The traditional features release with its consumer-directed, ready-to-go content is ideal for exposing your messages to a diverse audience. But features releases can accomplish another goal. Because features stories now appear on media websites and search engines that reach millions of people online, with a little creativity and planning your features release can become a valuable tool for measuring the success of your PR and marketing activities. Not only can you reach new target audiences, but you can also drive them to your website where you’re able to track traffic patterns, garner new business leads and even generate revenue. In short, features releases can play an important role in gathering market intelligence and demonstrating measurable ROI.  

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The four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend sees millions of Americans gather with friends and family over turkey dinner and an unprecedented number who follow their Thanksgiving feast with an early-morning trip to the mall for some bare-knuckled Black Friday shopping.  The four days of the holiday weekend are some of the busiest and most profitable in the U.S. travel and retail sectors:  About 42.5 million people are expected to travel by car or plane for Thanksgiving, according to travel tracker AAA, and an estimated 152 million people are expected to shop over Black Friday weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.   If you think Thanksgiving is just about turkey, you are mistaken.  Take a look at a few of our clients’ Thanksgiving-focused press releases and see how they are gearing their content toward travellers, shoppers and chefs.

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There’s little question that for many companies, Twitter is good for business.  With more than 300 million user accounts and about 13% of online adults in the U.S. using Twitter there is increasing potential for companies to build relationships with customers, increase brand awareness and drive revenue.  Twitter has become a hotspot for social media-savvy brands, and the best-of-the-best use creativity and a customer-centric focus to engage their audiences and cultivate true brand ambassadors.  But for a brand to truly succeed on Twitter, they must look beyond the number of followers and retweets, and instead focus on the level of engagement they have with the stakeholders who can – and do – impact their bottom line.  Take a look at ten brands that are doing it right.

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A great team is one with incredible personality, strong spirit and an obvious sense of camaraderie.   Meet the Sysomos team;  the folks who create, support, sell, market and manage the industry’s best social media monitoring tools.  But don’t just take our word for it – watch the video and discover how intelligence, agility and good old-fashioned street-smarts can conquer almost anything.  And, like our team in Chicago, it’s proof positive that when your company is supported by great employees, it shows.

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Let’s face it.  In the business world, despite every terrific tweet, luminous LinkedIn recommendation and fantastic Facebook post, sometimes a little quality time and face-to-face action is just what it takes to really connect with your clients and get the job done.  With this week’s Pulse, we step away from our usual online and social media focus in order to highlight offline hot spots — specifically, some of the best-recommended restaurants from around the world for hosting agency clients.   We know that online presence and audience engagement across the social sphere are critical for public relations and marketing professionals today, but we also recognize that offline “real life” is where some really great stuff happens. After all, contracts aren’t signed on Twitter, and most new business pitches are still sealed with a handshake and a smile.  Here’s a list of ten sit-down social hot spots.

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Because bloggers are often considered the journalists of the Internet, it’s no wonder many professional communicators are turning to them to pitch ideas, events or products. Depending on the blogger, he or she can leave either a positive or a negative impression about your pitch to his or her many faithful subscribers. Let’s not forget that influential bloggers also receive many pitches – sometimes up to 100 a day – from organizations promoting their products, services or the organizations themselves.  So how do you successfully pitch a blogger?

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“Because of the people.” It’s one of the oldest workplace clichés and invariably, one that is almost always true. People don’t just work at a company — they define it and shape its personality. At Marketwire, one of the things that continues to set us apart year after year is our personality. From our editorial and product teams, to sales and customer service, we enjoy what we do and it shows. Our people are second-to-none, and proof positive that “work” and “play” can co-exist and make for a totally awesome place to be.

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If you wonder how much impact social media has on sports, consider two of the most tweeted events in recent history:  Japan’s victory over Denmark in the World Cup (3,200+ tweets per second), and this year’s Super Bowl (4,000+ tweets per second).   In the last few years, professional sports teams from around the world have tapped social media as a new way to connect with fans, allowing them to share the same enthusiasm and team spirit on Facebook that they do courtside.  But what teams are hitting it out of the park when it comes to their social media presence?  Take a look at ten teams who are doing it right.

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You’re on the hunt for a birthday present for your BFF and you’ve come up with a great idea: a year’s supply of her favorite… Kona coffee. So you plug “Kona coffee” into Google and generate 1,800,000 results. After a few false starts you realize you really want to give her “100% pure organic Kona coffee” – and only a five-pound assortment once you realize its high cost. Each time you start a new search, the words you enter become more refined. Then you begin looking for the best deal. In your hunt you’ve landed on, scanned and quickly exited 24 websites before you finally settle on the one through which you place your order.

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