News & Opinion

By @SGoldsteinAI for @PRNews   Nearly 60% of journalists worldwide say they use Twitter, according to Oriella PR Network’s 2013 study, “The New Normal for News.” That's up from 47%, according to the same study in 2012.  Expect this trend to continue—and, if you’re a PR pro, expect to spend more of your time figuring out how to connect on Twitter with the influential journalists in your market.   You’ll need a system to take some of the time-wasting guesswork out of the process. Elizabeth Sorrell, digital communication manager for nonprofit organization Audubon, offers a few steps to make your Twitter engagement strategy more efficient.   1. Create a Twitter list that includes journalists you are interested in working with. “I scan this list every day to see what these writers are interested in,” Sorrell says. “We’ve placed stories on Huffington Post and on I F’ing Love Science after engaging with writers on Twitter.”   2. Discover more journalists to engage with on Muck Rack. “If you don’t have writers in mind, Muck Rack is a tool with both free and paid options that allows you to search journalists’ Twitter accounts for topics they are tweeting about,” Sorrell says.   3. Retweet journalists’ tweets. “I had been trying to place a piece on TreeHugger for a long time," Sorrell adds. "Through Twitter I was able to find out that there is a writer there who loves birds, especially birds of prey. I followed this writer and then retweeted her tweet. She immediately responded and followed us back.”  

  Also: EXCLUSIVE coverage of 2 Soccer Matches in Australia’s A-League, 3 in Japan’s J.League & 2 in Chinese Super League What: From Woo Jeong Hills Country Club in Cheonan, South Korea, ONE World Sports presents live and exclusive coverage of the Kolon Korea Open golf tournament. The tournament is part of the Asia-Pacific region’s prestigious OneAsia Tour. Also this weekend: two soccer matches from Australia A-League, three from Japan’s J.League and a pair from the Chinese Super League. And in a live gamecast from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., the NASL-leading New York Cosmos hosts Edmonton FC. When:            ONE World Sports will carry this international and domestic action—all presented in HD—on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, Oct. 19 Time (EDT) Event Competition 1 a.m. (Live) Kolon Korea Open OneAsia Tour 4 a.m. (Delayed) Melbourne Heart vs. Central Coast Mariners A-League 6 a.m. (Live) Cerezo Osaka vs. Shonan Bellmare J.League 8 a.m. (Delayed) Yokohama F. Marinos vs. Sanfrecce Hiroshima J.League 10 a.m. (Delayed) Kawasaki Frontale vs. Jubilo Iwata J.League Sunday, Oct. 20 Time (EDT) Event Competition 1 a.m. (Live) Kolon Korea Open OneAsia Tour 4 a.m. (Delayed) Western Sydney Wanderers vs. Wellington Phoenix A-League 6 a.m. (Delayed) Changchun Yatai vs. Tianjin Teda Chinese Super League 8 a.m. (Live) Guangzhou Evergrande vs. Qingdao Jondon Chinese Super League 4 p.m. (Live) New York Cosmos vs. FC Edmonton North American Soccer League 7 p.m. (Delayed) Arsenal vs. Norwich City Barclays Premier League Where: ONE World Sports is available via DISH Network, Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Mediacom Communications and Google Fiber. Free previews of ONE World Sports are available to registered users at www.oneworldsports.com/watch.

Agreement makes ARRIS sole source of Sling Media’s acclaimed placeshifting technology in gateways and standalone devices for cable and telco providers Builds on multiscreen leadership for the ARRIS portfolio across the cloud, network, and home Suwanee, GA and Foster City, CA – October 16, 2013 – ARRIS Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRS) and Sling Media, Inc. have entered into an agreement to make ARRIS the exclusive worldwide distributor of Sling technology to cable, telco and wireless service providers worldwide. Under the agreement, ARRIS will be the sole provider of Sling technology for both video gateways and standalone devices intended for such service providers. This marks the latest development in the companies’ recent collaboration, which kicked off last month with the launch of the ARRIS MS4000, bringing multiscreen, placeshifting capabilities to the ARRIS Whole Home Solution with MOXI. The agreement positions ARRIS as the premier source of placeshifting multiscreen solutions for global service providers. The company is leveraging its global scale and solutions expertise in ODM, video, and software/systems integration to deliver Sling technology to providers in three main ways: Standalone devices – offering turnkey Sling-based hardware solutions, like the MS4000 multiscreen device Video gateways – integrating Sling technology into its industry-leading portfolio of headed and headless gateways Multivendor devices – licensing Sling technology to third-party manufacturers ARRIS is planning a phased rollout of the Sling Media technology to global service providers, with the launch of the MS4000 in early 2014, followed by video gateway offerings and technology licensing for multivendor devices. “Our exclusive agreement with Sling Media further solidifies our position as the leading provider of transcoding solutions for the future of multiscreen…everywhere,” said John Burke, SVP Corporate Strategy & Development; President Cloud Solutions Business, ARRIS. “We selected Sling Media for their complementary expertise in placeshifting technology. This collaboration rounds out our broad multiscreen portfolio in the cloud, network, and home to give global providers a variety of ways to let consumers enjoy their media, their way.” According to the Fourth Annual Media Engagement Barometer by ARRIS, most global consumers now expect these types of ”your media, your way” services: the average consumer uses multiscreen services away from home four days a week, and over a quarter download TV programs to their mobile devices on a daily basis. Sling Media technology gives subscribers the ability to watch their live and recorded content on tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices – in the home and on-the-go. This research is corroborated by a recent Sling Media customer survey, which found that nearly two-thirds of Slingbox 350 and 500 users have Internet-connected streaming devices in the home, and three-quarters of Sling usage takes place away from home. We are very pleased to announce this agreement with ARRIS -- which will enable our two companies to closely collaborate on a range of integrated and standalone video solutions that deliver HD-quality content across multiple mobile devices, accessible anywhere. In addition, Sling Media is very pleased with the worldwide leadership and industry experience that the company’s relationship with ARRIS provides,” said Michael Hawkey, Vice President and General Manager Sling Media. “Customers are demanding access to their pay TV content on the personal mobile devices they are spending more time in front of, and we believe Sling Media’s proven and award-winning technology offers a smart, fast way to deliver multiscreen video solutions that extend the entertainment experience beyond the living room TV.” The Future of TV Transcoding ARRIS empowers its service provider customers with many options for delivering tomorrow’s multiscreen experiences. Its recent integration of Sling technology rounds out its industry-leading transcoding portfolio at the device level, while several cloud transcoding options give providers even more choices for delivering the latest video experiences. The latest ARRIS whitepaper on “Transcoding Choices for a Multiscreen World” can be found here.

You know you need to start monitoring social media, but how do you determine which platform is best for your company?There are so many options, and all claim to be the best. To make the decision process a little easier, Sebastian Hempstead, vice president of Brandwatch, explains what you should look for in a platform, and how to know when you've found the right one for your brand. First, Hempstead recommends you talk with multiple monitoring companies, and explain to them what you want to achieve. Can their platforms answer the questions you have? Next, test out a demo. Do you like the program's interface? Is it easy to use? Do you understand how it works? Third, find out what type of support and training the monitoring company offers, and what the pricing model is. Finding the right monitoring platform is like a marriage. You're going to be living with this software every day—make sure you like it. Read the full story here:

There are a lot of things to consider when you’re figuring out which PR measurement platform to use: your budget, the business outcome you want, what social channels you want to measure, how many tools you want to use, the insights you want to get, how broad the scope is, and the list goes on. Then there’s the question of what to measure: page views, followers, website visitors, average time on a site, impressions, “likes” and “unlikes,” retweets, mentions, your Klout score, search terms, etc. It’s a lot to deal with. Every PR pro needs something just a little different from what their colleagues need. Odds are good that you’ll need a mix of tools. With that in mind, here is a list of tools that can help with your specific measurement requirements, even down to the cost. Read the full story here: 

Mike Thomas from @Brainzooming shares 3 fundamental steps for creating intriguing social media content. I wrote a post last week on “16 Tactics for Building an Audience via Social Media” which was picked up by a couple of other websites. The article received a ton of tweets (thanks!), including one which posed the question of, “Where do you ‘find’ intriguing social media content online?” While it may be easier to “find” intriguing content, it won’t, all by itself, set you apart from anyone else who is also merely grabbing social media content someone else has already created. Instead of spending as much time trying to find creative social media content, here are three things you can do to create intriguing social media content: Read the full story here:

Recently, Bill Gates made a major admission. No, he's not donating some of his fortune to you. During an interview at a Harvard fundraising campaign, Gates said requiring early Windows users to execute the difficult Control-Alt-Delete button combination to log on to early PCs was a mistake. The IBM keyboard designers didn't want to give Microsoft the "single button" it asked for, and Gates acquiesced. "It was a mistake," Gates said. But is this really the greatest sin of Gates, Microsoft and the PC? We can think of a few more: Read the full story here:

Also: Exclusive Coverage of Season Launch of Australian Soccer’s A-League What: From Nanshan International Golf Club in Longkou, China, ONE World Sports will present live and exclusive coverage of the Nanshan China Masters golf tournament. The $1 million tournament is part of the Asia-Pacific region’s OneAsia Tour. Also this weekend: the season launch of the A-League, with the Australian soccer league’s Adelaide United taking on Perth Glory FC. And in a live gamecast from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., the NASL-leading New York Cosmos will host the hard-charging Carolina RailHawks. When:             ONE World Sports will carry this international and domestic action—all presented in HD—on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, Oct. 12 Time (EDT) Event Competition 1 a.m. (Live) Nanshan China Masters OneAsia Tour 7 p.m. (Live) New York Cosmos vs. Carolina RailHawks North American Soccer League Sunday, Oct. 13 Time (EDT) Event Competition 1 a.m. (Live) Nanshan China Masters OneAsia Tour 6 a.m. (Delayed) Adelaide United vs. Perth Glory FC A-League Where: ONE World Sports is available via DISH Network, Cablevision’s Optimum TV, Mediacom Communications and Google Fiber.

Here's #23 tools you may or may not already use via @PRDaily There’s an arsenal of digital tools and services PR pros use to stay on top of the news, identify trends, research the right media for targeted story ideas, and manage accounts. For me, there’s a dividing line between the sites and services I use often and those I depend on to get my job done every day. Within that list are some lesser-known but very valuable tools that I depend on every day. The following list helps me share clients’ stories with the right audiences that you might not know about yet: 1. Spike: Spike is a service that helps you spot trending stories in real time. It’s paid, but I recommend giving the free trial a try. 2. MuckRack: MuckRack should already be on your devices by definition: Where journalists and sources connect. 3. Quora: On Quora, you can post questions and get answers from people with real experience. I use it as inspiration for story ideas and angles. 4. Tumblr: Tumblr is the best social network for finding, telling, or sharing visual stories. 5. Flipboard: Flipboard is the best mobile news aggregator and reader, period. 6. Techmeme: Techmeme is a tech news curation site that will keep you up to date on breaking tech stories. Of course, you’re probably already using a lot of the following key sites, apps, and tools: 1. Digg: Digg is my go-to RSS reader and social bookmarking tool. 2. Facebook: I often find that my Facebook news feed is where I see conversations evolve into story ideas. 3. LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the best and most up-to-date network to see where people are coming from and going to. It’s also a great news source for strong thought leadership posts. 4. TweetDeck: TweetDeck is the Twitter dashboard that I keep running all day. (I recommend using the Chrome plug-in). 5. Google+: This is an important network to be a part of because it’s Google—conversations happen here. 6. Google news search: Google not only gives you a broad view of the news, but it also gives you a way to identify the most recent stories from media and reporters. 7. Google Drive: Google drive offers real-time collaboration and account management. 8. Google search: Google is still the best source of what’s indexed on the Web. 9. Reddit: This online community is a rising source of news. It’s unique because users vote on content. 10. BuzzFeed: BuzzFeed is where I go for breaking social news, see what’s trending around the Web. I also refer to it for entertainment and business news. 11. Popurls: Popurls is a dashboard for the latest Web buzz. 12. ITDatabase: I use ITDatabase to find out which themes, companies, and products the media are writing about. 13. Topsy: Topsy provides Twitter and other social searches as well as analytics. 14. Compete: Compete gives you a quick, comprehensive read on a blog's or website’s traffic. 15. WhoSharedMyLink.com: This site lets you find out how many times a URL was shared, as well as the journalists and bloggers who shared it. 16. SimpleNote: I use this app for note-taking on all my mobile devices, because it syncs across them. 17. Chromecast: I use this when streaming and projecting (almost) anything from my laptop to the TV screen in my office. Yes, it takes this many digital tools to stay on top of the news, uncover trends, find conversations, manage accounts, and identify the right stories and the story tellers. Because this business is ultimately about relationships, the technology helps to create new ones and strengthen existing ones. [RELATED: Master can't-ignore social media tools with Mark Ragan's one-day social media boot camp.] What about you? Which sites and tools are you using for PR, media relations and social media? Please tell us below in the comments.