The Why and How of Google Alerts

It is just about every day that I tell an attorney that he or she should track what’s being said on the Internet with regard to him/herself, their law firm, their main clients, their competition, etc. It’s really easy, I tell them. Just set up a Google Alert. And then I get the blank stare. So today, I sent a client a link to an excellent article by Adam McFarland on Pandia called Using Google Alerts for Intelligence Gathering. It’s easy to read, easy to follow, and provides the why and how for setting up Google Alerts.

Online Gaming Increases Brand Awareness

Online Gaming, the topic of PR Week’s May 12, 2008 Inside Information section was entirely foreign to me. The article eludes that PR professionals are using online gaming to achieve their dreams of “captivating consumers with brand messages for hours.”

According to Joe Kessler, partner at SS&K, “success is derived from consumer insight, between the nature of the game and the brand supporting it. It’s never a good idea to do a game just to do one.” The article also states that “online games can increase traffic to company Web sites, and draw attention to other content.”

One example of online gaming that struck me as useful was MSNBC.com’s NewsBreaker Challenge. The challenge was launched April 14 and ended May 9, 2008. MSNBC.com incorporated a “falling brick” game with featured headlines reporting on varying news from “Britney Spears to the 2008 Presidential election.” The individual players with the highest scores were eligible to win an Xbox 360. Furthermore, at the end of the contest, the media agency with the top average score won a one-day MSNBC.com homepage takeover for a national charity of its choice.

Games are typically separated from work, and therefore this approach to PR is refreshing. For more on companies that are using online games or to read “Online Gaming Increases Pitch Time, Brand Awareness” by Nicole Zerillo, click here.

comScore Acquires M:Metrics

For those of you who measure your marketing, It's important to know that comScore acquired M:Metrics today. Below is the full detail from today's press release....

_______________
comScore Acquires M:Metrics

Accelerates Expansion of comScore’s Mobile Solutions, Cross Media Measurement and Global Footprint

Reston, VA, May 28, 2008 -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., the recognized leader in mobile measurement. The acquisition makes comScore the immediate leader in measuring the emerging and strategically important mobile Internet market and adds to comScore’s leading position in measuring PC-based Internet usage.

The transaction involves a cash payment of $44.3 million and the issuance of approximately 50,000 options to purchase shares of comScore common stock to certain M:Metrics unvested option holders.

M:Metrics offers three primary measurement products:
· MobiLensTM, a syndicated monthly online survey that captures overall mobile phone usage, including device information, data usage, media consumption and demographic characteristics of a representative sample of more than 40,000 mobile device users. MobiLens is available in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

· MeterDirectTM, the industry’s first on-device meter that passively measures the mobile Internet behavior and media consumption of more than 4,000 existing Smartphone panelists. The M:Metrics metering technology is compatible with more than 280 device models. MeterDirect is currently available in the U.S. and U.K.

· M:AdTM, the first competitive tracking service for mobile advertising that continuously monitors clickable display advertising from a broad representative set of mobile Web destinations to reveal leading advertisers across a variety of market segments. M:Ad is currently available in the U.S. and U.K.

Going forward, comScore will increase the size of the metered panel and will offer measurement of combined Internet usage across both PC and mobile-based online access platforms. The combination of the two companies is expected to result in substantial operating synergies, cost savings and enhanced revenue growth by building a larger customer base, combining two highly productive sales forces, and leveraging comScore’s global panel and scalable technology infrastructure.

“With the substantial growth of 3G devices and Internet friendly handsets, we believe we are now at an inflection point in Internet usage on mobile devices,” said Dr. Magid Abraham, comScore’s president and chief executive officer. “Our acquisition of M:Metrics makes comScore an immediate market leader in this space and positions comScore to deliver significant shareholder value as wireless carriers, telecom equipment providers, media companies, advertising agencies, online publishers, and marketers extend their reach into the mobile Internet world.”

“M:Metrics brings compelling products and an established, customer base of over 180 clients. Adding comScore’s capabilities and scale to this mix will significantly enhance the company’s future growth and performance,” continued Dr. Abraham. “We see compelling opportunities to increase the market penetration of M:Metrics’ products within comScore’s customer base of over 950 clients and to cross-sell comScore’s portfolio of products into the wireless industry, including the major carriers and device manufacturers. In addition, we plan to leverage comScore’s panel, technology infrastructure and sales force to expand the metered mobile panel and develop new offerings that can significantly increase the growth and profitability of M:Metrics’ business.”

In connection with the acquisition, the co-founders of M:Metrics, Will Hodgman, president and chief executive officer, and Seamus McAteer, chief product architect, will join comScore’s management team.

“comScore is the ideal partner for M:Metrics and clearly the right company to leverage and build upon M:Metrics’ leadership in mobile measurement. The combined company will provide our customers with a compelling portfolio of cross media online measurement and analytics.” said Will Hodgman, president and CEO of M:Metrics. “We are excited about joining comScore and leveraging its vast capabilities, blue chip customer base, and innovative technologies. By combining forces, I am confident we will be the pre-eminent Internet and mobile marketing intelligence provider in the world.”

The acquisition agreement was signed, and the acquisition was closed, today, May 28, 2008, having been approved by the comScore Board of Directors and M:Metrics stockholders. The transaction will be accounted for under purchase accounting rules.

comScore is expecting the M:Metrics business to be profitable on an Adjusted EBITDA basis by the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, and to be a significant positive contributor to Adjusted EBITDA in 2009. M:Metrics’ revenues are currently forecast to be approximately $11 million to $12 million for the full year 2008, and will contribute $6.5 to $7 million to comScore’s reported revenues for 2008 post-closing. The acquisition also enables comScore to lower its future tax payments by realizing a cash benefit of up to $7 million through the utilization of up to $20 million in M:Metrics net operating loss carry forward (NOLs).

Pro forma financials resulting from the M:Metrics acquisition will be reported in an amended 8-K that comScore expects to file in late July, when comScore also plans to announce its earnings for the second quarter of 2008.

M:Metrics, Inc. was represented by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., a New York City based investment bank that specializes in the media and information industries.

Conference Call comScore will host a conference call and simultaneous audio-only webcast on Thursday, May 29, at 8:30 a.m. (Eastern Time). The conference call can be accessed in two ways:
* By telephone at 719-325-4869, pass code 2461159
* Via a webcast at http://ir.comscore.com/events.cfm.

A replay of the webcast will be archived and available for playback beginning at noon that day, accessible from the same link.

About comScore comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by over 950 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com/.

About M:Metrics
Founded in 2004, M:Metrics is the mobile media authority. As the only research firm to measure the audience for mobile media using on-device metering and the world’s largest monthly survey of mobile users, M:Metrics provides the most accurate metrics on actual mobile content consumption by applying trusted media measurement methodologies to the mobile market. M:Metrics’ monthly syndicated data service gives clients the critical insights and intelligence required to inform smart business strategies and the competitive benchmarks needed to evaluate the performance of competitors and partners. M:Metrics services are used by more than 180 clients, including global leaders in the mobile, advertising, technology and consumer goods industries such as Verizon, Vodafone, Microsoft, RIM, FOX, CBS, BBC, BMW, Samsung, Palm, Qualcomm, Ericsson, O&M, and JWT. Prior to being acquired by comScore, M:Metrics was a private, venture-funded corporation headquartered in Seattle, with offices in San Francisco and London.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures
This release includes a reference to (but does not use) a non-GAAP financial measure called "Adjusted EBITDA", which comScore defines as net income plus the (benefit) provision for income taxes, depreciation, amortization of intangible assets resulting from acquisitions, stock-based compensation, revaluation of preferred stock warrant liabilities, less interest income (expense), net. comScore believes that Adjusted EBITDA is an important indicator of the company’s operational strength and the performance of its business because it provides a link between profitability and operating cash flow. Adjusted EBITDA is also widely used by investors and analysts as a supplemental measure to evaluate the overall operating performance of companies in comScore’s industry. comScore’s management also uses Adjusted EBITDA extensively as a measure of operating performance because it does not include the impact of items not directly resulting from the company’s core operations. Moreover, comScore’s management uses the measure for planning purposes, to allocate resources and to evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s business strategies and management’s performance.
Whenever comScore uses Adjusted EBITDA, it provides a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to the most closely applicable GAAP financial measure. Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure.

Cautionary Statement
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including, without limitation, statements made with respect to: annualized 2008 revenue from the M:Metrics acquisition; the amount and availability of net operating losses to reduce future tax payments; anticipated synergies and other benefits resulting from the acquisition merger with M:Metrics and the timing thereof; and the plans, strategies and objectives of management for future operations, including planned integration activities and the timing thereof; the positive contribution of the acquisition to comScore’s Adjusted EBITDA; comScore’s ability to grow its existing customer base and develop new products; the expected strength of comScore’s business and client demand for comScore’s products; the future quality of client relationships and resulting renewal rates; expectations of customer growth; expectations of international sales growth; assumptions regarding interest rates and effective tax rates; and forecasts of future financial performance, including related growth rates and components thereof, and assumptions related thereto.

The forward looking statements included in the Press Release relate to future events or our future financial conditions or performance, Words such as “forecast,” “expected,” “should,” "will," "are," "provide," "continue," "remain," "anticipates" or the negative thereof or variations thereon and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements inherently involve certain risks and uncertainties, although they are based on our current plans or assessments that are believed to be reasonable as of the date of this press release. Factors that may cause actual results, goals, targets or objectives to differ materially from those contemplated, projected, forecast, estimated, anticipated, planned or budgeted in such forward-looking statements include, among others, the following possibilities, in no particular order: the business of M:Metrics not being integrated successfully, or such integration taking longer or being more difficult, time-consuming or costly to accomplish than expected; the failure to realize revenue synergies and cost-savings from comScore's acquisition of M:Metrics or delay in realization thereof; difficulties and delays in the further development and marketing of M:Metrics products and technologies; final determinations under GAAP of acquisition related costs, equity-based compensation expense, purchase price allocations and the impact of the loss of deferred revenues on a going-forward basis; limitations under applicable tax laws on the sources of income with respect to which the NOLs are available for offset, the amounts of the NOLs available for use in any given year, the useable life of the NOLs, and any other limitation on the use of the NOLs; the early stage of the market for digital marketing intelligence and the rate of development of such market; comScore’s ability to manage its growth; the rate of development of the Internet advertising and eCommerce markets; comScore’s ability to effectively expand sales and marketing; comScore’s reliance on subscription-based revenues; comScore’s ability to retain existing large customers and obtain new large customers, including with respect to M:Metrics; continued growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce, content, advertising and communications; inability to sell additional products and attract new customers; dependence on growth of international operations; product obsolescence with technological developments; volatility of quarterly results and analyst expectations; comScore’s history of losses and the risk of future losses; and comScore’s limited operating history.

For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to comScore’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2007 and from time to time other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), which are available on the SEC’s Web site (http://www.sec.gov/).

Stockholders of comScore are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. comScore does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact:Andrew LipsmanSenior AnalystcomScore, Inc. 312-775-6510press@comscore.com

Keep Your Press Releases Relevant

Craig McGuire of PRWeek recently shared tips on how we can all keep our press releases relevant to the rapidly changing times. According to McGuire, “In this digital age, social media and video elements are essential.”

News releases are used by 90% of business journalists as sources for story ideas and 54% of the same journalists also use bloggers for story ideas. McGuire urges his readers to go beyond simple text and to incorporate links, social media tags, images, etc., into all press materials. It is crucial to give journalists all the resources to use our releases and to offer bloggers and social media site users the same tools.

McGuire then goes on to highlight the dos and don’ts of keeping your press release relevant:

Do
- Include links to pages where multiple instances of your keywords/phrases reinforce your message.
- Place terms in key positions like headlines and first paragraphs.
- Distribute a release through a service that carries hyperlinks to downstream sites such as Yahoo Finance, AOL News and Netscape.

Don’t
- Go link crazy. Too many links will confuse journalists and draw focus away from key messaging.
- Use low-res images. Opt for high-res multimedia that can easily be used by layout pros.
- Use all tools, all the time. Focus first on the message. Use the bells and whistles to complement the campaign.

Put this New Promotional Web Tool to Good Use

In a recent PR Week article, Web tools enhance promotions for in-person campaign, Marc Longpre highlights a fabulous promotional web tool, Zvents. The new web tool helps corporations and organizations promote and market their events by:

- Organizing and localizing an event’s information
- Improving links on search engines like Google
- Increasing an organization’s ability to find niche audiences

Zvents increases a business’ ability to target specific audiences by featuring a database and search tool for events around the country. Ultimately, the site gives promoters more control over how the event is promoted which is always a challenge for PR professionals.

The Legal Intelligencer: Gina Rubel Contributes to Blog

I recently began contributing to The Legal Intelligencer online. I'm blogging on Lawyers and the Media . My most recent post addresses when the media receives an unintended email and media policies.

While you're there, check out my post in memory of Judge Cipriani.

Improving Your Pitches: E-Mail Etiquette

Here is an article on pitching etiquette our team came across that can be a helpful guide for recognizing important aspects of pitching a story to a reporter or responding to a query through e-mail. This article, Tip of the Month: Improving Your E-mail Pitches from Top to Bottom is written by Aliza Sherman, a freelance reporter from Entrepreneur Magazine. In this article, Sherman provides tips on how to improve your chances on getting your client’s story published. The topics include:

1. Focusing Your Subject Line
2. Directly Addressing A Query
3. Creating An Interesting Client Bio
4. Avoiding Clichés
5. Placing Press Releases In An E-Mail
6. Making Follow-Ups Clear And Concise
7. Attaching Files To Reporters

For more information, go to the article Tip of the Month: Improving Your E-mail Pitches from Top to Bottom.

Cole Silver Launches Legal Expert Audio Series on FindCareerSuccess.com

Cole Silver, the Legal Marketing Secrets blogger, announced today that they will be launching an expert audio series through http://www.findcareersuccess.com/. He says the audio series will feature

interviews from world renowned experts and advisors that will provide you profitable and incisive information, secrets, and tactics that will help you create the legal career you desire.

The line up includes:

• Dan Janel, member of the public relations team that launched America Online.

• Harry Beckwith, one of the world's most respected marketers and author of What Clients Love.

• Gerry Riskin, world renowned expert in law firm management and rainmaking.

• Jim Hassett, founder of LegalBizDev and author of seven books and more than 70 articles on legal marketing.

• Margaret Grisdela, the author of "Courting Your Clients: The Essential Guide to Legal Marketing”.

• Trey Rider, one of the country’s premier legal marketing experts.

• Hindi Greenberg, author of the best selling, The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook.

• YOURS TRULY . . . Gina Furia Rubel, Esquire, a communications expert, attorney and publicist, is the owner of Furia Rubel Communications (We'll be talking about the advice in my book, Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers, due out mid-December)

• Mike Schultz, Principal of the Wellesley Hill Group and Publisher of RainToday.com.

I'll keep you posted about my audio interview. Be sure to check out Cole's blog too!

Keeping Up With the Blog Conversation

Here are some tools to help you keep up with the conversation on blogs. These are tools you can use now to track what’s being said about you, your industry, your company and your competitors:

Ice Rocket (www.icerocket.com)
Blog digger (www.blogdigger.com)
Blog Hop (www.bloghop.com)
Plazoo (www.plazoo.com)
Feedster (www.feedster.com)
Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts)

"PR Works According to Mark Weiner"

A recent article by Mark Weiner, Senior VP and Global Director of Research at Ketchum, titled PR outshines advertising in return on investment published in O’Dwyer’s PR Report discusses PR myths. His conclusion, as all PR professionals agree is that PR works.

According to Weiner, “Analyses such as marketing-mix and communication-optimization models, have shown in every case that PR delivers among the very best values at par with and frequently much better than advertising, price promotions, trade marketing and all the rest. When mass-marketing advertising yields roughly $1.20 on the dollar and trade marketing yields $2.00 on the dollar, PR generates on average about $6.00 on every dollar invested and as much as $45.00 on the dollar!”

It is safe to say that PR is an effective choice. PR delivers worth, engagement and integrity where others practices fail.

Weiner goes on to talk about the “PR Measurement Conundrum.” .This really is an accurate term as measuring PR success is a constant hurdle for practitioners. He mentions that in the last 20 years emerging realities have reshaped the world of public relations and that these realities are constantly challenging us. We continue to see
- transformations in the media business;
- the declining impact of traditional mass-marketing;
- changing media consumption habits;
- higher levels of access, abundance and speed of information;
- decreasing brand loyalty;
- increasing distrust of large organizations; and
- the increasing desire for greater accountability.

Weiner’s conclusion is optimistic. He suggests utilizing these challenges as opportunities which PR is uniquely qualified to overcome.

Staying on Top of Your Game: WSJ, Drudge Report, Law.com

There is so much information out there that we’re constantly on overload. I tell all my clients to stay on top of the news and the reporters that cover their topic. Get a news aggregator and pull the RSS feed from your favorite blogs, and so on. Here are three more great places to start your morning: The Wall Street Journal’s The Morning Brief by Joseph Schuman which you can subscribe to online by going to “My Online Journal,” Law.com and of course The Drudge Report, known as one of the leading places for breaking news.

There’s a great piece today by Tony Mauro on Law.com titled, Supreme Court Heads into New Term. Among the issues to watch this year is that of Internet Free Speech.

Using Editorial Guidelines When Submitting Articles for Publication

A great way to get ink is to submit article for publication to industry trade magazines, e-zines and other sources of information. It’s important however to research and stick to the editorial guidelines. Some of the common matters addressed by editorial guidelines include:

• Length of article: The minimum and maximum word count. An optimum number of words per article might also be listed.
• Editorial calendars which include topics, themes, article types and required submission dates broken down by publication date
• Preferred format of articles for submission
• Topics accepted by the publication
• Copyright rules
• Use of illustrations and photographs
• Editorial style such as compliance with the Associated Press Stylebook for abbreviations, capitalization, grammar, punctuation and spelling
• Inclusion of an authors’ biography and headshot
• Compensation
• Query and submission requirements
  

It is important to comply with the editorial guidelines of your target publication in order to maximize your chances of publication. And if you’re not sure about something, contact the editor and ask. It’s a great way to open the door to conversation and to offer yourself as available for commentary on similar issues while getting the editorial information you need to submit your article. You should also remember not to boast or overtly promote your firm or your services. Such behavior is extremely frowned upon.

Do you Twitter?

Twitter appears to be an excellent social media tool for public relations. The idea is simple, based on one question we ask our friends all the time “What are you doing?”

Friends and strangers alike are responding to that question on Twitter either posting on the Website or via SMS (text message). Members can invite friends to join and Twitter privately with them, or they can Twitter with the masses, posting their response to every Twitter member. The site has even launched a Facebook application so Facebook users can add it to their Facebook page.

At first I thought the idea was silly, but after reading Cohn and Wolfe’s Boomerang Blog on Twitter, it seems Twitter has the potential to generate PR for businesses.

If you’re a blogger, you might Twitter- “I just posted a blog on x, y and z, check it out!” (using 140 words or less). Or if your company is launching a PR campaign you might provide a sentence pitch or link to the website.

It’s worth checking out, for no other reason than to see what people are talking about-from the outrageous to the mundane, there’s a million and one ways to answer the question, “What are you doing?” As for me, I’m finishing up this blog and grabbing another cup of coffee!

Can We Do It? Yes We Can.

In a recent marketing survey in PR Week, I came across an interesting quote. Clark Caywood, professor of integrated marketing communications at Northwestern University, said he’s skeptical as to whether the PR industry can capitalize on the new media that has emerged in the last few years.

Caywood doesn’t believe that the “PR industry will be able to demonstrate some form of thought leadership on blogs, how to measure blogs, or even the integration of video and blogs,” according to the PR Week article.

“To a lot of my friends in PR, [new media] is like another press release vehicle, and that’s not what it’s all about,” said Caywood.

Respectfully, I disagree. Just because new media may not make for an easy ROI formula, does not mean that we underestimate its value or mistake it for another vehicle for distributing press releases.

To the contrary, Furia Rubel and many of our colleagues encourage clients to blog, not just when they have press release-worthy news to report, but when they come across an article and want to comment or share important and relevant information with their target audiences. We also encourage new clients to embrace Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and other social media opportunities when it makes sense to reach their target audiences. Certainly a press release wouldn’t jive with any of those forums.

Perhaps the industry can take this skepticism as a call to arms and rise to the challenge of utilizing new media.

Blogging is so 15 Minutes Ago

Just when you finally got the hang of blogging via your computer, a new trend has hit the blogging scene.

According to PR News, the new trend is “Cell blogging,” from your mobile phone or Blackberry device. Apparently, in the instantaneous age in which we live, waiting until you can get back to your PC is the equivalent of blogging next week.

Until LG finds a way to attach a full-sized keyboard to my cell phone, I don’t think I’ll be trying it any time soon, but maybe this new trend will save time for the more cell phone savvy while tailoring to the short, concise postings that readers want.

The New Facebook Means New PR

In early May, Facebook , a social utility site designed originally as an online community for college students, opened its doors to everyone. As someone who joined the Facebook bandwagon in the days before users could even post photo albums, I was surprised. I think the New York Times article ‘omg my mom joined Facebook!!’ best sums up most college students’ feelings.

But now, Facebook is becoming much more than a social network of college students, and if creator Mark Zuckerberg has his way, it will replace the fragmented social networks of yesterday, when online users had to visit different sites for shopping, online dating and blogging. He predicts that Facebook will provide it all.

The new Facebook has partnered with big-leaguers like Microsoft and the Washington Post to launch a host of applications that users can download and install on their page, to share political leanings, movie reviews, music preferences, etc.

But what does this mean from a PR standpoint?

“Facebook is now offering the opportunity for any company, Internet service, or software maker to build services for its members,” according to senior editor David Kirkpatrick of Fortune magazine. With 24 million current members, and 150,000 news members joining every day, Facebook is quickly becoming a vast market for advertisers and PR campaigns. Microsoft and Victoria Secret frequently advertise on the site and presidential hopefuls and non-profits like the ONE Campaign have recently hopped on board.

As a college student, I have mixed feelings about all the changes Facebook has made, but after my first month at Furia Rubel, I see Zuckerberg’s social utility site as fertile ground for launching new forms of PR targeted at Generation X and Y.

"Does Your Name Google Well"

According to Kevin J. Delaney of the Wall Street Journal, "You're a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well." This article tells all about how "Abigail L. Garvey Wilson Emerges From Obscurity and details the Millions of John Smiths. It's a must read for individuals and corporations alike who are trying to break through the clutter of digital media. When was the last time you Googled your company name or your own name?

Some great PR opportunities from PR Week:

We thought you’d be interested in these updates on PR News’ Web site at www.prnewsonline.com and a few special offers. If you have an article you’d like to submit to the site or to PR News, please contact Courtney Barnes at cbarnes@accessintel.com

1. PR News has launched the Digital PR Report at http://www.prnewsonline.com/digitalpr. This online center, produced with partner Medialink, focuses on digital communications tactics and includes how-to stories, case studies, videos, resources and much more.

2. PR News is looking for PR Newsmakers to profile on our site. Send us a 50-word description of a recent PR feat or innovation by you or one of your colleagues, along with a photo, and you could be featured as a PR Newsmaker on prnewsonline.com. Details are at http://prnewsonline.com/resources/prnewsmaker

3. It’s time to enter the PR News Platinum PR Awards honoring top communications campaigns. Deadline and details are at http://www.prnewsonline.com/awards/platinumpr/

4. The 2007 edition of the Top 100 Case Studies in PR is out. Get a copy for you and your team at http://prnewsonline.com/prpress/top100.htm

5. Did you know about the PR Measurement Corner on prnewsonline? Get quick measurement tips and strategies at http://prnewsonline.com/measurement

6. What are the 5 most important strategies for maximizing your media relations efforts? Download the latest white paper from PR News partner Vocus on "Five Strategies for Media Relations Success" http://www.vocus.com/mediarelationswp today and get the five simple and proven outreach strategies.

We hope you find these new items of interest. We’re always looking for feedback, so don’t be shy. Email PR News Group Publisher Diane Schwartz at dschwartz@accessintel.com anytime with your ideas.

Opinion Editorials

I had an article published in the Inquirer’s online newsletter on 3/28/07 that my blog readers would enjoy. It provides the details about Opinion Editorials and using them to gain publicity for your business. You can find the article at http://www.philly.com/philly/phillywomen/Make_Your_Opinion_Count__.html.

I have also included the full text below:

Make Your Opinion Count:
Write an Op-Ed for Public Relations Visibility
By Gina F. Rubel

An op-ed (opinion-editorial) is a form of writing that is used to express a personal opinion. It is an under-utilized and extremely powerful way to publish your opinion and to demonstrate your depth of knowledge on a particular topic. In this way, you are positioned as a thought leader in your area of expertise. An op-ed is located in the opinion pages of a newspaper which is one of the sections most widely read.

The op-ed submissions that get published deal with a topic of current interest, often controversial in the local, regional or national media, and take a stand. It is your opinion, so make it stick. Since newspapers get countless submissions of op-ed letters, getting an op-ed published can sometimes be difficult. When writing an op-end column you should follow some basic guidelines to ensure that it gets published. Be opinionated. The more unique or controversial your opinion, the more likely the op-ed is to be published.

Write about one thing. If you cannot sum up your ideas in the headline then it’s probably not the best topic to choose for an op-ed column. Write in the active voice – it is easier to read.

Make a point that is unique. Prior to submitting your column research what the publication has recently published on your topic. You do not want to repeat what others previously said about the same topic.

Keep it around 700 words. Typically an op-ed column should consist of about 700 words although they can run longer depending on the outlet. Keep in mind that newspapers have limited space to offer, and most of the time, editors will not take the time to cut an article down to size. You can determine the exact parameters by obtaining the submission guidelines which are available in each publication and often on their Web sites.

Stay focused. Your op-ed needs to stay focused. Don’t derail the train by trying to provide too much back up or deal as if during opening statements. It’s the short, concise closing arguments that are the most memorable.

Be timely. If you are writing about an event in today’s news then you must submit your column in a timely fashion – either the same day or a couple days later. Op-ed’s deal with what’s happening today, so don’t get stuck commenting on yesterday’s news.

Connect locally. Use the local approach when writing for a newspaper within your circulation area. Tie your commentary to what’s happening locally and make sure you include your place of residence and why the issue matters to you. Many lobbyist and special interest groups write op-eds as part of their regular outreach strategy. Local papers are more likely to publish a column by a local author than a lobbyist.

There are also some tips to follow when submitting your op-ed.

Know your audience. It is important to choose the right publication for submission of your op-ed. Only submit your piece to one outlet. Ask yourself who’s reading the publication and why you want them to read what you have to say.

Define who cares. Explain why the publication’s readers will care. As with all form of public writings, it is important to make sure the audience is engaged and has a stake in your message. The “who cares” factor needs to be included in your op-ed to provide the answer to the question “why.”

Submit electronically. If possible submit your op-ed via e-mail. This will ensure that is it is received in a timely fashion. It is also helpful to use the online commentary submission forms after you’ve drafted your op-ed in using a word-processing tool, edited it and spell checked it. Offering your opinion through print outlets is a great way to get your name out there in your area of expertise.

Don’t be afraid to comment on what you believe in. You’ll be surprised at how many people tell you that they have read you commentary. Once published, don’t forget to order reprints from the publication to use in your business portfolio. The op-ed will then become a sales and business development tool. Make it last.

Gina F. Rubel, Esquire is President/CEO of Furia Rubel Communications. The company slogan is: Connecting clients to the publics that matter most. For more information, go to www.furiarubel.com.