As the month of November comes to close we bid a fond “adieu” to all the wild moustaches that show themselves but once a year. That’s right, by the time this post is up MOvember will officially be over (but I’m sure you can still donate). For those not in the know, all the creepy moustaches you’ve seen over the past month have been part of a worldwide charity effort to raise money for prostate cancer research, while having a little fun.  Well, we started off the month with a MOvember blog post, so I thought it only fair to close it the same way.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

With its highly engaging environment and 800 million-plus user base, Facebook represents unlimited opportunity for companies looking to establish brand presence and develop long-standing relationships with customers and fans.  Many public relations and marketing professionals have found success in building communities around their brands (and their clients’ brands) and adapted their communication strategies to be more “Facebook-friendly.”  In this week’s Pulse, see if you can glean some tips from these world PR agency leaders who also lead in connecting, contributing and communicating online. We think you’ll find plenty to learn from here, and even more to “like.”

(more…)

What do an iconic American consumer brand, a Swiss digital communications agency and the 2011 Canadian federal election all have in common?  Each tells its own success story with social media.  Specifically, each is a case study about using the intelligence and insight gleaned from social media monitoring for brand and reputation management, crisis communications and message control, and cross-channel promotion. (more…)

This year, despite the many weddings I’m a bridesmaid for, I couldn’t help but think about the upcoming royal nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The event, and everything leading up to it, has caused an international media frenzy, similar to the last royal wedding in 1981 when William’s parents (Charles and Diana) were wed. Back then, the public relied solely on traditional media: TV, radio, newspapers. Now, with the Internet, social media and smartphones, things have ramped up several notches. Audiences are much more engaged; the media is faster and more pervasive; and, companies are more aggressive, clever and informed to market to a captive audience. (more…)

I recently had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Mediabistro’s Socialize: Monetizing Social Media – EAST conference, held in New York. As part of the Sysomos team, I was there to present some use cases on what social media data can be used for, from a business perspective. Aside from the insight that we brought to the table, I also learned a great deal, particularly with regards to where social media is headed.  (more…)

More and more companies have set money aside in their 2011 budgets for social media, and social media press releases (SMPRs) are increasingly included in that mix. Many communications professionals are also beginning to send out social media press releases in place of more “traditional” releases, expecting their release to go viral and soar to the top of the Google results page. The outcome is an increasing number of disappointed PR professionals who misunderstand the role that an SMPR plays in the optimization and distribution of content. (more…)

Nobody said social media monitoring was easy.  There are billions of conversations taking place across blogs, social networks and news sites – all in real time.  Little wonder that the thought of diving deep into those discussions in an attempt to analyze what’s being said, spot trends and identify the most influential voices and opinions is often overwhelming.  For those who have already taken the plunge, it can be all too easy to find yourself neck-deep in unfamiliar waters:  You’ve extracted a wealth of information and statistics from a host of monitoring and trending tools, yet trying to piece it together in search of “the big picture” is difficult at best.  (more…)

You might wonder how a centuries-old Greek philosopher can teach you how to uncover influencers and advocates on Twitter and Facebook, how to understand the sentiment of what they are saying and how all of those online conversations can affect your business and your brand, both positively and negatively.  (more…)

On Tuesday, October 26, 2010, Marketwire presented a one-hour webinar on how to derive business intelligence from social media.  We covered how to listen and measure social media conversations, and come up with actionable insights you can use to build your brand using Marketwire’s Sysomos products: Media Analysis Platform (MAP) and Heartbeat.  (more…)

NOTE:  The following post is courtesy of Gillian Shaw, author of the Vancouver Sun’s Digital Life blog, and was originally published November 13, 2010. 

While there is still much speculation over who may join the leadership race, I took a look at the social media activities of the main contenders to see if they are ready to launch a campaign. (more…)

Our own CEO, Michael Nowlan, took part in a radio interview last week with long-time Marketwire partner and national broadcast personality Allyn Mark of WVSN Industry Visions.  The pair chatted about Marketwire’s people, the company’s evolution into much more than just a press release distribution company, and what the recent acquisition of Sysomos means to our clients; today and in the not-too-distant future. [Hint:  Our News Dashboard reports and solutions for stakeholder engagement will get better and better -- stay tuned!]

You can listen to the complete interview (4.0MB, MP3), and here is a terrific sound byte on the intelligence available to Marketwire clients via Sysomos:  (more…)