'Direct-to-consumer' or 'social media' - whatever you call it, PRs must take note

PR workflow sofware company Vocus has bought US-based press release wire service PRWeb for nearly $30 million.

That's a lot of money for a wire that doesn't target journalists.

PRWeb doesn't really distribute releases to the traditional media like newspapers and broadcast outlets. It distributes to online communities - the 'social media'. So to see it command a value of nearly $30 million either means the crazy days of dot-com business valuations are back, or some people at least see the huge potential of 'direct-to-consumer' press release distribution.

We've been onto the huge benefits of the direct-to-consumer press release (or the social media press release) for some time, so we've been working on ways to ensure that our press release wire works for both social media and hits journalists too.

There's a lot of excitement of social media (like blogging and community sites), but it's no fad - it's going to get bigger and more important very quickly and the UK PR community must sit up and take notice. See my previous postings about knowledge workers reading press releases and the impact of search marketing agencies on the PR role.

Having said that, traditional media is still very important - readers will always migrate toward the quality of independently written material that the traditional media is so good at - so that's why we are keen to combine the qualities of an online press release wire service that hits both social media and traditional media. That's the future.