PRWeb Public Relations Blog

Dear PRWeb Customers

We are excited to announce that PRWeb is now part of Vocus, a leading provider of on-demand software for corporate communications and public relations.

PRWeb's unrivaled online visibility technology perfectly complements Vocus' robust PR software suite. Together, these pioneering services offer the most effective way to generate publicity for your organization.

We realize that you rely on PRWeb to distribute your news and increase your online visibility. You may be wondering what you can expect as a result of PRWeb and Vocus joining forces:

1. The Same Great PRWeb Service. You'll continue to use PR Web exactly as you do now. Without interruption of any kind, you'll enjoy the same great features and customer support you've come to expect. You'll continue to work with the same PRWeb editors and customer support staff.

2. New Products. Soon, you'll have access to additional web-based software options that will enhance your ability to generate publicity, increase your online visibility and measure your results. New products include a premium database containing hundreds of thousands of media outlets and journalists; news monitoring and analytics, an online newsroom and personalized email campaigns.

3. A Global Leader. Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ:VOCS) is a global technology company with the resources and infrastructure to keep PRWeb at the forefront of SEO news distribution. Vocus and PRWeb will now be working together to create the next generation of online public relations capabilities.

We sincerely appreciate the part you've played in making PRWeb the recognized leader in online news and press release distribution. We pledge to continue to bring you the most effective online news distribution in the business.

Sincerely,

David McInnis Founder and President PRWeb

Rick Rudman President and CEO Vocus, Inc.

Still Think We're Nuts?

Turns out that we probably still are a bit nuts, but nutty people are right from time to time. For years, PRWeb has been focused on helping you reach your customer with your message -- directly, unfiltered by the media. We are the only newswire that offers interplay directly with the blogosphere. Why? Check out the latest PEW study today that reports (reported here):

"Bloggers are avid consumers of online media," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew and one of the report's authors. "They are consuming online media in a way that even other online users do not," she added.

For instance, almost all bloggers -- 95 percent -- reported reading news online, compared to 73 percent of Internet users at large. The majority of bloggers -- 55 percent -- said they read e-mail newsletters or listservs, compared to 29 percent of all Web users; and 47 percent of bloggers reported reading other blogs for news, compared to 9 percent of all online users."

Now read this and we will do some basic arithmetic.

"Overall, Pew found that 8 percent of Internet users -- or approximately 12 million U.S. adults -- keep a blog, and 39 percent of Web users (57 million U.S. adults) read them. Last year, Pew reported that 7 percent of U.S. adults kept blogs and 27 percent of online adults in the United States read them."

Take 12,000,000 X .95 (95% remember that number from above?) = 11,400,000 people ready to devour your news. That is a pretty good number. Now consider the number of people that those 11.4 million bloggers reach when they weigh in on your news. Wow. Try that, using mainstream media.

-- Make Your Own Headlines

David McInnis, CEO

Holy SHIFT! PRWeb Plays Tag with Social Media

PRWeb introduces unique tagging technology to the press release industry.

Ferndale, WA (PRWEB) June 30, 2006 -- PRWeb, the leader in search engine optimized and direct-to-consumer press release distribution, today introduces new Web tagging technology to the press release industry. This enhancement to PRWeb's services builds on the company’s existing social media press release distribution platform.

PRWeb is the only newswire capable of delivering on every feature outlined by the SHIFT Communication social media press release template.

In addition to facilitating the development of a tag space unique to the public relations community, PRWeb is making it easier for users to generate tags for Technorati. Users will find this extended feature on the Advanced Options tab within their news management console.

SHIFT Communications’ social media press release template has recently generated an interest in developing press release content for this emerging space.

"If you spend the time to create a press release following the template outlined by SHIFT Communications, all you have is an electronic document unless you have a distribution platform that supports its features. PRWeb is that platform," said David McInnis, CEO and Founder of PRWeb.

A list of the enhancements released today includes:

• A new Technorati tagging widget has been incorporated into the press release submission form, thereby streamlining the process of creating Technorati tags. While it has been possible for users to create such tags for some time, this feature makes it easier for the average user to take advantage of this important tag space.

• The user interface includes a Tag Suggestion utility that analyzes press release content to facilitate the automatic generation of effective tags that match press release content and keyword density.

• A separate PRWeb tag space has been released. It merges tag data from user-supplied Technorati tags with auto-generated tags identified by PRWeb’s keyword density and identification technology.

• The newly created PRWeb tag space provides visual clues to both density and popularity. Tag fonts are sized according to the number of press releases associated with a particular tag. Tags are then colored based on click popularity. Red tags are most active, and then followed by green and blue tags, respectively.

"We continue to expand the PRWeb platform to ensure that we provide the most viable technology to meet the changing Internet landscape," said Al Castle, PRWeb’s Chief Information Officer. "PRWeb is the only newswire capable of delivering on every feature outlined by the SHIFT Communication social media press release template."

About PRWeb International, Inc.
PRWeb, the Online Visibility Company™, is recognized as the Internet's leading online news and press release distribution service worldwide. Since 1997, PRWeb has been changing the way businesses, marketing departments and public relations firms think about press releases. While press releases were a tool once used exclusively for communicating with the media, PRWeb was the first company to develop a distribution strategy around direct-to-consumer communication. PRWeb is also the first company to build and offer a search engine optimized platform for press release distribution. For more information, visit PRWeb's corporate site at http://www.prweb-inc.com.

Contacts:
David McInnis
Founder & CEO, PRWeb
360-312-0892

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Running Searchles around Google?

Searchles (pronounced circles) is an interesting concept.  I think I have seen similar things in the past couple of months along these same lines from everyone but Google.  Where are you Google?  Maybe they have something in the works.  I must confess I haven’t checked out the Labs page in a while.  Feel free to enlighten me.  This is actually really nifty stuff.

I like Searchles primarily for its promise to deliver a social media generated content index.  It’s not perfect yet, but then again Google wasn’t perfect on day one either.  Remember back that far? 

Here is what I like.  I have embraced social networks as my preferred method of gathering information.  I even contribute in my own small ways from time to time.  Social networks form what I call my “human powered search engine”.

Here is a comprehensive list of features you will find at Searchles.com:

- Automatic integration of YouTube and Google Videos
- Personal Flash tag clouds you can install on your MySpace page
- Create groups on any topic to share URL’s with like minded people
- Discuss URL’s with friends
- Save URL’s to Searchles that are accessible from anywhere
- Tag URL’s for easy recall
- Searchles automatically downloads documents and indexes them for maximum searchiness
- Connect with your friends and URL’s will be automatically shared

By the way, if you haven’t seen Dumbfind it is by the same folks.  Check them out and let me know your thoughts. 

Did you see the new Netscape Beta yet?  It looks promising too.

-- David

The Smartest Business Person I Know

I almost want to keep this one a secret, but you caught me on a generous day. So I will share this with you. Roy Williams is probably the sharpest mind in advertising and marketing, bar none. What makes someone brilliant? In my mind, it is his/her ability to assemble available information and put it to practical use. The best bakers (see how it comes back to food with me) in the world do not have an advantage because they have different ingredients. They have an advantage that comes with time, experience and the ability to combine those ingredients into something remarkable.

What's remarkable about Roy Williams is that he shares this knowledge with everyone. He teaches it at his Wizard Academy. His Monday Morning Memo is how I start my week. I recommend spending an afternoon reading through the archives. No time to read, download his podcast. I do both.

Now I did it. I just shared with you something that will change the way you approach marketing, public relations and advertising. Why did I share this with you. Because if Roy makes a recommendation I know that I better pay attention.

I attended a Wizards of Web conference in Austin last month where the topic of conversation for two days was Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?, the new book on Persuasion Architecture by the Eisenberg brothers. I have read it many times. Why, well initially because Roy recommended that I do so. Then I re-read it and made it mandetory reading at PRWeb. Don't do it because I said so. Do it because Roy recommends it.

See you at the top!

-- David

The Need for Something Other than ROI

As we set out to revamp how PRWeb reports statistics to our users -- a major overhaul of our metrics is due out shortly -- we have debated, sometimes hotly, how ROI applies to PR. My opinion on this subject runs hot. I have recommended scrapping ROI and statistical reporting altogether, largely because I believe that current measurement standards miss the mark. I know that there are folks that are tackling this head on as we speak, but here are my thoughts and opinions on the subject.

ROI (or return on investment), in my mind, is largely an artifact of accounting and company business prevention units. It heralds back to the days of Fredrick Taylor and the scientific management of business, long before the Internet. But too much focus on ROI often prevents the business from doing the right thing for their customers. I have felt this on more than one occasion at PRWeb.

For example, when we launched PRWebPodcast.com the first question I received was "how are we going to monetize this?" followed by "what is the anticipated ROI?" I made the decision not to build a business model around our podcasting product. Podcasts are free with our premium distribution. We actually lose margin with each press release that is podcast enhanced. There may be ways that we monetize part of our podcasting service in the future, but I foresee our current service remaining in force for years to come. It is the right thing for our customers and at the right time.

Some things you do just because they improve the customer experience. For example, I am a huge fan of Enterprise car rental. Ask Mick Jolly, or anyone else who has had the misfortune of booking me with a company other than Enterprise in the past, how passionate I am about Enterprise. I guess that this is partly due to my personality -- I am sure that the other rental agencies are just fine. In reflecting on my Enterprise experiences, I think they have a unique point of differentiation. If they are ROI driven they are not as transparently ROI driven as other car rental companies. As far as this renter in concerned, Enterprise focuses on the entire customer experience--and it's predictable.

For example, I am 100% certain that by offering bottled water to their customers Enterprise is reducing their gross margin. It's simple math, right. But the economics of building a customer experience offsets any loss in margin. What if someone in the Enterprise business prevention unit decided the company could save millions a year by eliminating the bottled water because it could not be measured in terms of traditional ROI? Would they lose me as a customer? Probably not. But they would remove an element of their business that improves the customer experience.

So how do I measure ROI? I have always measured ROI in terms of gross revenue and margin at the end of the month, not by any one component of our business process. I am sure that if I had taken the ROI measurement approach, I could not have justified more than half of the enhancements that we have made to the PRWeb platform. I would have thought they were bad for business.

The Internet bubble burst not because a lack of focus on ROI. We had measurement back then. I think it was more because some companies didn't provide value. Companies with high customer value propositions survived while the rest of the industry imploded.

So help me out -- where do we go with ROI? I would like to see some measure that provides more insight on the long tail effects of product enhancements, word of mouth, messaging and branding.

PRWeb Opens Content to Podcasters - What does this mean?

In the most simplest of terms, PRWeb is allowing visitors to take sound bites or entire podcast episodes and roll them into their own podcast and or CGM (Consumer Generated Content) productions.  This is actually great news for the podcast community which is constantly on the prowl for ideas and content to fill talk show formats.  Our entire archive past and present is available for their sampling.

Let us know  how you are using the podcasts.  (This is not a requirement but we do find it interesting.)

Enjoy. -- David

RSS Adoption Studies

Several weeks ago I was at lunch with a very smart person.  She asked me what I thought of Yahoo's latest RSS adoption study.  I asked her to watch my blog for my response.  So here it is. 

I want to call an end to RSS adoption studies.  They're just plain silly.   To start with, we cannot even determine what to call RSS within the tech-savvy community.  Is it Rich Site Summary, Real Simple Syndication or the newer Really Simple Stealing? 

But regardless of what you call it, RSS is still used in too many places where its usage is transparent to the casual Internet user.  I know this because PRWeb feeds show up on tens of thousand of sites in their rendered format.  When users visit these sites they are not exposed to raw RSS XML code, but rather, to a nicely formatted display of press release content. 

Does this make a reader any less an RSS consumer than someone reading news through an RSS reader?  I don’t think so.  Any movement to measure RSS adoption should be, at a minimum, an attempt to measure the amount of blogs and Web sites that render RSS on behalf of their visitors.  If anyone knows of such a study, do me a favor and post it below in the comments to this blog post.

The bottom line is, we all are consumers of RSS whether we know it or not.  Just because we do not always see the raw file does not mean that file wasn’t used when the page was rendered.  Attempting to measure adoption of RSS in today’s environment is akin to attempting to measure the adoption of HTML, JPEG or PNG.

Interview with Lee Odden

Lee Odden interviewed me for his Online Marketing Blog. For those interested in some good background on PRWeb and future of press release industry as defined by PRWeb it is probably worth the read. Lee tried hard to get me to spill the beans on new initiatives we are working on here at PRWeb. I am not going to say too much, but it will be GREAT.

David

Sign of the times ...

Like most businesses, we attend a ton of conferences and trade shows.  I just got back from ad:tech in San Francisco.  The last ad:tech conference that I attended was in Chicago over two years ago.  Here are a few noteworthy trends that I have observed.

First, ad:tech itself has really embraced the search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) players in a major way.  I was surprised to see the number of SEO/SEM firms represented on the exhibit show floor, a large increase compared to the Chicago ad:tech conference several years ago. It now looks like there are three shows that are musts for online marketing.  In addition to the big winners Search Engine Strategies and WebmasterWorld (aka PubCon), now ad:tech has firmly established itself as a player.  Shows to watch are WOMMA and OMMA (what fun would it be if I spelled everything out for you).  The later two are increasingly important if you are trying to understand new media and online dialogue.

The blogging and podcasting sessions at ad:tech were packed.  I know because I was issued a press pass for the show so I was able to attend.  Hey, I am not even MSM.  This is probably the most important change that I see coming to the show circuit.  Bloggers, podcasters and the press are sharing the same space in the Press Rooms. 

The sign outside the press room door read:  “Press / Bloggers”

Now that is a sign of the times.  Bloggers are sharing space with MSM.  These shows do well to recognize the powerful voice of the blogosphere in shaping opinion and creating dialogue.

Is this just my chance observation or is this the beginning of a trend?  At PRWeb, we are betting big on the power of the blogosphere, and our users generate media by creating hooks between this new content and our platform.  We are excited about working cooperatively with the blogging community to help our users be successful.