DWPub Sporadic

SourceWire becomes media partner for CNET Networks Awards

Our technology journalists' site SourceWire has become a media partner for this year's CNET Networks UK Technology Awards.
The CNET Networks' awards programme has established itself as an important forum for showcasing the best in business technology.
Entries to the various awards categories are now being accepted. It's a great opportunity to show how your company or client is helping drive business technology forward.
Find out more at www.cnetnetworks.co.uk/awards.

PR in the digital age

I was asked by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) recently to put together a small piece on digital PR, the result appears on the What's New in Marketing website (a joint venture between the CIM and search company MediaCo among others).

I found writing it quite a useful excercise, having observed online PR evolve over the last the last couple of years. It helped me to put all this stuff into perspective. I'm sure on a tactical level techniques will always be developing, but there is a need for an overview - useful for those who have yet to step beyond traditional PR and also for experienced digital PR professionals who just want a sanity check.

Perhaps I should expand it and add it to our whitepaper series.

Press releases and social bookmarking

Apparently over 100 press releases on our Press Release Wire were bookmarked on social bookmarking sites or other social media sites in the last month.

That sounds quite healthy to me. It suggests the links on each press release to the top 35 social bookmarking sites are proving useful.

Getting your release posted to social media sites is a great way of broadening your reach among consumers, journalists and bloggers. Check out my previous post on the popularity of releases that get bookmarked.

Press releases are cool again

Back in the late ‘90s when I was working as a hack on business magazines, the press release was seen by the PR community as an old-fashioned tool. Instead, there was a definite trend towards ‘one-to-one’ PR. Press releases and press conferences were out and cosy meetings with company spokespeople were in.
Of course, the press release never died - the simplicity of the ‘shotgun’ approach was understandably irresistible to most PR professionals. And now, with the massive growth of digital media (check out what Chime Communications CEO Chris Satterthwaite says of the importance of the internet), the humble press release is experiencing something of a renaissance.
What’s driving the press release back into fashion is the fact that when press releases are made available online they become valuable on a number of different levels. It’s not just about reaching journalists, it’s about online visibility, reaching social media and driving traffic to client websites.
For these reasons writing and distributing press releases is back as a core PR technique for all campaigns. And crucially, all press releases should be made available on a quality online press release wire - it just doesn’t make sense not to.

Press release writing and distribution resources

We offer a number of resources to help with press release writing and distribution. Check out this list:

• Daryl’s Six Tips: Writing Press Releases - a quick introduction on my blog
• Press Release Writing and Distribution - a whitepaper aimed at SMEs but could be useful for in-house PR professionals and agency execs
• Getting Results with Press Releases - a whitepaper aimed more at agency execs but could be useful for in-house PR professionals
• Public Relations vs Search Marketing - a whitepaper which looks at the crossover between PR and search and explains embedded links in press releases
• Press Release Wire description of service - more tips on making the most of your releases

Of course, there is our Response Source/SourceWire Press Release Wire itself, which will get your release both in front of the media (check out numbers of media recipients in each category) and highly visible on the internet. We believe it’s the number one press release wire by volume in the UK.

Top communications chief meets club music act in latest DWPub video

The CEO of the company behind Bell Pottinger, the UK’s biggest PR agency group, is the subject of DWPub’s latest video interview which also features brand new music by club act Midfield General.
Chime Communications CEO Chris Satterthwaite talks of the importance of digital media to the PR industry and goes so far as to say PR agencies should "embrace the digital world so firmly that sometimes some of your clients say you’re almost excluding everything else".
In the exclusive interview uploaded today, Chris gives advice to all PR professionals, suggesting they adopt a 'listening heart', as well as advising what PR agencies must do if they want to become part of a larger communications group like Bell Pottinger.
The video features a track from Midfield General’s latest album ‘General Disarray’, which is due to be released in April. Previous videos have been re-edited to include this music.

Use freelance journalists to get better media coverage

A great way to secure coverage in the media now and in the future is to build relationships with freelance journalists.
Freelance journalists often have limited research resources compared with their staff counterparts, which means they are more likely to return to the same sources for information and quotes once contact has been made. And they like to make the most of their time, often using research or interview material in more than one article.
In addition to this, they are often quite prolific at generating online content and many write influential blogs. So it really makes sense to identify freelance journalists that cover your clients' sectors and develop relationships with them. Over the longer term it can be a very fruitful exercise.
Our Freelance Journalist Directory has a brand new website which has led to the database expanding to over 3,600 entries. Each journalist's entry includes contact details, subjects covered and links to their blogs and other social media profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn. Each journalist can now also upload up to three pictures.

• Check out the Freelance Journalist Directory press release
• Check out our new whitepaper ‘Working with Freelance Journalists’

Online PR - is it mainstream yet?

It was nice to see a thoughtful piece about online PR in PRWeek, though the ultimate credit must go to Drew B who wrote the piece.

This whole issue (I like to call it ‘digital PR’ – it’s a nice catch-all) seems to be maturing since I started blogging about it two years ago (though I’m sure I was by no means the first).

I think back to when I published my whitepaper ‘PR vs Search Marketing’ back in April 2007, and have mixed feelings. Sometimes I think we’ve moved on – more people are talking about the importance of digital media for PR now, including Chime Communications CEO Chris Satterthwaite (look out for our latest video interview with Chris). But sometimes I feel there is still so much further to go, which was the thrust of Drew B’s PRWeek article.

What's needed now is more discussion of actual tactics rather than just saying 'digital media is important'. Stuff like this recent post from Brendan Cooper.

Digital marketing - the real future

I’ve just been listening to Kevin Warwick at the LIFT08 conference in Geneva. He’s the British researcher who has been experimenting with connecting the human brain to computers.

Kevin spoke about the time he implanted a chip into his nervous system and connected himself to the internet. He predicted that in thirty years we will all have chips implanted in our brains and will be able to communicate by thought.

We think digital marketing is exciting now, but what’s it going to be like when we can send ideas and thoughts directly into people’s minds?

Digital PR and LIFT

I've been enjoying the LIFT08 conference today, the confluence of technology and culture is intoxicating and there is a sense of community here that many conferences fail to achieve.
But I've been wondering what the real relevance is to the PR industry. Why was I listening to all this fascinating but not immediately useful stuff? Then it dawned on me.
LIFT08 is a great example of well digital media works. People are blogging and twittering. You can't go anywhere without tripping over someone with a camera - from camera phones to full-broadcast video. My friend was actually video blogging using a webcam on his laptop, almost in real time. This output is generated by the organisers, traditional media companies and delegates - the full range of today's media landscape.
I'm inclined to think that anyone working in PR who didn't yet 'get' the importance of digital (and social) media would surely change their outlook if they experienced LIFT.