DWPub Sporadic

Why we sent our brochure to so many people

We sent a brochure, with a covering letter from me that you can see here, to lots of people over the last few days.

In some cases it went to multiple people in the same organisation. This would have applied in particular to the larger PR agencies where we have a lot of contacts. I've had a few comments about this, mostly citing a waste of paper, and for this I do apologise.

I wanted to take the opportunity here to explain the thinking behind the mailing.

We conducted some research recently that revealed quite a few people only knew DWPub for one or two of our services. And where people were familiar with more of our services the relationship between them was not fully understood. It showed, for example, that some did not realise that ResponseSource, FeaturesExec and SourceWire were all from the same people.

The result was our re-brand which we introduced last September. It was evolutionary, with the objective of tying our products more closely together and reinforcing the DWPub family. We've had great feedback from this, a project that was a real team effort and a tribute to all my colleagues at DWPub.

The direct mail campaign that's just gone out was an extension of this. Having not done a DM shot for some time I felt it would be a good idea to do one to present our new branding and to remind our community of the full range of products we offer. That was the motivation behind sending a complete brochure.

My thinking was that, in a smaller A5 format, and with space for each person's login details on page two, the brochure would be looked upon as a reference guide. Therefore sending one copy per person seemed to make sense.

In hindsight I appreciate that when multiple copies of the brochure arrived in certain offices this would have looked wasteful.

I failed to predict that response, perhaps because overall the amount of direct mail we do has massively reduced over the last three years, having placed a greater emphasis in digital marketing. In 2010 we did just two DM campaigns and last year we did none at all. This compares to 2008 when we did ten! I'd also opted for A5 format which helped us reduce the amount of paper used (thus also reducing the weight and the amount of fuel used in transporting it).

I think there is still a place for direct mail in B2B marketing, though admittedly this was perhaps not the best example. But I hope you can see the rationale behind it.

How to choose a PR agency

A friend of mine asked me the other day if I could recommend a PR agency.

Knowing many, many PR agencies (a very large proportion of UK PR agencies are DWPub clients) you would have thought that it would be easy for me to recommend a PR agency to someone. But it's not.

Choosing a PR agency is a bit like choosing a wife or husband. You want to get on. You want it to last, a reasonable amount of time anyway. You want to be able to work well together when things get tough. You need a few things in common. And you don't want to be with a dominating partner, or one that is too weedy to stand up for themselves. Would you choose a life partner based on someone else's recommendation? Probably not.

If you search for 'choosing a PR agency' you'll see there is a lot of clever advice out there. And there are all sorts of established processes for such things. I don't want to recreate any of that, but instead just offer a few thoughts.

Time for a list.

1. Culture. This is numero uno most important factor, in my opinion, when deciding which PR agency to hire. You need a compatible culture. This does not mean to say that the people in the agency need to look like the people in your team. But they do need to be able to work together and understand each other. Culture is a hard thing to nail down, but if you share one then the relationship will work much better. At the end of the day you want to work with people you like, so don't play down that factor.

2. Size matters. If you are a small company you will find it easier to work with a smaller PR agency or even a freelance. Big PR agencies are geared up for serving larger companies, with all the scale and reporting abilities larger companies require. This is not a hard and fast rule though - a large agency could be a good match for a start-up if there is a good cultural match and the agency really wants the business. And a freelance could do a great job for a large company if they have good sector expertise and the client has a fairly narrow product set or operates in a niche sector. But generally it's better to one of an agency's biggest clients then one of its smallest.

3. Clear objectives. PR people are very creative and if you do not give them a clear set of objectives their minds will explode with ideas, but none of them will be much use. Seriously, modern PR is very much objective-orientated. It's not just about 'column inches' any more. What are your business objectives, in terms of sales or other measurable results? Give these to your shortlist of agencies and you'll see better quality pitches.

That's just straight off the top of my head. I may revisit this subject, as it clearly deserves more than just a list if three thoughts.

Benefits to bloggers of being listed on the FeaturesExec Media Database

Many journalists are familiar with media databases such as FeaturesExec and the benefits of being listed in them. These benefits are possibly even more applicable to bloggers.

Here's an explanation, aimed primarily at bloggers, of some of those benefits:

• Profile raising. Being listed in FeaturesExec ensures your blog is visible to public relations (PR) professionals in the course of their work. In addition to their role in providing content for the media PR people also advise their clients on what media they should be following, including influential blogs. So being listed helps to extend your audience.

• Source content. A listing in FeaturesExec helps PRs learn more about you and your blog. They can then provide you with relevant, useful information such as exclusive content, Q&As, competitions, product trials, vouchers and invitations to events as well as press releases. Thus can be a great source of content for your blog.

• Specify your interests. We can include details in your listing about specifically what you want to receive from the PR community (and, of course, what you don't want to receive). The more detail on FeaturesExec the better PRs can tailor contributions to your blog.

Our aim at DWPub is to help the PR and media communities communicate. Bloggers have become an important part of the media and we are keen to work with influential bloggers to help them engage with the PR profession. Including major blogs in our FeaturesExec Media Database is just one way we are doing this.

We use a range of criteria to indentify major (or 'influential') blogs, including frequency of posts, subject focus, quality of writing and design, number of comments and site traffic. This criteria is always under review and I'm always keen to talk to bloggers to find out ways we can make our services work for them.

Bloggers may also find our other services useful, including the ResponseSource Enquiry Service and SourceWire News Distruibution – more details here.

Public sector - a graveyard or opportunity for PR professionals?

Today we have revealed the results from our recent public sector PR agency survey and at the same time published our latest whitepaper on social media in the public sector.

One would be forgiven for thinking that the current climate of cuts would mean doom and gloom for any PR professional in the public sector. And no doubt this is the case for many. But our survey found that on the whole sentiment among PR agencies with public sector clients is reasonably positive and the whitepaper, written by Brighton & Hove City Council PR head of communications John Shewell, emphasises the great opportunity social media represents to public sector PR professionals.

John argues that use of social media to communicate with public sector stakeholders represents not only an opportunity to communicate better but to also do so more cheaply, thus allowing PR to have a positive role in enabling public sector organisations to run more efficiently. "With budgets being squeezed and the public wanting to communicate in ways convenient to them, use of social media in the public sector is soaring," John said.

Our survey revealed that 48 per cent of PR agencies are confident of winning new public sector clients in the next 12 months despite continued cuts. This compares to our similar survey late last year where no agencies expressed confidence in winning new clients.

Also interesting was that we had 52 agencies complete the survey this year, down from 100 last year, despite increased efforts on our behalf to get people to take. I'm not sure what this means but perhaps last year the level of fear was higher, leading to a greater interest in the survey.

The survey also found that the number of PR agencies saying public sector clients made up 40% or more of their business has more than halved over the last 12 months – 17% this year compared to 40% in 2010. Though this conclusion is perhaps a bit unreliable knowing that the sample was very different from 2010 to 2011.

One thing is for sure though, despite the inevitable challenges caused by massive cuts public sector communications can be an exciting place to be.

Check out the survey results press release and the Social media in the public sector whitepaper press release.

Our approach to moderating ResponseSource enquiries

Following on from the debate triggered by the increasing use of the ResponseSource Enquiry Service by bloggers, we've started to tighten-up the moderation of the service.

We're doing this in response to feedback from our PR customers, who fund the service and who scan the hundreds of enquiries each week (often well over 100 a day) to see if they can help.

Below is a bit of background on the service and a list of things we look for in blogs when considering whether we are able to release requests. The latter are also useful as general guidelines for any blogger wanting to increase their audience.

I want to stress that we're always reviewing our approach to this and are keen to consider thoughts from bloggers and the PR community about how we can do this better.

Background

ResponseSource is primarily intended as a resource for journalists and professional media to seek information from PR professionals. PR professionals subscribe to the service to help them obtain effective media coverage for their clients.

Requests from bloggers are welcome and of course in most cases they are legitimate and represent valuable opportunities for PR professionals. But the volume of blogs that want to use ResponseSource has grown significantly and we have be sure we meet the needs of our subscribers for requests from quality, established blogs reaching a relevant audience.

Our aim is always to maintain the effectiveness of the service in the long-term for both the PR subscribers who pay for the service and also the media - including bloggers as well as journalists and broadcasters - who use it to source content. We therefore must reserve the right not to distribute any request which we feel is inappropriate for our subscribers. Due to the high volume of enquiries, we may not always be able to provide a full reason to the submitter, although we will try to contact submitters and discuss requests if we are able to help.

Blog 'qualities'

To help submitters decide if ResponseSource is suitable before submitting a request, below is a non-exhaustive list, not in any particular order, of some qualities we consider in a blog:

Frequency and regularity of posts - generally more than once a month, and preferably one or more a week.  We're looking for clear dates so we can see your blog is thriving

Variety of content - if your blog is mainly about product reviews, competitions and giveaways, it may not be suitable to our audience. Too many "personal" posts may also be inappropriate

High standard of design and language - this could be anything from spelling and grammar to fonts, image size and quality, and page layout. We're looking at your blog as a reader would - it needs to impress from the first click on to your home page

Clear focus and/or audience - eg do you concentrate on food, fashion, technology, or for a specific audience eg young men, over 60s, finance professionals? Whatever the target audience, consistency is all

Experience and qualifications - are you blogging about something you do as a profession, or are you an enthusiast about your topic?  Add this to your about page - it will make it easier for passing visitors to get a feeling for you as an author

Viewing figures (traffic reports, normally 'unique visitors' per month) should ideally be freely available or offered on request, and if you submit a ResponseSource enquiry you'll need to provide these in each request

Well established - we and our subscribers are wary of newly established blogs and in the early days of your blog we may not be able to distribute your requests.  If we say no to begin with, come back in a couple of months and we will be happy to review it

Comments from visitors - we're looking for quality as well as quantity. People engaging with your content demonstrate you have an audience

Transparent - is your full name and contact details shown on the 'about' or 'contact' pages? Blogs that are transparent about the people behind them engender more trust

In addition to considering the above we also look at the requests themselves, as a poorly constructed or vague media request makes it difficult for recipients to decide it if it is worthwhile responding. Clearly written, specific requests always work better.

Hopefully the above gives you some idea of the criteria we use to measure the quality of a blog. Like I have said, we're on a learning curve with this and welcome input from both bloggers and PRs to refine these guidelines.

Blogger requests - love 'em or hate 'em

We've released a request on our ResponseSource Enquiry Service today which will probably make most subscribers have a good old chuckle. Though it may annoy some who take it too literally.

It's a bit of a spoof of blagging bloggers - those bloggers that habitually request 'review samples'.

Here is just a short excerpt from the request:

"We are thinking of setting up our "Owt For Nowt" blog and would like you to send us lots of lovely and expensive gifts which we might - or might not - write about... Basically we just want nice things for free..."

The submitter, Bernice Saltzer from Sorted PR, singled out mummy bloggers - though of course there are many good ones and only a minority behave in the style of Bernice's parody. It's also worth pointing out that there are bloggers of other types who are equally inclined to request review samples.

Bernice was having a bit of a laugh about bloggers that ask for a lot of stuff but don't write much (or very well). I don't believe she was questioning the value of blogger relations, at least I didn't see it that way.

Anyway, the point I wanted to make was there has been a big rise in blogger requests and this has put us in a challenging position.

In recent years as blogging has become more mainstream we have of course allowed bloggers to use the service, it's only right that ResponseSource reflects a changing media.

But a significant proportion of blogger requests are of the 'review sample' variety. While many believe they are a legitimate PR opportunity other subscribers feel this clutters the ResponseSource service.

Our response to this is to offer the ability for individual subscribers to filter-out blogger requests or to filter-out specific bloggers. Not all subscribers realise they can do this, and of course many prefer not to filter in case they miss something.

I've always felt that ResponseSource is a barometer of the media. It is a communications channel used by the media and therefore the content reflects media style of the time. Because of this, I feel we should not intervene with the content unless absolutely necessary. We do moderate it of course, but with a fairly light touch as it is not for us to unnecessarily influence the way people use the service.

So for that reason, I personally believe filtering is better than aggressive moderation.

Having said that, I'd really like to hear from the ResponseSource community on how we can balance the needs of those who believe access to blogs is critically important and those who prefer to focus on other media. And that is the reason we let Bernice's enquiry out - it's a piece of comedy and also a catalyst for debate.

What happened to all the journo parties?

I have to thank a couple of journalists - Adrian Bridgwater and David Ludlow - for this inspiration behind this little project.

It was Adrian, a freelance tech journalist, who prompted us to ressurect an idea previously developed by David, who these days is group editor and associate publisher for Expert Reviews and Computer Shopper.

It's a calendar of journalist parties that we have set up very simply on our Facebook page and can be found by going to www.journoparties.com.

Normally this time of year is awash with Xmas drink-ups for journalists. But so far we have only identified about four, including our own annual SourceWire Cheshire Cheese Xmas Press Party.

I know there are fewer press parties these days but surely there must be more? We'll be searching them out and adding them in the coming days.

Media communications refreshed - the new DWPub

We have unveiled our new branding today.

During nearly 15 years of business our branding has developed in a fairly ad-hoc fashion. It's been a bit of a rollercoaster ride and there always seemed to be more important things to do than looking at how the business presents itself as a whole.

So we thought it was time to freshen things up a bit.

What you will see is not a radical change, but we have simplified and refreshed things. Perhaps the most obvious change is that we are now using DWPub instead of Daryl Willcox Publishing, the latter was a bit of a mouthful and DWPub already well recognised - dwpub.com has been our web address almost since the beginning. You also see that each service is now branded in a more consistent way. (See the press release.)

But this project, which has been about a year in the making, is more than just about new logos and better choice of words. We've done a lot of work on making it easier for people to discover the full breadth of what we do, and navigate more easily between services.

Speaking to customers, we found that some did not realise the full range of what we do. Although our individual services were well known, it was not always understood how they were related. Thus the inspiration behind this project, to bring our products closer together from a branding perspective. From this was born the DWPub Media Suite, a 'collective' brand that serves to present our main services as a whole.

Ultimately I hope this helps all of our community of journalists, PR professionals, bloggers, marketing people and small business owners understand how we are working to make media communications easy.

I'd just like to end on a tribute to my team. Although more of an evolution than a revolution, this project has touched all parts of the business. Every member of the team here has been involved - some more than others, and everyone has played their part with great enthusiasm, often while working under considerable pressure, and I'm proud to have such a great bunch of people working with me.

Wider coverage, simpler submission and a new name - what we're doing with press release distribution

Last week we revealed a new-look SourceWire.

While that was a big change - bringing the site design and navigation in line with Response Source and FeaturesExec - it was really just the tip of the iceberg.

Crucially, we've made a raft of changes to our press release wire service, including renaming the service SourceWire News Distribution (formerly the Response Source/SourceWire Press Release Wire).

The new name eradicates some confusion with our branding, but the biggest benefit is that all press releases now appear on both www.sourcewire.com and www.responsesource.com. So, press release submitters no longer have to choose which site they want to appear on.

In addition:

Pricing has been simplified and is now based on the number of subject categories chosen rather than which wire (SourceWire or Response Source) you want to appear on

The press release submit form is easier to use, with clearer steps for inserting your text, image and video media uploads, previewing, editing, and submitting your news stories

You can now supplement the distribution of your releases with the Press Association (PA) wire. The PA has long established links with national and regional press and broadcasters in the UK and Ireland. I believe SourceWire News Distribution is now the cheapest way to access the PA wire

As you can see, we've tweaked the name but SourceWire News Distribution is better in many more ways than that. And while the SourceWire website has become the focal point for our news distribution, the Response Source site will be the focus for our journalist enquiries service while continuing to feature press releases as well.

Most of this stuff has been done at the request of our users, so I really hope you like what we've done.

Response Source media request Twitter feed offers barometer of media needs

The Response Source Journalist Enquiries System Twitter feed has been revamped so it's more informative.
Now each tweet includes the first sentence or so of the main request text. Previously, the feed showed the subject categories and deadline, which was of little use in isolation.
This move has opened the Response Source service up a bit. It is now theoretically possible to respond to some enquiries without actually subscribing to the full media requests service. This is because in a small number of cases journalists are revealing the media outlet in the first words of their request and this is appearing on the Twitter feed.
We realised this could be an issue for some journalists so added an option on the media enquiry form to opt out of the Twitter feed. About one in four enquirers are currently opting out, which is consistent with a survey we did before the change.
Some enquiries are also missed from the Twitter feed as Response Source enquires sometimes come in too fast for the third-party system we use to keep up. So, the Response Source Twitter feed does not show all enquiries – it's probably around 60 per cent over all – and only a few give enough information to illicit a direct response. But at the very least the feed is a good barometer of what media outlets are asking for.
Journalists are able to specify a response by Twitter also, meaning they can request information using as many characters of text as they like but force PR professionals to respond in 140 characters, which will appeal to many hacks who complain of information overload.