PRSA International Conference Preview: See you in Orlando!

by Amy Yen, Marketing Specialist, Business Wire Los Angeles

Heading to the PRSA International Conference this week? So are we! We’re looking forward to meeting PR professionals from across the country and learning about the latest trends and developments in the industry.

Don’t forget to come by and see us at Booth #401/403 for fun giveaways and a chance to win an iPad2.  We’ll have our team of experts on-hand to discuss our entire suite of public relations services, including:

• Enhanced Multimedia Press Releases
• Mobile Alerts for Breaking News
• Comprehensive Measurement Reports

While you’re at the show, take advantage of free one-on-one demonstrations of our dynamic NewsHQ Online Newsroom solution conducted by our online newsroom expert Ibrey Woodall.  You’ll learn how a better online newsroom can benefit your organization. Contact your local account executive or email Conferences2011@businesswire.com to schedule your free consultation.  We have times available all day Sunday and Monday.

Business Wire’s Laura Sturaitis, Executive VP of Media Services & Product Strategy, will be speaking with Greg Jarboe, president of SEO-PR, at a session called “Maximizing Press Release Performance Online” on Tuesday, October 18 at 9:45 a.m. ET in Palazzo Salon E.   You won’t want to miss their presentation of the results of an 18-month study on online press release performance and the strategies and best practices for optimizing press releases to increase traffic and engagement with key landing pages and websites.

Follow live updates from the conference on Twitter @BusinessWire.   Hope to see you there!

Upcoming Event: Best Practices for Online Press Releases

Start the new year right — sign up for our upcoming webinar, “A Successful Online Press Release: From Start to Finish.”

Join Market Motive Online PR Professor Greg Jarboe and Business Wire Product Manager Joseph Miller to learn cutting-edge practices for the modern optimized press release. This workshop will cover current best practices of the online PR process: creation, distribution, and measurement. You’ll learn headline creation techniques, SEO, strategy, and multimedia best practices. Then you’ll be shown step-by step wire distribution processes and timing, and finally explore how you can measure success of your online PR campaigns. Online press releases are a powerful and often-misunderstood marketing channel for getting the word out and the links in. Join us on January 11th to learn more and keep your skills up to date.

The hourlong webinar will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 11 at 11am ET/8am PT. Go here to register.

For more upcoming local Business Wire events or to see what’s coming up in our award-winning webinar series, visit http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/business-wire-events.

Follow Business Wire events on Twitter! Hash tag #bwevents

PRSA 2010: What To Do Around Town

by Danny Selnick, Vice President, Public Policy Services

Attending the PRSA 2010 International Conference? If you’re not from “inside the Beltway” you’ll surely find Washington, DC a fun-place for this year’s annual convention.

Sure, we’re all here to learn, but try to find some time to experience Washington after hours by taking a self-guided tour at night of the national monuments that line the National Mall and environs.  Beyond the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington Monument and The White House, check out some of the newer and equally interesting moments including The WWII Memorial, The FDR Memorial, and the Korean War Memorial.

Not far from the Washington Hilton Hotel is the Adams Morgan neighborhood, which hosts some interesting ethnic and standard-fare restaurants in an area that’s so “un-Washington”  — from Ethiopian to Mexican and more.  You can also visit Ben’s Chili Bowl (a favorite of President Obama) that’s open into the wee hours.

South of the hotel is the Dupont Circle neighborhood, home to lots of interesting architecture, shops and several foreign embassies and missions housed in historic buildings.

Getting around in DC is easy: The Dupont Circle Metro Stop is just a few blocks from the hotel, where the Red Line can take you to Metro Center for a quick walk to the National Mall, or to catch trains to other parts of the city.

At the conference, our own Laura Sturaitis will be presenting a panel on Tuesday morning, along with Greg Jarboe, president and co-founder of SEO-PR. The session, titled “What’s the ROMI of Social Media, Online Video and Press Releases?” will take a look at which of the new PR tools delivers the highest return on marketing investment, and how to get the most from all of them.

Don’t forget to stop by and see Business Wire at Booth 201 in the Exhibitors Hall where we’ll be happy to talk to you about the latest in news distribution services and technologies, including Public Policy Services, NewsHQ (our state-of-the-art online newsroom service) and more.  While you’re there, drop your card in our fishbowl to register to win a free netbook. And we’ll even be doing some magic to entertain!

Business Wire at PRSA

The PRSA 2009 International Conference begins this Saturday, Nov. 7 in San Diego, and as always, Business Wire will be there, showing you our latest innovations in press release delivery and demonstrating how our high-tech platform beats the competitors with simultaneous delivery, integrated multimedia, superior social media capabilities and more.  Here are some of the highlights of our participation in PRSA:

• Laura Sturaitis, SVP, Media Services and Product Strategy, will once again join forces with Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR to update their popular “What’s the ROI of Your Press Release?” session to be presented on Tuesday, Nov 10th. “Greg and I are going to share  some of the new trends we are seeing in global search, social media engagement and using multimedia to tell your story and how you can determine what is working for you,” says Laura.
• Malcolm Atherton, account executive from our Phoenix office, will be handling our Twitter duties live from PRSA — make sure to follow @BusinessWire to get on-the-ground reports from our booth, sessions, workshops and more.  Malcolm, who is heavily involved in the PR and social media communities in Arizona, has his own very informative Twitter feed as well; get to know him before the show at @MalcolmAtherton.
• We’ll be at Booth #73 with our “Business Wire is HD” presentation, showing you that distributing your press release over Business Wire is, well, just better.  A more attractive press release with embedded hyperlinks, optimized keywords, wider earnings tables, easily downloadable video and pictures, social media sharing . . . come see for yourself why Business Wire is the one to use.  While you’re there, enter your name in a daily drawing for a chance to win a Blu-Ray player, and pick up a special gift, too!

We look forward to seeing you all in San Diego!

Number One Without a Bullet

Via Twitter, Dominic Litten of Fathom SEO points to a great item at SearchEngineWatch written by SEO/SEM wizard and past Business Wire event speaker Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR.

The article, cleverly titled “Social Media Press Release Blown Away in Hail of Bullets,” takes a look at what kind of press release is more effective at getting indexed by Google News:  The bullet-heavy Social Media Press Release, or a traditional narrative release.  Greg’s results help reinforce that not only is content important, how you present that content can be equally important.  Click through and read the whole thing for an important lesson on just what it is that both search engines and readers are looking for in your press release, and how to make that work for you.