The last time I wrote about Marketwire, I was praising the company for their progressive technology and social media 2.0 service.  I had also just worked with them jointly on a book signing in their exhibit booth at the PRSA International Conference in Detroit back in 2009. I’ve been watching Marketwire ever since, and thought it was time to write about them again. After hearing the announcement yesterday regarding their acquisition of Sysomos, I caught up with Marketwire President and CEO Michael Nowlan and Co-Founder and President of Sysomos, Dr. Nick Koudas, for an interesting and enlightening discussion.

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.

I guess I have a disclosure to make:  I was the “connector” between Justin and his acquisitions editor at Pearson. Justin was actually on his honeymoon when I reached out to him and asked him if he was interested in writing a book.  The rest is history….

I also want to note that Pearson sent me a review copy so that I could review the book and share my thoughts.

Facebook Marketing is a very helpful book.  Here’s what I liked the most: although Facebook can be intimidating, Justin walks you through easy steps from how to get started with your profile and setting up privacy settings to how you can effectively use Facebook advertising and Facebook Connect to enhance a consumer’s experience with a brand.

I also really appreciate a book that makes a point of reminding the reader that Facebook is just a tool and it’s what you do with it.  It’s up to us to discover functionality by experimenting and to commit ourselves to practicing the best techniques to build community.  These are the underlying principles for success and a very strong message threaded throughout the manuscript.

One of the most helpful parts was the privacy area.  I learned a few things myself about how you have different options for privacy and can control who can see your profile, post to your wall and who can interact with you on Facebook.  Justin also gave a very good explanation of the differences between the personal vs. professional profile and when to blend the two.  I’m finding many professionals are struggling with this question.

Overall, Facebook Marketing had excellent examples, however, if I were to offer helpful criticism with respect to this book (and this is really more so for Pearson and the production team), it would be to enlarge the graphics to support the great examples.  It was difficult for me to see the visuals, which were a bit too small to decipher.

I’m giving Facebook Marketing two thumbs up and calling it a “must read” for people who are new to Facebook or who have jumped into Facebook campaigns but haven’t taken the time to really explored all of Facebook’s unique possibilities.  This book will show you a better way!

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.

Valerie and I are a thrilled to announce that our #PRStudChat special guest is Jeffrey W. Hayzlett, former CMO of Eastman Kodak Company.  Jeff is providing transitional services to Kodak through the end of August, as he moves forward to pursue his own personal projects.  By way of background, he joined Kodak in April 2006 as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of the company’s Graphic Communications Group, reporting to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Antonio M. Perez. Jeff was responsible for the company’s worldwide marketing operations including the design and implementation of all marketing, strategy, investments, policies, and processes.

In addition, Jeff recently published his first book, The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing, which asks the question that most business managers are afraid to ask.  The book teaches how to evaluate, deconstruct, and then reconstruct one’s business both thoughtfully and aggressively.  As an extra bonus to our chat, Jeff will be giving away five of his books to the participants of the #PRStudChat community.

We’re thrilled to have Jeff as our special guest and will be discussing with him some of the following topics:  the responsibilities of the CMO, who owns social media, how PR integrates with other marketing disciplines, and some examples of how PR, Marketing and Web work together on social engagement.

We feel that Jeff’s experience in business and his tenure as the CMO Kodak will bring our community great insight.  PR students, professionals and educators will learn firsthand what happens inside the walls of the brand and how communications professionals come together to help a business communicate with the market through social engagement.

Please join us on June 16^th and get ready to learn more about the CMO and how critical it is for PR to be a part of the social equation.  We look forward to chatting with you!

Q1: T3PR’s focus is helping PR pros standout in the SM space. What are some effective tactics 2 cut through the clutter?

Q2: A big question is “What’s Next 4 PR, Strategy &Tech?” What recent tech innovations have captured your interest?

Q3: When you use platforms and tools f/ community building, what’s the best way 2 connect your diff SM tools?

Q4: W/ respect to personal brands, how can PR pros protect their rep online?

Q5: When you want to manage & maximize PR, how can PR pros demonstrate ROI w/ SM?

Q6: With so many experts as influencers, what’s the best way 2 start an online conversation w/ media?

Q7: How are online-only outlets evolving to compete w/ traditional media’s continued expansion into the space?

However, we encourage all of the T3PR participants to submit additional questions, during the session, to our moderator, Nicole Zerillo from PRSA (to @nzerillo w/out the hashtag). Just to remind you, the hashtag for the T3 Twitter chat is #techprsa. So get your tweetchat or tweetgrid ready for a dynamic discussion. Nicole will be asking the questions and I’ll be there as your host.  We look forward to chatting with you later today!

The tool that I inadvertently left out is the matte release.  For those of you who don’t know about the matte release, it’s been around for quite some time. In its original form, the early matte release dates back to the 1950s.  I was first introduced to matte releases by a company called NAPS, which mailed formatted articles on glossy paper to participating newspapers and the newspapers would choose among dozens of articles from that particular mailing.

The matte release is a formatted, consumer-related article that newspaper editors can use when they want additional content in their publication.  I’ve used matte releases in the past to get a targeted type of story published in newspapers across the country.  The concept behind the matte release is that you are able to draft the story for the publication and use your own content and information in a preformatted template. For a fee, the matte service would format the article and get it published in journals and newspapers, sharing your story with hundreds of thousands of people who met your audience demographics.  The result was a lot of media coverage. Although I haven’t used a matte release in several years, it’s morphed from a traditional format into a more web friendly resource that offers great visual impact with branded content.

How has the matte release changed? Let me introduce you to a company that has done a very good job with its successful transformation.  The company is ARAnet, which has been around since 1996. ARAnet has embraced changing technologies to provide its clients with distribution of customized content to print and online markets. Disclosure:  I have no affiliation with ARAnet other than the company was introduced to me by friend and I feel that the work this organization has done in the area of the matte release places this tool back on the map!

I took a look at the history of the company to get a better picture how it gave the matte release a facelift over time.  When ARAnet first started, it came out with a service called ARAcontent. ARAcontent entered the fray in 1996 and “automated” the matte release process by creating a system for electronic selection of articles by editors at newspapers and web sites. ARAcontent specialized in professional content creation to highlight a company’s products and services that is distributed and placed in top media outlets.

In 2010, ARAcontent is further digitizing the release of feature articles through an increased focus on media web sites and backlinks to client sites.  Content is search engine optimized and the company also helps to generate real engagement with consumers via social media.  From ARAcontent, evolved a new platform called Adfusion. ARAnet’s experience with feature article distribution through ARAcontent (the more PR-related product) inspired the Adfusion business model, which is a blend of advertising and PR.

I found Adfusion to be interesting, as it is a hybrid product. And, as you may know, I’m a big fan of the hybrid approach.  The product delivers brand communication in ways that don’t look like advertising. The next-generation solution combines the measurement and control of Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising with the credibility of content-rich articles, resulting in a greater return on investment than traditional advertising (or advertorial) methods.

With all of the changes in media it’s critical that we use the most useful tools in our toolkits.  The matte release in its traditional form is not as effective as it was years ago.  Branded content had to morph with a more sophisticated technology to create awareness and catch the attention of the web savvy consumer.  However, there will always be value with a well-written story supported by branded content.

According to ARAnet’s president, Scott Severson, it was important to take PR branded content to the next level to “work harder for the client by delivering multiple backlinks and guiding the interested reader directly into online resources that can result in a sale, a trial or a request for more information.”

I think the matte release has made a stunning transformation into ARAcontent and also this new hybrid solution called Adfusion.  What do you think of the evolution of the matte release?   Do you think this tool has a home in today’s new PR 2.0 toolkit?

Here’s a good example of how traditional PR meets social media, with good results.  We recently had a client appear on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. The article had a tremendous impact on their business.  Since the coverage, they are receiving numerous telephone calls from prospective clients website volume has increased to a level that the site temporarily went down, resulting from unexpected capacity.

We know that PR goes a long way.  And, from one major media hit, the company experts are now scheduled to appear on Fox & Friends, Bloomberg TV, and many radio shows across the country from Florida to California.  This is one of the most exciting (and exhausting) times with so many media appearances – the price to pay to be a media darling.  And, the opportunities moving forward continue to get better (from additional, popular TV show interviews to radio programs, with well known celebrities).  I’m even thinking there’s a reality show as a result of this newfound notoriety.

Of course, our focus is to continue with the great coverage and to leverage the PR by blending/sharing traditional coverage through social media communications.  Here are a few social media musts for this particular client:

• Radio interviews and TV appearances are shared with friends and followers in their social networking communities such as Twitter and Facebook.  Fans can tune in during or after an appearance and then pass the information along to their friends.
• All audio/video from shows are a part of a Spring 2010 Media Tour in the company’s interactive newsroom.  We make media easily available so stakeholders of the company can share informational video programming with members of their own communities.
• The client is creating video blogs from the green room at each TV station to capture the excitement as they prepare for an interview and to show firsthand what’s going on behind the scenes, up close and personal.
• We set up a YouTube channel for all of the clients videos; with each video embedded in the client’s site (we title and tag videos, so the are search engine optimized)
• YouTube videos are also shared in the client’s e-newsletter, which goes out to company stakeholders.
• The e-newsletter also discusses the company’s new blog community and the various topics of discussion in an effort to drive more stakeholders to engage in conversations with experts.
• All video news clips on YouTube are shared in the social media releases we develop for the company.
• The client follows the bloggers and the media on Twitter, as we know the media is in the Long Tail looking for great story ideas.

These are a few of the many ways that your traditional PR efforts complement social media.  The offline coverage is beginning to feed social conversations and drive traffic and links back to the website.  We’re beginning to see increased coverage on blogs and relationships are forming with different groups in social communities.  Are you using a blended approach so that your PR is maximized both offline and socially? What sort of strategies and tactics do you have in place to accomplish this type of hybrid approach?