I just spent the last two days with Amanda Miller Littlejohn.  Amanda is founder of Mopwater PR and a PR professional and blogger based in Washington DC.  Our two days were filled with great conversations, laughs (lots of them, as you will see from the video) and many creative ideas.  I was inspired by the conversation and wanted to share an interview with Amanda that discusses how to tap into your creative PR process.  Please feel free to share how you find ways to tap your creative PR.

From my own knowledge and interaction with both of these companies (my only disclosure is that I’ve used the Marketwire newswire service and the Sysomos platform for my clients), I definitely see how the acquisition made a tremendous amount of sense. It’s important for PR and communications professionals to take note of how Marketwire is maximizing technology to advance communications.

Here are a few of the things I learned during my chat with two very busy business executives, post acquisition announcement.

One of the first questions I asked was, “How do your customers benefit from this acquisition?” They explained that their customers have been facing the rapid conversion of traditional and social media.  It’s apparent that there’s a great deal of confusion and also a concern in the communicator’s mind on how to handle social media because social media has “literally exploded.” The acquisition is a serious step forward for Marketwire and it addresses a large need in the market.  As a PR professional, I talk a great deal about listening to what customers and stakeholders are saying. That’s exactly what Marketwire did.  Their customers were the main rationale for the acquisition of Sysomos.

I also wanted to know why the Sysomos technology was the clear choice, with all of the other monitoring platforms, and how closely the brands aligned, even in terms of culture. We discussed “Why Sysomos?” and after listening to the explanation, it was clear to see that the Sysomos technology and the organization’s progressive way of thinking aligned closely with the Marketwire brand.  It was also mentioned that, “the Sysomos technology speaks for itself.”

In addition, the two brands fit together because of their philosophies and style; both companies, early on, were innovators in the market.  When Marketwire was doing its due diligence, it immediately recognized how both organizations had a strong commitment to customers and their values and business principles were very similar as well. Another  interesting fact that I didn’t know, Marketwire and Sysomos are neighbors, practically in each other’s backyards, only four blocks away from one another.

When I asked about the Sysomos platform and if it would stand alone, I learned that Marketwire will immediately begin offering the Sysomos product set, which includes Hearbeat and MAP.  These products will continue to exist under the Marketwire brand.  Marketwire is also investing in the integration of the Sysomos product set into a Marketwire platform.  For the next 24 months, there will be an entire roll out of additional comprehensive features and new products to come. The acquisition is truly representative of Marketwire’s conversations with PR professionals and hearing what they had to say by addressing their pain points and helping them to make smarter business decisions.

Touching a bit on whether or not the acquisition would open up new markets and channels for the company, we discussed how communications, as a whole, is segregated.  Marketwire’s new offerings will integrate rather than separate communication into silos (I’m all for integration).   And, for the Sysomos product set, Marketwire brings to the table a well-established sales team with a direct sales force and the marketing background and backend administrative process the company needed.  Sysomos is a younger company, three years on the market, so the acquisition broadens the reach for its product set.

Through this acquisition both executives envision a world where communications professionals can release information and have quantifiable measures that demonstrate ROI.  So many companies will be able to benefit from the acquisition, from the large to the mid-size and smaller organizations.  Both Marketwire and Sysomos work with some of the largest multinational companies (PR agencies), so there’s a big appeal for these brands.  However, mid-size and small companies are also a major piece of Marketwire’s strategy and direction.

Then, I asked the million-dollar question, “So, what’s next?”  Both executives expressed how, in the immediate term, people are really looking to turn information into true intelligence (into ROI).  When you have good intelligence you can, in turn, use this to improve strategy.  The acquisition offers a truly integrated solution that also provides an intelligent workflow.  They touched upon the broad vision and the communications cycle; how the right tools release information and from there you need to understand the reach and engagement.  It’s imperative to bring this information back to the corporation and be able to quantify the impact (to know what works and what doesn’t work).  Sysomos furthers Marketwire’s capabilities to make this possible for its customers.

My last question asked both executives to impart advice to PR and communications professionals (and students) with respect to technology and the changing media landscape. Their response was focused on the importance of staying on top of technology and the tools (advice that is close to my heart).  They mentioned how the basic fundamentals of communications are not changing yet the technology is advancing rapidly.  Social media and the integration of technology mandate that you stay current.  This is especially important with students, who, hopefully, will be introduced and experience changes in technology as a part of their academic curriculum.

I believe we will see some excellent solutions and exciting advances in technology from Marketwire.  PR professionals definitely need integrated solutions as we find ourselves increasingly accountable to our brands for strategic social communication, engagement, monitoring and measurement that reveal impact and ROI.

A little bit about David … he is the Community Manager for Scribnia (where readers can review and discover online authors and bloggers) and he is also the co-founder of the #u30pro with Lauren Fernandez (@cubanalaf), a dynamic chat session on Twitter that takes place on Thursday nights at 7:00 p.m. EST.

Here’s my Q&A with David:

Q. Tell me a little bit about how Scribnia started?

A. Scribnia was started by Russell D’Souza and Jack Groetzinger in 2009 based on a simple idea: There were a ton of bloggers and other writers online, but there was no where for readers to share their opinions of their writing.  We wanted to provide a platform where readers could share the writers they love and hate with each other, discover new writers and learn of a writer’s biases and focuses from their readers.  We launched Scribnia while participating in the DreamIt program in Philadelphia in the summer of 09.  The company has since been sold, revamped and relaunched under the ownership of the new CEO, Marc Duquette.

Q. How do you think Scribnia will help PR professionals in their blogger relations programs?

A. You’ll find influential writers on Scribnia that you often wouldn’t find anywhere else because of how our content and rankings are generated…100% crowdsourced by readers.

Agencies like Porter Novelli and SHIFT Communications have already started to use Scribnia in their regular outreach programs.

Unlike other tools that PR professionals use, Scribnia allows you to find the bloggers that are specifically suitable for the audience you’re trying to reach.  For example, say your client is selling baby bottles, and you need to find mom-bloggers who focus on newborns, rather than adolescents.  You can use Scribnia to filter down to the writers that are writing for your specific audience…in this example, mothers with newborn babies.

(If it helps, here’s a quick video showing you how to use the Scribnia filters to find writers based on their specific focuses:

http://scribnia.com/blog/2010/04/28/video-how-to-find-influential-writers-niche-scribnia/)

Additionally, what you’ll find unique with Scribnia, is that since we rank writers 100% based on reader reviews, it’s not always the “A-List” bloggers you see first, like you do on sites like Alltop or Technorati.  There’s only one way to be found on Scribnia, and that’s by writing well and engaging with your readers… two things that are important for blogger outreach campaigns.

We are working on adding a number of new functions that will make the blogger outreach process much easier, and more efficient for PR pros as well as for bloggers…so stay tuned.

Q. How are you growing the Scribnia community?

A. As a blogging focused site, it’s very important for us to be present in blogging communities across the web.  We are constantly on Twitter (@Scribnia) responding to bloggers with questions, participating in lively chats like blogchat, journchat, and sharing posts from the amazing bloggers that we come across within the Scribnia community.  We also participate on blogging forums, ning networks, and anywhere else where we can meet and engage with bloggers on the web.  We’re also very fortunate to have power users that have been supporting us from the start.  Without them, we wouldn’t be here today.

A lot of our growth is also due to how the site works.  Any user can add a writer to the site…even without the writer’s knowledge.  Bloggers typically are interested in what their readers and others have to say about them, so when they see that people are talking about them and reviewing them on Scribnia, they’re inclined to come check us out.  That’s where I come in to engage with them, see what we can do to help, and hopefully earn their trust and support over time.

Q. What are some of the most helpful features or ways people are interacting on the site?

A. Most of the interaction that goes on is between bloggers and their readers. Often, readers will review a writer, and the writer will comment with a response to the review.  It’s a great way for readers to provide feedback on a writer’s work in a way that they just couldn’t do in blog comments or on an open platform like Twitter.  It’s a dedicated feedback platform.

We actually make it possible for that interaction to occur on blogger’s own sites using the “Scribnia Review Widget”.  This widget allows readers to read, and write reviews of the blogger, right on their blog without ever having to leave their site.

Another big function of our site is recommendations.  We take pride in being able to provide highly personalized recommendations to users.  We do this in two ways:

1) Your friends.  You can find all of your friends who are using Scribnia easily by connecting your Facebook, Twitter, and other accounts.  Once you’re connected on Scribnia, you can easily click “Recommend” on any writer’s page, and choose which friends you’d like to recommend the writer to.  So, if I find this really sweet cooking blog, and I know my friend is big into cooking, I can recommend the writer to them and it will appear on their recommendations page.

2) When a user reviews a number of writers (set at 5 right now), we can learn of their tastes in writers.  I won’t go into too much detail, but we use the focus/bias filters that I discussed earlier, to match you with writers that have focuses that you tend to rate highly.  So, for example, if you’re into marketing, and you tend to give a higher rating to writers who write about “low budget” approaches to marketing campaigns, we can recommend other writers who share that same focus.

Q. What’s next for Scribnia?

Well we plan to be bigger than Google by 2011 by upping our SEO efforts. (bwaha…ha…)

But seriously, we just hope to keep the site and community growing.  It’s been amazing so far, and we know the more great writers we get involved, the more valuable our site becomes for readers, writers, and businesses.

As far as features go, we’re constantly building and improving.  A number of new widgets will be available soon that bloggers will be able to customize for their site.

We’re also exploring and developing a few avenues to make that money.  To this point, we’ve really just focused on building up the community and content.

Joel and I chatted that day and after a few emails back and forth, I ended up speaking with his CEO, Brett Hurt and then later the CMO of the company, Sam Decker.  I guess after several conversations you could say I found the company and the people behind the scenes to be very interesting.  I want to disclose that I have no affiliation with Bazaarvoice, which is a company that captures, displays, shares and analyzes customer conversations online through a combination of technology and personalized services to help brands build communities.

I thought it would be great to interview Sam to help PR professionals learn about the customer centric approach to drive measurable business goals for their own brands.  A little about Sam first:  he is a recognized expert in eCommerce, word of mouth marketing, and direct marketing and a frequent speaker at marketing and eCommerce events.  Sam is the author of an award-winning marketing blog (www.deckermarketing.com), and brings more than 15 years of marketing and online retailing experience to Bazaarvoice. As Chief Marketing Officer, Sam is responsible for leading Bazaarvoice’s corporate marketing and PR. Before joining Bazaarvoice, Sam spent seven years of leadership at Dell, Inc. in marketing, eBusiness, CRM, and customer-centricity. From 1999-2003, he led Dell’s consumer web site, building Dell.com into the largest consumer eCommerce site at $3.5B in annual sales.

Here is the Q&A with Sam:

Please share with us your thoughts about the customer centric approach and why is this so important today?

Today’s consumers not only have more choices for virtually every decision they make; they also have more information at their fingertips. For several years, the Edelman Trust Barometer has found that a “person like me” – not a brand or marketer, or even a critic – is the most trusted source for information about a company and products. Marketers’ voices don’t resonate as well as other people like yourself. The Internet also makes it easier for consumers to collaborate with one another to get opinions – Facebook and Twitter enable direct and broad communication with people like you.

So if a company isn’t customer-centric, the community can – and will – expose its shortcomings quickly. All the marketing in the world can’t cover up or change how brands truly interact with customers – it can’t cover up who you really are. Our tagline is “Be the Conversation,” which means that, in short, the truest “marketing” is to be yourself, and the conversation will follow. Authenticity amplifies.

What has to happen within an organization in order for it to embrace a customer centric approach?

When the customer voice permeates the entire business, we call this “customer oxygen.” Sometimes it begins when a company adds customer reviews to its site. After everyone gets over the fear of negative reviews, they start to see how consumers actually interact with their products – what they like and don’t like. The product developers see how they can create or improve products that customers will buy and enjoy. The company starts seeing unexpected results, such as lower return rates and feedback on, for example, products that get scratched during shipping, or customers point out that the shade of blue online doesn’t quite represent the actual shade of blue in the item received. In examples like this, we’ve seen whole processes change, marketing content get updated, or manufacturers get called out for an inconsistent color lot.

To really make an impact, management has to support both hearing the customer voice and taking action. There are many companies that bring reviews into departmental meetings, or form interdepartmental committees that focus solely on enhancing the business around customer input. The company must be committed – in thought and in action – to listening and reacting to customer input.

I noticed that Bazaarvoice does a lot of work with ratings and product reviews (getting customers to participate interactively on a brand’s website).  What are the benefits of using these interactive tools and how does this strategy help the brand?

Brands that embrace customer participation are seen as more authentic and more trusted. Making it easy for consumers to write reviews gives brands and their customers a clear picture of what’s good, bad, or missing from a product.

That direct input helps brands make product improvements that are most likely to translate to stronger-selling products, since consumers have requested them.

What do you tell a company that is reluctant to use product reviews?

Consumers are already talking about your brand – both positively and negatively. They’re talking on Facebook, Twitter, and over their back fences. You want to be part of these conversations – hear what’s most important, show them you’re listening and responding, and get a real leg up on your competition. When you invite your customers to converse with you on your site, you can respond to them, get product-specific feedback that can help you continuously improve, and make your customers innately trust your brand more, simply by allowing them to share their opinions publicly on your site.

How does a company handle negative product reviews?

When Bazaarvoice started out, this was the most comment objection we heard – brands were afraid of negative reviews. In fact, negative reviews can give you some of the best, game-changing information that can positively influence your business.

We insist that our clients be transparent with reviews – they must publish negative reviews, as long as they are on-topic and appropriate (i.e., not profane, etc.). If companies take action due to negative reviews, they can insert feedback directly amongst the reviews saying, “We heard you; we improved this product.” Also, a negative review to one person may not necessarily be a negative review to someone else – if one person complains about battery life for a camera, for example, but a shopper is more concerned about photo quality, it just adds to the information on the page.

Finally, consumers are smart. If they only see positive reviews on a site, they’ll start to suspect that the reviews are insincere or faked – which totally crushes any trust that reviews can build. No product is perfect for every user in every situation; negative reviews bring authenticity to a site.

How does user-generated content make an impact on conversations and ecommerce metrics?

Customer reviews can have a huge impact on an organization. On the website, reviews increase the amount of content about a product, which increases natural search results, time on site, and – most importantly – sales conversion. By setting realistic expectations, reviews also tend to decrease product return rates and generally increase customer satisfaction. Consumers inherently feel more invested in a brand because they actually had a role in creating content for the site. We’ve also seen reviews help increase conversion and redemption for all types of advertising, from coupons to email offers.

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Are you using the customer centric approach and how has this helped you to drive measurable results.  What are you thoughts on this approach and/or concerns to getting started?

I caught up with Thom recently and he shared a what’s new and exciting at HARO:

Q.  There are some new and exciting developments at HARO!  Tell me what’s changed since you took your position in June 2009.

A.  Wow. What a difference 7 months makes! As you probably saw, the new and improved HARO 1.0 at www.helpareporter.com was launched on January 19. This was the culmination of an aggressive development cycle that commenced in August of 2009. Six months later, we’ve been able to transform a simple crowd-sourcing tool for reporters, into a full service online sourcing, PR and marketing solution for reporters, sources and small businesses around the world.

Q.  What kind of research does HARO conduct to keep on top of what journalists and PR professionals need from your service?

A.  As most HARO users know, we keep our finger on the pulse of what reporters, sources and our sponsors need by regularly asking them for input and feedback directly on HAROs themselves. Additionally, we use our presence on Twitter and Facebook as well as Peter Shankman’s personal blog to solicit input and feedback, and to share new developments with HARO users. The recent relaunch of HARO was informed by weeks of formal surveys conducted back in July and early August of all three HARO user groups – Reporters, Sources and Sponsors. The majority of new features rolled out in HARO 1.0 came directly from the feedback our users shared with us in those surveys. HARO 1.0 is a perfect example of innovation from the community who made the service so important and valuable to begin with. As the champion and project leader over this development and launch effort, my hat is off to the HARO community for recommending such smart improvements. Your peers are thrilled with the output you requested. We simply listened.

Q.  Has technology played a large role in helping you to advance and fine tune HARO’s service offering?

A.  Technology has played a critical role in not only fine tuning HAROs service offering, but on streamlining internal operations. We literally moved HARO from a several-page WordPress web site with subscriber forms and a small ESP managing distribution of the HAROs to nearly 50,000 members managed in large part, manually by HARO staff, to a full-service, entirely-automated online platform that not only serves Reporters, Sources and our Sponsors but that has also streamlined our Editorial and Sales operations by reducing manual workflow and processes by nearly 75%. The operational improvements alone have helped HARO staff, already hyper-responsive from a customer service perspective, become even more helpful and available to our users. Because of these improvements, HARO is now serving more than 100,000 members with the ability to scale into the millions effortlessly. Add to the improvements already mentioned, HARO simultaneously launched a community-based customer support service using GetSatisfaction.com. Technology has enabled the next stage of user-requested innovation at HARO. I expect more of the same in the future.

Q.  How much have your communities (journalist and PR) grown since the last time we interviewed?

A.  Since we last interviewed, Deirdre, Reporters using HARO have doubled from just under 15,000 to now slightly over 30,000. Sources have grown from just under 40,000 to north of 100,000 – just over 150%. Since the launch itself just 15 days ago, we have accepted nearly 16,000 new subscribers into the HARO family, have processed dozens of automated advertising purchases from Sponsors, and have launched five new industry / vertical HAROs. The overwhelming majority of user feedback, minus the normal ‘hey this is a bug, can you fix it’ comments that go with a launch this comprehensive, has been profoundly supportive of what we’ve done here. It’s been remarkable.

Q.  What will HARO look like in the next six months to a year?  What will be your focus?

A.  Ah, the million dollar (or perhaps multimillion dollar question). We will continue improving existing features just rolled out in HARO 1.0. Yes, there will be a HARO 2.0. We will continue rolling out additional industry / vertical HAROs, and we will be looking at very smart, strategic partnerships that help Reporters, Sources and Small Business Owners connect in more meaningful, productive and profitable ways. We have set aggressive goals for 2010. By the end of the year, we intend to serve more than 75,000 Reporters and 150,000 Sources. We also intend to continue growing profitably. We’ve found that partners, the media and our users, not to mention this management team and our fearless leader, Peter Shankman, all feel that a profitable social media services company is not only a better enterprise to affiliate with or run, but is a bit unique among our peer set.

Here’s my Q&A with Jacob:

Twittfaced is an enlightening social media toolkit.  With all of the tips and tools on how to understand and maximize the social web, what are the three most important takeaways of the book?

1)    Social media is changing the way in which organizations and individuals can do business.

2)    Making social media campaigns and strategies more accountable is going to become crucial in order to justify their existence.

3)    There are a lot of tools, platforms, and strategies out there but in order to success you need to understand what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it through social media.

What’s the meaning behind the name of the book?  Is there a special significance to the name, Twittfaced?

Twittfaced is the moment of enlightenment you get when you realize that social media is much more than just Twitter and Facebook.  Twittfaced is the realization that social media is impacting business on a massive global scale, business is changing and those of us that are “Twittfaced” realize that change and are able to take advantage of it.

What made you decide to write this book and how long did it take from start to finish. Did you enjoy working together as co-authors?

Josh and I actually collaborated on an ebook called “social media for authors.”  This ebook spread across the web and eventually landed in the hands of our publisher, “Clay Bridges.”  They asked us if we wanted to write an actual social media book and Josh and I jumped at the opportunity.  I decided to write it because first of all it helps add credibility and authority to what I talk about on a daily basis on my blog, JMorganMarketing.  Second, I wanted to create an easily digestible social media handbook that covered all of the content without being overwhelming to the reader.

Do you have a favorite chapter or passage in the book, and why is it your favorite?

My favorite sections in the book are the measurement and ROI areas (including the Q&A with Olivier Blanchard) because I feel they are oftentimes not addressed yet are absolutely crucial.  Social media and marketing, in general, needs to become more accountable and this book has several chapters, which call that out.  Yes, social media is valuable and important, but if you can’t back it up with some sort of business results then it really doesn’t warrant any type of investment.

What is the one thing that makes your book stand out above all of the other social media books?

Our book is meant to be a handbook that can quickly guide you through the social web. There are plenty of other social media books out there that are 300+ pages.  Ours is around half of that from cover to cover, which means you can get all of the information you need quickly and efficiently.  We also cover everything from “listening” to measuring ROI so it’s quite comprehensive.  Finally, we had Brian Solis and Chris Brogan contribute to the book with a little bonus Q&A section from Olivier Blanchard.  When you take all of that into account and that factor in the price (around $16.00) it’s really the greatest value out there.

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Hope you enjoyed the interview about Twittfaced and if you want to reach out to Jacob, you find him on his social media consulting blog or connect with him directly on twitter @JacobM.

Dave answered my question that I posed in an earlier blog post:  Are you ready for social media?  Based on his response, I don’t think anyone can predict the reaction to a blockbuster viral video that ignites passion and raises recognition to unimaginable heights.  What I find incredibly refreshing is that Dave remains focused, grounded (after all he took the time to do this interview) and describes himself as the same musician that he was before.

Check out the full interview with Dave on my MusicQuench blog.

In 2007, I interviewed Ibrey Woodall, Director of Marketing of TEKgroup for my book PR 2.0 New Media, New Tools, New Audiences.  TEKgroup is recognized as an award winning Internet software and solutions company, creating online newsrooms for the public relations industry.  I was extremely impressed with Ibrey’s knowledge and expertise and quickly learned through the interview that TEKgroup’s product was a valuable asset for companies who needed a turnkey newsroom solution to attract journalists and equip them with the information they need to be more productive.

I first learned about TEKgroup when I came across its annual Online Newsroom Survey that reveals the opinions and preferences of journalists who are looking for specific functionality and information in a company’s newsroom.  TEKgroup’s 2009 Online Newsroom Survey revealed that the top five functions to have in an online newsroom are:

1. Ability to post elements 24 hours a day, from any location – no HTML code

2. Ability to distribute targeted e-mail alerts and story pitches

3. Ability to identify a journalist and report on what elements he/she accessed

4. Ability to add/delete sections and organize news by subject

5. Ability to optimize individual news releases for search engine access

An organization’s newsroom is one of the best ways to connect with journalists.  With the right tools you’re helping them to gather more information in one central location and be efficient in their jobs.  And, today, your newsroom is not just for reporters and editors of mainstream media. It’s a critical touch point to your brand for everyone (bloggers, customers, prospects, partners, etc).  In my blog post, PR Lessons in Life, I discussed how important it is to make a good first impression.  A well equipped newsroom is one way to for a brand to make a good impression, even before a journalist speaks to a PR contact or a member of the company.

During a recent conversation with Ibrey, I learned that since our interview, TEKgroup advanced its capabilities to offer an interactive social media package.  Building PR 2.0 sharing capabilities into a newsroom enables your news to be viral in the social media landscape. Newsrooms should include features and functionality that allow information to be passed along through social networks including Twitter, Facebook, Newsvine, Reddit and StumbleUpon.  Newsroom visitors are also able to bookmark releases in Digg and Delicious communities.

I definitely agree with TEKgroup’s approach.  By having a newsroom that’s organized, with the right assets, one that’s easy to navigate and provides social media capabilities, the functionality will suit the needs of journalists who don’t have the time to search for resources, and for consumers and other groups who want to gather, organize and then share the information in their social networks.  This is truly a fantastic way to supply information that the brand needs to communicate and simultaneously build a relationship with people by assisting them to find what they need too.  Through this type of solution, the brand becomes a valuable resource (now, that’s a good first impression) and it can then track the success of the PR 2.0 newsroom through the conversations and behavior of its newsroom users.

Are you enhancing your newsrooms with PR 2.0 capabilities?  Please feel free to share some of your favorite newsrooms and why they are successful.