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Measuring the ROI of Online Press Releases
Society for New Communications Research, March 2009, Pages: 44
When Vocus acquired PRWeb in August 2006, there were several things we knew for certain. First, we knew that PRWeb's focus on sharing news primarily through online channels like search engines and RSS feeds had radically disrupted the newswire industry, causing traditional wire services to re-evaluate their distribution models. Secondly, we knew we would be gaining access to a product that had innovated at an incredible pace and was rolling out features that were being emulated by others in the industry. Finally, we knew we would be inheriting a broad, loyal customer base that had grown to depend on PRWeb.
What we didn't realize at the time was how diverse the PRWeb user base really was. By introducing a free-model, PRWeb had opened the door to tens of thousands of users around the world who had compelling stories to tell but had no means to broadly share these stories. What's more, it wasn't just public relations professionals who were distributing press releases. There were a large number of users who considered themselves marketing professionals. The largest segment of PRWeb users however was the small business owner, often with no extensive background in PR or marketing, but who had a compelling story to tell.
Each of these three groups had come to use PRWeb in different ways and to achieve different goals. What's more, each group was using different means to evaluate the success of their campaigns. One thing however was clear: the press release had evolved into something far more significant than its original form and its broader utility had changed the rules of PR: it had put small business owners and marketers into the role of public relations practitioner. Similarly, it had provided a means for PR people to accomplish more than they could before and to measure those accomplishments.
It was these blurring of lines, between public relations and marketing, and between large organization and small that created a question regarding the press release. It was out of a desire to better understand the evolution of the press release (and whether the term 'press release' was even relevant any longer) that we approached the Society for New Communications Research to conduct this research study.
It is our hope that this research will provide us all with a better understanding of how the press release has changed and what it means for those who use it on an everyday basis.
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