Alexa Kelly

Finished your latest book? Maybe it’s time to check out the top five best selling books on public relations, perfect for any PR professional or anyone interested in the industry. Here are Amazon’s top five books on public relations for your next great read.

1. Number one on this list is “Free PR: How to Get Chased by the Press Without Hiring a PR Firm” written by Cameron Herold and Adrian Salamunovic. While PR pros might balk at the concept, readers seem to love these tips and tricks. The authors advise you to ditch expensive PR experts and instruct you on how to build your own in-house PR team. You will also learn how to provide effective interviews and score great media coverage. PR is of course critical to growing your brand and business, so you will want to develop your own relationships with reporters rather than renting these relationships from a PR agency.
2. The next scintillating title is “Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator” by Ryan Holiday. This book sounds the alarm about fake news in a big way. The author explains how media manipulators work and how to combat them. Reviews say you will never look at the news media the same way again after reading this book. It’s an exciting indictment of the blogosphere and traditional media alike.
3. In third place is “Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics” (11th Edition) written by Dennis L. Wilcox, Glen T. Cameron and Bryan H. Reber. The textbook explains concepts, strategies and tactics of PR practice, while providing real world case studies. The content is geared towards undergraduates and would be helpful to someone with little experience in the field of public relations.
4. Next on the list is another textbook called “Careers in Public Relations Management” (2nd Edition) by Patricia Swann. The book was developed for advanced PR students. It includes recent case studies based on real events, both successful and unsuccessful. The authors dive into the latest controversies in current events, ethical issues and PR strategies. There are even chapters on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and activism.
5. Finally, there is “Explosive Growth: A Few Things I Learned While Growing My Startup To 100 Million Users & Losing $78 Million” written by Cliff Lerner. According to Amazon, this book is a “step-by-step playbook to achieve explosive growth”. Its hilarious storytelling includes numerous case studies. You get a behind the scenes look at a startup that created the first online dating app, along with its highs and lows. Told with humility and honesty, this story provides lessons on how to grow your startup and avoid making costly mistakes.

Now that you know the latest books on public relations, you should get in touch with real PR pros at the Borenstein Group, a Top DC marketing agency. We can get your public relations program started in no time.  

Summer is here, and it might be time to do some beach reading. We recommend lounging by the water with one of these best sellers for marketing professionals. Here are Amazon’s top five branding and marketing books for marketing professionals.

1. The number one book on this list is “Website Branding for Small Businesses: Secret Strategies for Building a Brand, Selling Products Online, and Creating a Lasting Community”. Written by Nathalie Nahai, the title may be a mouthful, but the reviews are positive. According to Amazon, this best seller “draws from fields of psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral science to share the latest developments, innovative techniques, and original insights that will lead any small business to online success.”
2. Coming in second is the book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini. This page turner explains why people say yes. It unravels six universal principles to become a “skilled persuader” as well as how to resist persuasion.
3. In third place is another book on persuasion called “Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering the Art and Science of Getting past No” by Jeb Blount. According to Amazon, this book explains “what’s really holding you back from closing sales and reaching your income goals”. It includes examples, stories and lessons for getting people past their initial negative reactions when making sales. Reviewers said that it breaks down the art of selling into smaller chunks and its lessons are easy to understand and adopt.
4. The next book on the list is “Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen” written by Donald Miller. The book goes through seven universal elements of powerful stories to improve how you connect with customers and grow your business. It also teaches you how to simplify your brand message so people can understand it, as well as how to create effective messaging. According to Amazon, this book will “transform how you talk about who you are, what you do and unique value you bring to customers”. Reviewers praised the clean prose free from complicated jargon, and they believe it’s a useful read for copywriters.
5. Last but not least is “Crushing It!: How Great Entrepreneurs Build Their Business and Influence — and How You Can, Too” by Gary Vaynerchuk. The book provides lessons and inspiration from influencers and entrepreneurs. It reveals the secret to their success, which includes understanding social media and doing what it takes to make these tools work. Vaynerchuk believes anyone can amplify his or her personal brand. He gives you a guide to building your path to professional and financial success, as well as growing your personal brand and business or following your passion.

Once you’ve caught up on your summer reading, you should reach out to the pros at the Borenstein Group, a Top DC marketing agency. We can help get your branding or marketing project off the ground right away.  

You have probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO), and if you are like most companies you work to improve your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). But have you heard of the SEO factor called domain authority (DA)? This important metric is key to your SEO strategy. In this post, we will define domain authority and outline ways you can improve this important number.

Domain authority is a metric developed by Moz, an SEO software provider. It predicts how well your website will rank on SERPs. On a scale from one to 100, the higher your score the more likely you will rank. Around since 2010, this is a logarithmic scale, meaning it is easier to increase your ranking from 10 to 20 than it is from 80 to 90. Brand new websites always start with a DA of one and work their way up from there. An average DA is around 40 to 50.

This Moz metric underwent an upgrade in March of 2019. Domain authority 2.0 is now based on a larger link index which includes 35 trillion links. It has a new machine learning model and incorporates spam detection. It also detects link manipulation and is updated on a daily basis. Moz has gotten better at assessing the quality of inbound links, and DA is now a more accurate reflection of Google’s algorithm.

You can check your website’s domain authority score using the MozBar extension for your internet browser. While DA accounts for your entire website, page authority measures the likelihood of individual pages to rank on SERPs. Google does not use DA or PA in its algorithm, so they have no direct impact on your search engine rankings.

It is important not to take DA as the only important SEO metric. Use DA as a relative metric to compare your website against competitor sites. DA on its own is fairly meaningless, so using it as a comparative metric is very important.

There are many ways to improve your website’s domain authority. Having a high number of linking root domains is key. Boosting your website’s overall SEO is also vital. Make sure your website loads quickly, within three seconds ideally. Create compelling content that will boost your website engagement and ultimately your DA.

Improve your SEO with optimized meta descriptions and title tags as well. Use image alt tags and optimize the content itself. Internal links will make it easier for search engines to index your website. Be sure to remove broken links on your website and promote your site’s content on social media to improve your domain authority. The age of your domain is another important factor Moz uses when calculating your score.

Links are also very crucial to improving DA. Conduct a link audit and disavow any bad links. You want to have high quality links coming to your site from high authority websites. You also should have links coming from a large number of unique domains, as link diversity is a key DA factor.

Looking to improve your site’s domain authority? The Borenstein Group can help. We’re a Top DC marketing agency with the skills to boost your search engine rankings in no time.

Influencer marketing is everywhere these days. It’s a buzz word in the air for every marketing guru out there. But what is influencer marketing really? In this blog post, we will cover what influencer marketing is and, just as importantly, what influencer marketing is not.

An influencer is someone with a large following on social media. The best ones have highly engaged and loyal audiences. They are likely experts in their industries and have the power to affect the perceptions and behaviors of others.

Influencer marketing means hiring an influencer to promote your product or service, borrowing the influencer’s reach. It is an effective technique, as consumers do not like being advertised to and rely on tools like ad blockers to avoid these messages. As traditional marketing has less and less credibility, influencer-based marketing becomes more powerful.

It leads to improved word-of-mouth for your product or service. It provides social proof, which is the idea that when someone supports something, others will follow. It can expand your reach, brand awareness, customer loyalty and conversions.

Before you approach an influencer, make sure you have clear goals in mind. It also means following FTC guidelines carefully. You must always disclose when a post is a paid advertisement.

On the other hand, influencers are not robots for hire who will do whatever you command. This form of marketing means investing in a relationship with an influencer and his or her audience, not expecting a robotic output of your orders. You should not tell an influencer what to say about your product or service. They know best how to communicate with their fans, so you should let them drive the creative.

Unfortunately, influencer marketing is not a guarantee of ROI. Although studies have shown that this form of marketing is effective, you must go into it knowing that the message may not resonate with your target audience.

Influencers are not just traditional celebrities. An influencer can be anyone with a significant social media following who is trusted in a niche industry.

Influencer marketing is not just a trend. It has been around for a long time, and it will continue to grow as other forms of marketing and advertising become less effective.

Looking to up your influencer marketing game? Turn to the experts at the Borenstein Group, a Top DC marketing agency. We can get your influencer campaign started and successful right away.