Profiled - PR Newswire - The press release distribution service
An interview Michael Pranikoff, Director, Emerging Media at PR Newswire
PR Newswire talks to SMP about press release, social media and public relations professionalsSocial Media Portal (SMP): What is your full job title and role at PR Newswire?Michael Pranikoff (MP): Michael Pranikoff, Director, Emerging Media
SMP: Briefly, tell us about PR Newswire and its target audienceMP: PR Newswire is one of the largest global communicators of corporate and organisational messaging in the world. Our target audience is really whomever our clients are trying to reach, which would also include online and search visibility.
SMP: What was the most challenging part of building the service?MP: PR Newswire has been in business for more than 50 years, so I can only talk about my last 12 years. One of the most challenging parts of our business is keeping up with the pace of technology, and trying to predict future needs of our clients. An example of this would be our Multimedia News Release (MNR) service which launched in 2001 ? far before anyone was talking about Social Media or Social Media Releases (SMR). We did our first one with Touchstone Pictures for the movie ?
Pearl Harbor? in May 2001.
SMP: Who are your target audience and why?
MP: The target audience for our news varies with every news release or message we distribute for our clients. We have a wide range of ways that clients can target their audience both online and within traditional media.
SMP: How did you initially attract users to your service, and how do you do it now?SMP: What separates your services to others out in the market?
MP: There are many things about PR Newswire that separates us from similar services. We?ve invested heavily in multiple technologies, partnerships, and research to develop new products that go beyond just online distribution. All this has been done to help our clients target, distribute, monitor and measure their communications.
As a company that has been in business for more than 50 years we have developed well established relationships with our clients, and the media. Those relationships have helped us to distribute our content deeper into online and social media in a more organic way. Our business has always been about relationships and service to our clients and our media clients ? which today includes anyone who is interested in the viewing, or using, the news and messages we distribute.
SMP: What are the low moments of what you have been doing so far?MP: I would say that a low moment is the fascination with new and sparkly objects. Some people look at the newswire industry and perceive it to be old, stodgy and something of the past, without looking deeper into the technology that we use and the breadth and depth of what we offer..
SMP: What are the high moments of what you have been doing so far?The high moments are the launches of new services like PR Newswire?s Social Media Monitoring tool, and when we do something innovative for our clients. However, I would say that we have high moments almost every day, when a client distributes a piece of breaking news that gets television coverage and media discussion., One day it?s on Twitter and then the next, it?s on the cover of major newspapers and magazines across the world.
SMP: What do you see as your biggest challenges and opportunities in the press distribution market?MP: The biggest challenge we face is with the changing pace of communications. There is always going to be something new. Trying to stay on top of evolving technology, as well as predicting what?s going to be next is a huge but important challenge. It?s imperative we stay up to speed on the latest technology, without minimising the tried and tested methods. Not every industry is going to want or need social media to the same extent. Industries will adapt in their communications over time, but we still want to be able to service our clients? needs fully.
SMP: What are the dedicated social media services that you offer your clients?MP: There are a lot of different facets of social media throughout our product offerings. We can?t necessarily distribute directly into social media, but we do make our clients content easy to access, share, view, and use, with social media. It?s that thinking that permeates everything we do ? which is making our content as searchable and social as possible. We do have dedicated services like
PR Newswire?s Social Media Monitoring and
Multimedia News Releases. However, we have aspects of social media across our platform in other ways, with our Social Media Toolbar displayed on every release, and even including
Twitter Handles of Media in our MEDIAtlas Database.
SMP: What are the benefits for your customers using the social media services?MP: The benefits to our clients in using our social media capabilities are that they help make their news and messages more visible to their desired audiences. However, it?s more than increasing the visibility of their news, it?s also about making their news useable to those audiences, so they can easily share text, photos and videos on Facebook, or Twitter, or in a blog post.
SMP: What are your thoughts on the social media press release?MP: I think there?s been a lot of discussion about the social media press release over the last few years. I don?t think that it?s rocket science though. It?s just a slightly different method or format for sending out press releases. The press release has always been about focusing on a message that someone is trying to communicate. Today, the SMPR (or in the case of our product line ? the MNR) is an update to the traditional press release with new technology embedded into it, to make it more useable to the audience. Should all news be in this format? I?m not sure that is for me to say. I would say that if someone has the elements to include, then it makes sense. There is no ?one size fits all? solution.
SMP: Many bloggers don?t like receiving press releases, how do you help your clients connect with bloggers?
MP: It?s funny because we hear this not just from bloggers, but also from traditional media all the time. I think the real issue is that blogger (and traditional media) don?t like to receive untargeted press releases. It?s just like most people don?t like to receive spam. In terms of connecting your news with a blogger, we have dedicated Media Relations teams that make sure our press releases reach the appropriate audience. PR is not about spamming, it?s about developing quality relationships.
SMP: What other support services do you offer clients?MP: PR Newswire offers a full range of services to globally help clients target, distribute, monitor and measure the effectiveness of their communications activities.
SMP: What?s the next big step for social media and networks and what impact is this having upon press releases?MP: Trying to predict the next big step for social media and networks and its impact on the press release or the PR profession is a very difficult thing. We have gradually been moving in the direction of shorter messaging on a much quicker base. We are seeing the flattening of the Marketing / Communications architecture in corporations all over the world. The impact on press releases is a quicker and sometimes rapid fire communications pattern. Some might say that blogging is already starting to become passé as we move to the ?lifestreaming? movement. How this will effect corporate communications is still as yet unknown.
SMP: What are the next moves for PR Newswire, particularly regarding social media?MP: PR Newswire will continue to look at new technologies and adapt them into our suite of services as they become pertinent to the profession. Mechanisms to allow people to further reach into their own networks, in a faster and more efficient way are definitely interesting to us. We also recognise the need to monitor and measure the effectiveness of their overall programme as being incredibly important today. PR Newswire Social Media Monitoring is only the first step.
SMP: What?s going to be the most interesting aspect regarding social media / technology throughout 2009?I think there are two aspects that are going to be incredibly interesting in social media this year, and moving forward into 2010: Measurability and influence. Networks and technology to view and analyse networks are getting more and more sophisticated. As we are able to monitor and measure feedback more easily, we will soon be able to affordably analyse the sphere of influence on conversations that are taking place online.
SMP: How does this fit into plans at PR Newswire?
MP: Measurement fits right into our core plans to help the communications profession Listen, Analyze, Strategise, Engage, and Respond (LASER) in a more efficient manner. Our goal is to help our clients be more efficient in their communications with their audiences in any way that we can.
SMP: Top five tips businesses using press releases services should consider?MP replies with:
1. Listen before you promote.
2. Think about SEO when writing your releases
3. A good headline is still one of the most effective ways to get your message seen.
4. Use links in your releases and not just links to your homepage. Use deep links to pages and documents in your website or other places online.
5. Use multimedia such as photos and videos when appropriate for your story (one caution, don?t use B-Roll for video as a video should be telling a story that compliments your press release).
SMP: Best way to contact you?MP: michael.pranikoff @ prnewswire.com or
http://twitter.com/mpranikoff Now some questions for fun
SMP: What did you have for breakfast / lunch?MP: Cinnamon Life Cereal ? my all time favourite cereal at breakfast.
SMP: What?s the last good thing that you did for someone?
MP: I?ve been letting two good friends live with me rent free this summer because they didn?t have a place to stay while doing internships in DC and couldn?t afford rents. I just like having people around, so it?s as much for me as it is for them....and it?s been a lot of fun.
SMP: How many hours to you work a week?
MP: Technically 40 hours, but I?m always accessible and can usually be found working till 12AM or 1AM. What can I say, I like what I do and I?m fascinated by technology and sociology.
SMP: If you weren?t running PR Newswire what would you be doing?MP: Well, I don?t run PR Newswire, but if I wasn?t working for them I would probably be working at a PR / Marketing or New Media agency.
SMP: When and where did you go on your last holiday?MP: I travel so much for work that I chose to stay home. However, I do have a trip planned to Cologne and Berlin next year that I?m looking forward to.
SMP: What?s the first thing you do when you get into the office of a morning?
MP: Turn the computer on and open my Netvibes page (my super charged RSS reader).
SMP: If you had a superpower what would it be and why?MP: I?m not sure, but I love the show Hero?s for that reason ? so I can imagine what I would like. If I had to choose, I would say to push thoughts into people?s minds...that way I could always be right!
SMP: Are there a corporate or personal blog/s we should know about (if there is, you should add this to SMP also)?
MP: I don?t blog actually. I?ve always meant to, but never got around to it. I do frequently comment. However, I?m not sure people need to blog anymore with services like Twitter and Facebook. I have had a ?link blog? for years on Delicious and use my page to tag content about PR & Technology, and put notes as to why I?ve tagged something ?
http://delicious.com/michaelpranikoff If you are interested in being Profiled, get
in touch with the SMP editorial team via our contact
form.
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