as media relations, but also search engine optimization (SEO), web content creation, and even web design. Imagine these skills and tactics as part of a never-ending “circle of life”. Quality media relations campaigns can equal links back to a web site, which helps search rankings, which in turn can help a social media audience find you, which in turn can help you promote your quality web content, which can add links back to a web site, which can help SEO …. lather, rinse, repeat. All of these strategies and tactics work well together, and should not be stuck in silos, as they are in so many organizations.
Perhaps the best part of thinking about PR in this way is that you’re not reliant upon one single tactic. If your media relations campaign isn’t going as well as expected, perhaps another portion of the “circle of life” will kick in and help you.
While I’m not suggesting that all PR professionals should know what a 301 redirect is or what to do with the .htaccess file (I do, but I’m a geek), they should know the basics of SEO. They should also know how (or have access to someone who does) to create a basic web video. They should also have the writing skills to be able to write an entertaining and thoughtful blog post. Feel free to judge whether I possess that last one or not .. I won’t assume.
I am going to assume, however, that most everyone reading this knows at least a little bit about social media. You ARE reading a blog, after all. Not near as many have knowledge of the SEO basics. Here are a few, with an example at the end of how the circle of life works:
- Keywords: The basic strategy for figuring out which keywords to use is to think of what words you WANT web searchers to use on Google in order to find your content. Then, work those words into your title and copy (in a natural way, please .. no keyword stuffing). If you want to get more precise about which keywords to use, try playing with the Google Keyword Tool. Most important, however, is that you include those keywords in the headlines and copy of your news releases and other online content.
- Backlinks are king: One of the most important things you can do to improve your site’s search ranking WITHOUT digging into web site code, is increase the number of other sites linking to your site. From a PR perspective, this can be done two ways. First, create original content that people will want to link to. In other words, people will enjoy it and want to blog about it or post about it on Twitter or Facebook. Another tool in the SEO PR toolbox is online news release distribution. Check out my sort-of-annual review of online release distribution sites for more information about this.
- Promote your content on social networking sites: Obviously this isn’t ALL you should be doing on Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and all of the others, but it’s one of the things you should be doing. Obviously, the more people who know about your unique content, the more people who could potentially link back to it from their sites. See?! Circle of life!
What it comes down to is that PR pros need to learn everything they can about these tools, even to the point of teaching themselves a little bit of HTML and even how to use CSS. These skills come in handy much more than you would expect, and can improve the service provided to clients or employers.
And, don’t blame me if you walk away from this blog post humming an Elton John song from a certain Disney movie. That’s your problem, and I accept no responsibility for it. It’s less annoying than Hakuna Matata, at least!
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