PR
Technique - PR Software
- The hard facts about
PR software.
PRWeek, June 21 2004 By PRWeek Staff
As previously disparate software solutions provide opportunities for integration,
the life of a PR
pro can run much
more smoothly.
Tom Acitelli reports.
In the past two years, PR software has undergone many subtle improvements, with
integration and
automation providing
clients faster,
much more accurate
information. And
the fresh software,
continually in
development, is
more user-friendly
than earlier versions,
lending greater
ease to formerly
vexing tasks.
The
newer software
is fully automated
and great strides
have been made
to create opportunities
to integrate previously
disparate systems.
This all marks
a page-turning
in PR software
that will likely
never be turned
back.
Of
course, workflow
automation is nothing
new in PR, although
it came slower
than it did to
others like HR
and marketing.
Long accepted are
changes in the
ways constituencies
and contacts are
tracked and measured.
What's
new is that this
tracking and measurement
is more accurate
and can increasingly
be done through
one system.
'The
more important
aspect is that
for the first time
they're all integrated,'
says Rick Rudman,
co-founder and
CEO of Vocus.
Several
integrated, automated
software options
are available to
the PR industry
in five basic categories:
intelligence gathering,
content development
and distribution,
contact management,
activity tracking,
and measurement.
Complicated and
capable of incredible
subtlety, the newer
software that's
within these five
basic categories
works toward integration
through automation.
That's
not to say the
individual services
aren't still working
to improve their
own products' performance.
Intelligence gathering
has gotten more
accurate at PRTrak,
a division of Surveillance
Data. Thousands
of media outlets
can now be tracked
using its PRTrak
Web, offering rapid
audience impressions
and media values
for TV, radio,
print, and web
stories. The idea
behind PRTrak Web,
says company VP
Angie Jeffrey,
was to make intelligence
as accurate as
possible.
For
content development
and distribution,
new software is
focusing on quick
delivery. Long
gone are the days
of this being done
manually, say several
software pros.
Now it's done electronically,
often through one
system. At Biz360,
the emphasis is
on giving clients
extremely calibrated
measures.
Using
software introduced
in the fall of
2003, Biz360 can
track a client's
media exposure
right down to the
journalist writing
the stories. The
software can also
pinpoint how wide-ranging
the exposure is.
For instance, a
client can see
how many media
outlets mentioned
it during a given
time period - and
the circulation
or reach of those
outlets.
More
than that, the
software shows
how much that exposure
would cost had
it been attained
with ads, says
You Mon Tsang,
founder and CMO
of Biz360.
'It's
an important part
of bringing it
all together,'
he says.
As
an example of the
company's services,
suppose you're
an established
brand like Biz360
client Harley-Davidson.
You know your core
customers and you
want to go deeper
to track demographics.
The software, then,
can show how (or
even if) the company
is reaching women
motorcyclists,
rather than its
stable male customer
base.
Vocus
can now bring the
same organization
to e-mails - from
formal applications
such as press releases
to informal conversations
with journalists
- says Rudman.
The e-mails can
basically be done
interactively,
complete with response
buttons in the
message, for quicker
access to information
and a faster follow-up.
New
software is also
targeting the juggernaut
that can be the
modern online newsroom,
where executive
bios compete for
space with press
releases and contact
information, journalists
can often get lost,
and others can
get frustrated.
'PR
pros are often
not sure what to
put there,' Rudman
says of online
newsrooms. 'Then,
they're always
having to work
with IT people
to make changes.
That can become
a bottleneck.'
Vocus
has launched software
that lets even
the most computer-phobic
PR pro add information
to the online newsroom
without going through
IT.
On
the content-tracking
side, InSight,
a joint venture
between BurrellesLuce
and VMS, has garnered
more than 1,000
clients since its
introduction two
years ago. It's
'one-stop shopping'
for clients who
want to quickly
aggregate and analyze
content, says InSight
president Jim Waggoner.
'The
real value for
the PR pro is that
we can do a lot
of the legwork
for them,' Waggoner
adds. 'Things that
used to be basically
undoable if you
had to deal with
a stack of paper
clippings can be
knocked off in
seconds.'
VMS
has brought similar
speed to monitoring
newscasts. Its
QuickView software
can take newscasts
from the top 50
US markets and
break them down
into one-second
frames - all within
hours of a newscast's
airing.
The
company also invested
more than $5 million
in the past two
years expanding
its monitoring
services, says
president and CEO
Peter Wengryn.
VMS now has staffers
monitoring the
top 50 markets,
up from the top
35, providing clients
more context than
closed-caption
monitoring.
'The
yield that we bring
to our clients
is greater,' Wengryn
says. 'But even
more important
than the yield
is the quality
of the yield. It
saves clients time
and effort and
gives them what
they are looking
for.'
Two
challenges face
the PR field with
this newer, faster,
decidedly more
accurate software.
One
is convincing the
industry it needs
the automated integration
that's the cornerstone
of it, the kind
of software utilized
for a longer time
by marketing, HR,
and other industries.
As Rudman explains,
'PR is one of the
last outposts of
automation. A lot
of these (software
launches) are taking
software generically
used in other areas
and catering it
to PR.'
The
second challenge
is the PR industry
pitching the software
to its clients.
Clients have long
memories and limited
budgets when it
comes to using
PR, and many remember
the not-so-long-ago
days when such
software wasn't
as accurate or
reliable as it
is now. Today,
clients must be
convinced that
the automation
and continuing
integration can
give them very
exact information
unheard of just
a few years ago.
'We
had a believability
factor before,'
says Tsang. 'The
market has definitely
changed.'
TECHNIQUE TIPS
- Do integrate your PR software into one system
- Do make software accessible enough to cut down on IT needs
- Do make sure clients know how accurate and fast newer software is
- Don't have too many different types of software
- Don't sacrifice software training
- Don't buy too many different vendors' software
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