Partnership with Umbria gives communications professionals a sophisticated tool to track blogosphere discussions and measure how messages resonate among
consumers
NEW YORK and BOULDER, Colo., May 2, 2007/PR Newswire/-- PR Newswire today announced a partnership with Umbria, a market intelligence company that specializes in blog research (http://www.umbrialistens.com/company/index.php) and consumer generated media (CGM) for market insight, to provide clients with a comprehensive blog measurement tool (http://www.umbrialistens.com/products/index.php) that allows them to assess the impact of online consumer conversations about their company, products and brands.
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PR Newswire's MediaSense™ Blog Measurement, as the service is called, uses Umbria's proprietary technology, and allows PR Newswire clients to track blog conversations (http://www.umbrialistens.com/resources/faq.php) around a press release or a news topic, and monitor how these conversations grow and wane. Umbria's patent-pending technology is unique in how it analyzes blogosphere discussions (http://www.umbrialistens.com/products/technology.php) and provides a graphical assessment of the conversation tone and participant demographics.
"The advent of citizen-generated media has both delighted and confounded public relations professionals," said Dave Armon, chief operating officer, PR Newswire. "As the leading communications service provider for corporate, government and public policy PR officers, PR Newswire views bloggers and their readers as additional key audiences, and this new tool provides our customers with actionable feedback on how their messages are resonating with audiences in the blogosphere, which is 75 million blogs strong and growing."
MediaSense™ Blog Measurement helps customers determine which consumer segments are most engaged in a discussion, enabling them to better understand their target markets and tailor their communications strategies accordingly. It can be used to evaluate the response in the blogosphere for short-term events, such as product launches or tradeshow participation, or to collect ongoing feedback throughout the year.
"Bloggers are thought leaders and opinion-shapers, so tracking who and how quickly they pick up on various news items has become critical for brand and PR professionals," said Howard Kaushansky, president of Umbria. "If it's positive, you want to know. If it's a mushroom cloud of negativity, you definitely need to know. This partnership gives that knowledge to PR Newswire clients."
MediaSense™ Blog Measurement, a subscription-based service, provides users with:
- Quantitative and qualitative analysis of how their messages are
resonating in the blogosphere, including the number of blog posts on a
given press release topic, and the demographic profile of that
conversation (male/female; Gen Y, Gen X, Baby Boomer).
- Reports that indicate if the traffic on a particular discussion is
increasing or decreasing, as well as if new voices have entered the
conversation or if the discussion is dying down.
"Companies spend enormous energy and effort trying to get messages out to their markets, and historically, the only way to measure the success has been to track how many articles are written as a result," said Janet Eden-Harris, CEO of Umbria. "This new service is a breakthrough in focusing on the consumer discussions that are generated. Is it being discussed? If so, is it positive? What demographic groups are talking the most?"
The new MediaSense™ Blog Measurement service complements a groundbreaking relationship PR Newswire forged in early January with Technorati that enables readers of press releases issued over PR Newswire to have one-click access to blogs that are discussing and linking to a press release, directly from the press release itself.
In addition to its first-of-its-kind partnerships with Umbria and Technorati, PR Newswire has taken the following steps to date to help communications professionals communicate with leading bloggers:
- Incorporated bloggers into its media-only Web site, PR Newswire for
Journalists
- Created more than 500 subject and industry RSS feeds of customers' press
releases for access by bloggers
- Invited bloggers to post to the ProfNet Experts network
- Profiled leading bloggers in MEDIAtlas, PR Newswire's online media
database
- Monitored blogs to report on where keywords are appearing through the
US1 Media Monitoring and eWatch monitoring services
"With the introduction of MediaSense™ Blog Measurement, we are taking the obvious next step in providing a full-spectrum of blog communications tools," said Armon.
Two years ago, PR Newswire brought media evaluation to the masses by introducing the first comprehensive, yet truly affordable media measurement tool, MediaSense. Today, hundreds of organizations spanning dozens of industries rely on MediaSense to provide comprehensive evaluation of their media coverage.
MediaSense™ Blog Measurement can be purchased in conjunction with, or separate from, MediaSense. MediaSense analyzes content from print and online publications and can be deployed over any 90-day period or utilized throughout the course of a full year on an annual subscription. Reports are delivered monthly and contain an evaluation of media coverage based upon several measures including volume of coverage, coverage by media type, tonality (positive, negative, neutral), the presence of key corporate messages within articles, the overall quality of coverage based upon an article's length, placement, publication type and tone, and the equivalent ad value. Metrics are evaluated based upon comparison to a company's key competitors, while also offering an unbiased assessment of how a company is portrayed in the press.
About PR Newswire
PR Newswire Association LLC (http://www.prnewswire.com/) provides electronic distribution, targeting, measurement and broadcast services on behalf of tens of thousands of corporate, government, association, labor, non- profit, and other customers worldwide. Using PR Newswire, these organizations reach a variety of critical audiences including the news media, the investment community, government decision-makers, and the general public with their up- to-the-minute, full-text news developments.
Established in 1954, PR Newswire has offices in 11 countries and routinely sends its customers' news to outlets in 135 countries and in more than 40 languages. Utilizing the latest in communications technology, PR Newswire content is considered a mainstay among news reporters, investors and individuals who seek breaking news from the source. PR Newswire's leading services include ProfNet Experts(SM), eWatch™, MEDIAtlas™, Search Engine Optimization, MediaRoom, MediaSense™, MultiVu™, U.S. Newswire, the preeminent policy newswire in the industry, and Vintage Filings, the fastest growing Edgar filing company in the industry. PR Newswire is a subsidiary of United Business Media plc of London.
About Umbria
Umbria is unique in its ability to assess both what is being said, and who is doing the speaking in the online world. Umbria's patent-pending technology enables the company to classify posts and estimate gender and age of the speaker, as well as rapidly identify and eliminate bogus spam posts. Umbria analyzes voices of the online community by using proprietary Natural Language Processing and machine learning algorithms to dissect the who, what and why of online opinion, offering in-depth insights for some of the world's leading brands. For more information on Umbria, please visit www.umbrialistens.com.
Media Contact Information: Rachel Meranus Vice President, Public Relations PR Newswire 212.282.1929rachel.meranus@prnewswire.com Rebecca Scanlan on behalf of Umbria 303-733-0328rscanlan@groundfloormedia.com
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SOURCE: PR Newswire and Umbria
CONTACT: Rachel Meranus, Vice President, Public Relations, PR Newswire,
+1-212-282-1929,
+1-303-733-0328,