Business Wire (www.businesswire.com) has announced Smart Marketing Page, a new communications platform that leverages the best content from marketing and public relations to create an SEO-enhanced, interactive multimedia news and information experience for consumers, reporters and target audiences. With the explosion of sources used to find information and influence decisions, progressive companies and organizations are looking for ways to present unified marketing and public relations efforts to boost audience engagement. The Smart Marketing Page enables communicators to build a visually rich, custom landing page that mirrors the company, organization or product brand. The SMP allows for a wide range of embedded content, including press releases, videos, photos, polls, purchasing links and more, along with social media sharing features for each content asset. The press release and multimedia content are issued to news media and posted to online sites via the powerful Business Wire news network. Measurement analytics are provided via interactive Business Wire report dashboards. "The enhanced Smart Marketing Page is a great way for companies to magnify the impact of a product or service announcement," said Laura Sturaitis, executive vice president of media services and product strategy at Business Wire, in a news release. "By turning a traditional multimedia Smart News Release into a customized, interactive web page, companies can truly show off their news, photos, videos and provide an interactive experience to a larger online audience.

Yahoo Small Business recently announced the launch of Yahoo! Marketing Dashboard, a free tool that helps entrepreneurs discover new marketing opportunities to grow their businesses, while getting a clear picture of their marketing results, online reputations and website performance, all in one place. Designed specifically with the small business owner in mind, the Yahoo! Marketing Dashboard provides a clear, consolidated picture of a business's marketing results and reputation, making it easier to discover new insights and develop new ideas for growth, the company says. The tool also enables small businesses to easily analyze website metrics and maintain accurate and comprehensive business listings across the Web. With all these key business metrics accessible in one location, small business owners with limited resources can spend more time focusing on their core businesses and less time buried in multiple interfaces and spreadsheets. "We created the Yahoo! Marketing Dashboard to help small business owners who feel overwhelmed by online marketing options and monitoring a wide range of sites and social networks to keep up with customer feedback," said Shannon Parker Hane, director of product marketing at Yahoo Small Business, in a news release. "Now, within a single tool customers can conveniently evaluate their marketing options, campaign results and online reputation without having to search across the Web for information."

In Paid, Owned, Earned, Nick Burcher debunks the theory that new media have replaced old media — asserting that the two now co-exist. The problem for marketers is knowing how to effectively deploy financial and human resources across all channels so that they reinforce one another — to generate a response to the brand greater than the sum of the channel parts. Burcher defines "paid" as a go-to message, an advertisement; "owned" traditionally a store or product packaging, now extends to websites, blogs, social network pages and apps, and "earned" as a water cooler conversation or editorial space that is now the whole range of digital channels too, including blogs, forums, YouTube and social networks. In Paid, Owned, Earned (Kogan Page, April 26, 2012), Burcher shows how these three stands of marketing activity are linked, how they can be integrated into an overall campaign and how the response can be measured. Paid, Owned, Earned is about the complexity of media channels offered to brands, agencies and advertisers. The proliferation of media channels and the ways in which consumers move from TV to Facebook to text messages to Google to Foursquare to iPads means it's difficult for brands to decide how to best reach their customers.

Epicor Software Corporation (www.epicor.com), a leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organizations, has announced that its Epicor eMarketing and eSurveys tools are now available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering, providing customers a flexible deployment and licensing model as businesses continue to embrace the cloud. eMarketing and eSurvey tools are being used by leading companies to engage customers, increase customer loyalty and gain immediate insight into the customer experience delivered by brands throughout the various customer touch points. In a September 27, 2011 blog post, Forrester Research analyst Roxana Strohmenger writes, "This ability is more important than ever given that we have entered the 'age of the customer' — a period marked by the rise of the empowered customer, who is armed with more information than ever before and who is now using a rapidly evolving set of devices as a means of engaging not only with friends and family but also with companies anytime and anywhere," she wrote. "In today's fast-paced and competitive business environment, it is vital that businesses have powerful, yet cost-effective tools to quickly communicate new products and services to its customers, and gain valuable feedback to better meet their needs," said Robert Sinfield, senior manager, product marketing for Epicor, in a news release. "The Epicor eMarketing and eSurveys solutions enable businesses to communicate effectively and uncover valuable data to grow their business — all through an intuitive SaaS platform."

PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) has announced the launch of PR Newswire... for bloggers, a dedicated resource for self publishers, online journalists, hobbyists and other members of the ever-growing blogosphere.

PR Newswire… for bloggers features both original and third-party content relevant to a blogging audience, while also providing information about the range of services PR Newswire offers to bloggers, such as customized newsfeeds, listings of upcoming events, a news widget for websites and blogger media tour opportunities.

"PR Newswire recognizes the growing influence of bloggers and our goal is to make it as easy as possible for them to access the content, tools and information they need to develop their blogs and increase visibility," said Thomas Hynes, manager, blogger relations, PR Newswire. "PR Newswire…for bloggers is designed to be a one-stop shop, consolidating numerous resources into one comprehensive and easy-to-navigate space."

PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) announced a partnership with Getty Images, a creator and distributor of digital media, expanding the photo distribution options offered to their customers. Through Getty Images' powerful API platform, Connect, PR Newswire customers can now access an extensive breadth of Getty Images' imagery to incorporate directly into their press release. "We encourage our clients to add photos to their press releases because we have done the research that proves they increase the visibility of a message," said Dan Hennes, vice president of multimedia distribution at PR Newswire, in a news release. "We want them to get the most out of their communication campaigns, but also understand that many marketing and professionals don't have the budget or the time to hire a photographer for every occasion and announcement. Through this partnership with Getty Images, our customers can add affordable images to their release with the click of a button."

The T-shirt apparel fashion world is bracing for the next evolution in design and branding thanks to a new blend of technology and social media marketing by RAZRWING, a nine-year-old fashion company with deep roots in Silicon Valley. "Today's Gen X, Gen Y and Millennials want to create stories and share their own ideas. They don't want to be manipulated by big brands or mass media advertising campaigns," said Gian Ruggeri, director of operations for RAZRWING, in a news release. "We've created an interactive storytelling and gaming platform where our readers can identify with the characters and share insights, story ideas and plotlines with other readers," he said. "And we've created highly detailed artwork for the characters using the latest T-shirt printing technology that allows us to present images in ways never before seen." The company is talking with several national retailers and mall stores about carrying their line. "To help drive customers to retailers, we are using games, puzzles and ranking systems via social media like Facebook and Twitter on the Internet and through other interactive technologies, introducing our customer to a point structure system. With these points, readers will be incentivized to use points to obtain free products or move points to help other groups in the ranking system," Ruggeri said.

Convertro (www.convertro.com), an online and offline marketing optimization company that provides marketers the power to measure campaign effectiveness using cross-attribution of offline and online channels, recently announced a platform to provide real-time comprehensive performance metrics for television advertising and optimization. This new offering will enable advertisers to efficiently increase leads, revenue, profit, and spend-levels across all marketing channels with minimal strain on internal resources. "In measuring the performance of any marketing campaign, our tools enable us to gain visibility and clarity across actual client data and parameters, providing insights not only about the success of the campaign, but also whether it was more effective within a particular segment of users, on- or offline. We then leverage this data to quickly deploy campaign changes that result in increased leads, revenue, profit, and spend levels across all marketing channels," said Jeff Zwelling, CEO of Convertro, in a news release. "This is the holy grail for advertisers and agencies -- it gives them the ability to accurately measure and quantify ROI, revenues, and true profits from television advertising campaigns, as well as their impact on online channels, with consistent measurement. Convertro provides clients with actionable data and the significant metrics and indicators required to easily, and in real time, improve and optimize their television campaigns for maximum overall results."

ShopIgniter, a provider of social commerce software, recently announced the availability of its enterprise-scale commerce platform. The social commerce suite includes tools and back-end integration to effectively execute integrated commerce campaigns that address the needs of the social and always-on customer. The past year has seen a significant shift in the way consumers discover, buy and share products online. Research shows that today's customers are highly savvy when it comes to engaging with brands, particularly on Facebook. In a recent study published jointly by the CMO Council and Lithium, 67% of consumers "like" a brand on Facebook because they want rewards and deals, and 79% use social media to take advantage of special offers and discounts. Social customers expect products and promotions from the brands they engage with — which creates a challenge for brands and retailers, who have been historically focused on conversation and content through social channels. Now, they are looking for more commerce-centric programs designed with products and promotion in mind. Brands must be able to create, manage and measure social commerce programs like VIP-only stores, product launches, curated product collections and storefronts in a repeatable, always-running environment. "Customers expect, and brands demand, the same level of security and confidence when buying through social channels as they do on their eCommerce stores," said Matt Compton, CEO of ShopIgniter, in a news release. In addition, "by adding PCI Level 1 certification to our Social Commerce Platform, we're proud to offer brands and retailers the most complete social commerce offering on the market, with peace of mind that their transactions and data are completely secure," he said.

Cision recently announced the launch of the Social Influencer Search, a new way for Cision users to search by keyword and find digital influencers publishing content on a particular topic. Through this feature, unique to Cision, users can search for influencers who are tweeting, sharing or blogging about a specific keyword. Then, they can filter results by beat, outlet focus, location, country, market and more. Results offer detailed contact information for the influencer, including social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn), what outlets they write for, and what topics they cover. In addition to offering keyword search results pulled from Cision's Influencer Database, users can count on Cision's Influencer Rating to help them gauge the influence of a contact and zero in on those who are most prominent. Cision's Influencer Rating measures 40 points of influence, such as Facebook likes, retweets and more, providing a comprehensive look at the significance of each influencer. "Because of the vastness and the reach of social media, uncovering the most qualified and prominent people who are influencing conversations online can be a challenging task for PR and marketing professionals," said Peter Granat, chief executive officer of Cision North America, in a news release. "Now with Cision's Social Influencer Search, our users can find influencers by their most recent blog posts and tweets, determine which ones are the most prominent and research the best way to get in touch with them, all with the click of a button."

Statusreel, a Facebook widget in cyberspace, has taken an improbable ground in Facebook marketing, according to a collective study wherein online entrepreneurs who used Statusreel saw massive spikes of visibility in their blogs. Those who have advocacies also generated enough Facebook likes for their pages because of Statusreel's connecting power. The main reason for this is the accessibility of Statusreel in most cases. Since people like easy and quick things, Statusreel played a rather important role. Time is of the essence, and the Internet has little mercy for slow people. That is why entrepreneurs settle for quick applications like Statusreel to market their products and services. When it comes to simplicity of interface, Statusreel has a wild card — the Statusreel widget looks like Facebook, so users will be comfortable in using it. Statusreel is all about statuses and the people who post them. Previously, many people thought that statuses were just blurbs of emotions and don't have purposes at all. Now, things have changed. Users of Statusreel believe that statuses are gold mines that must be uncovered. True, a single status may contain mixed emotions, but they have an even greater purpose: social connection.

Social marketing software provider Shoutlet recently announced a significant update to its platform, Shoutlet 5.0. The new version marks a pivotal shift in the way the company is responding to the next wave of complex social marketing technology: "trigger-based campaign publishing." For the first time, marketers can apply synchronized actions to campaigns across multiple social networks, making for a more holistic, easily managed approach to campaign planning and execution, the company says. The new features in Shoutlet 5.0 make social marketing of branded content instinctive and more sophisticated than any other social marketing offering on the market. The platform enhancements are aimed to help customers maximize social campaign influence, reach, and engagement by providing industry-unique tools for planning, content creation, user data acquisition, social segmentation and analytics. "Our vision from day one has been to arm our customers with the tools they need to build and manage powerful social campaigns, allowing for easy and intuitive content creation and giving them real-time and accurate user analytics to better plan fan interaction," said Jason Weaver, CEO of Shoutlet, in a news release. "With Shoutlet 5.0, we are doing just that with relevancy marketing at the core, providing customers with a wealth of information generated by features like Social Canvas, Social Profiles, and Social Switchboard. These tools combined are optimizing the way brands are communicating with fans and significantly enriching those relationships."

The Meltwater Group (www.meltwater.com), a leading online media intelligence company, and Strutta Media (www.strutta.com), a leading developer of social marketing applications and analytics for the next generation of online promotions, has announced a strategic partnership. Through this venture, Meltwater will deliver a more robust social media marketing offering, helping companies to more effectively engage with their key stakeholders. By partnering with Strutta, Meltwater continues its vigorous growth momentum established in 2011 with the acquisition of both JitterJam, a social CRM company, and IceRocket, a blog analytics tool, strengthening Meltwater's capabilities in social CRM and search engine marketing. More than ever, the company is now positioned to deliver a full suite of social media marketing solutions for its clients and extend its core capabilities beyond social and digital analytics. "As more organizations move customer promotions and digital marketing to social channels, understanding the subsequent impact on your brand becomes an integral element of a successful marketing campaign," said Niklas de Besche, executive director of Meltwater Buzz, in a news release. "This partnership represents an expanded focus for Meltwater, and by leveraging a category leader like Strutta, we're positioning ourselves as one of the most powerful and unique social media marketing companies out there."

SocialFlow (www.socialflow.com), a social media content optimization platform, has announced the public availability of the SocialFlow Optimized Publisher for brands and businesses of all sizes. Using applied mathematics and language analysis to understand audiences, topics, attention and engagement on the real-time social graph, the Optimized Publisher lets businesses know and leverage the precise value of each piece of content they publish. Through access to the Twitter and Facebook data streams, SocialFlow's research team has shown that language — not demographics or so-called "influencer" status — is the best predictor of affinity and action. In internationally recognized studies of millions of social media messages, SocialFlow has offered groundbreaking insight into the spread of information on social networks through the proprietary scoring capability that powers the Optimized Publisher. SocialFlow is able to help businesses grasp the meaning of data on the ever-changing social graph, leading the way to a new perception of the value of language in real time. "Businesses can't just rely on crossing their fingers and hoping for the best on social networks like Twitter and Facebook," said Frank Speiser, CEO and co-founder of SocialFlow, in a news release. "As the business value of social media has increased, so has the urgency to create intelligent tools that can respond to split-second shifts and growing audiences. SocialFlow's Optimized Publisher uses the power of predictive analytics and technology to remove the time-consuming guesswork from social media strategies. Now brand managers and publishers can use their time to focus on creating the unique and engaging content their audiences require."

Cision (www.cision.com) has introduced Cision Influencer Lists, providing easy access to custom-built records of influential digital contacts, compiled and constantly updated by Cision's media research team. Cision Influencer Lists are topic-and region-based and include digital influencers from both traditional and social media, from the top influencers in Fashion & Beauty to key bloggers in Los Angeles to digital leaders in personal finance. Lists are based on multiple criteria, including the Cision Influence Rating, topic- and industry-specific expertise, editorial role and engagement preference. Each list features information crucial to building (and sustaining) relationships with key contacts. Marketers and PR pros can follow and engage influencers through their social profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus), and find pitching tips, pet peeves and contact preferences by reading in-depth profiles. "Building relationships with influencers in your industry is fast-becoming a necessity for brand management. Cision Influencer Lists allow marketing and PR pros to identify those influencers in one click," said Heidi Sullivan, Cision's VP of Global Media Research, in a news release. "Cision is able to use our big data capabilities coupled with our knowledge of both traditional and social media to identify the leading influencers across the media mix."

VerticalResponse (www.verticalresponse.com), a provider of self-service marketing solutions for small businesses including email marketing, social media marketing, online surveys, event marketing and direct mail marketing, today announced the addition of several new features to its social media and email marketing products. Knowing that small businesses often wish for more hours in the day, VerticalResponse added two noteworthy time-saving features to its newly acquired Roost social media marketing platform. VerticalResponse also released several new content sources for Roost, giving customers more options and opportunities to share relevant information with their fans, followers and connections. "Our goal with every new feature release is to introduce new functionalities that have immediate benefits to our customers from both a technology and ease-of-use perspective," said Janine Popick, VerticalResponse CEO, in a news release. "This latest release accomplishes this and more."

JetJaw (www.jetjaw.com), a company that helps business owners get customer feedback at the moment of the experience, has announced new functionality that easily and seamlessly allows satisfied customers to push their feedback to social venues, and provides a way to address negative feedback immediately. JetJaw is accessible on any mobile device and enables faster, more accurate feedback from customers. Once a survey is created using JetJaw, a QR code is generated, as well as a text code and a direct link to share anywhere they may want to obtain the results. The tracking can be segmented any way the creator wishes, by location, by promotion, or even by individual staff members. Furthermore, the results can be directed in a variety of ways based on the customer satisfaction level. "In a time when customer satisfaction scores are at an all time low, JetJaw gives companies the edge in managing their brand reputation," said JetJaw CEO Mark Salsberry in a news release. "By allowing a customer to provide feedback in the moment, the response rate is higher, the feedback is more accurate, and the customer feels as if the company cares more because of the immediacy of the response they can provide. In this age of transparency, the ability to diffuse negative feedback can tremendously improve brand reputation."

Google, Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo, respectively, ended 2011 as the top four websites both in the United States and globally, according to data presented by BurrellesLuce in its latest edition of "Top Media Outlets: Newspapers, Blogs, Consumer Magazines, Websites & Social Networks." These unique lists feature the circulation figures of the top 100 daily newspapers in the United States, the 25 most popular English-language blogs, the 25 leading consumer magazines, the top 25 PR & marketing blogs, and the top 25 entertainment blogs. Updated whenever significant new information becomes available, this desktop reference also includes the traffic rankings for the top 10 social networks. New to the list this year, BurrellesLuce has added the top 25 U.S. websites, along with the websites for the top 50 U.S. daily newspapers online. How do the forerunners on to the top 100 dailies compare to the popularity of their online counterparts? Which blogs top the list of English-language blogs? What newcomer makes its debut as number 1 on the list of top PR & Marketing blogs? (Hint: It's number 6 on the list of top Entertainment blogs.) Which top U.S. websites should communications professionals keep any eye on? The answers might just surprise you. Top Media Outlets is available, free of charge, to public relations, communications and marketing professionals. Download your free copy here.

Rypple, a company that helps companies manage, motivate and empower their people, recently announced Social Goals 2.0, a new tool for managing inside a social enterprise. Social Goals 2.0 is built on the proven Objectives and Key Results (OKR) model developed by Intel and widely adopted by some of the world's highest-performing companies, including Google, Zynga and Spotify. Rypple has integrated Social Goals 2.0 into its internal, Web-based social performance management software to help companies inspire people at every level to drive real business results. "For a high-growth company like ours, things change quickly," said Johan Persson, organizational development manager at Spotify, in a news release. "Rypple enables us be more transparent across the organization and keep our employees focused on what really matters. OKRs give all staff an opportunity to look beyond their e-mail inbox, and significantly increase employee understanding of key priorities and objectives across the business."

The Marketing Automation Institute (MAI) recently announced the availability of its three initial course offerings. The mission of the MAI is to be the premier resource for vendor-neutral curriculum, training and certification for marketing automation end-users and organizations. "Training and certification is the foundation on which we've created the Marketing Automation Institute," said Carlos Hidalgo, executive director of the MAI, in a news release. "Our courses are developed by the best of the best and we are confident that our members, as well as organizations, will realize immediate value from the information presented. All MAI courses are taught and developed by industry leading marketing and subject matter experts including Steve Gershik, principal of 28Marketing, Larissa DeCarlo, founder and principal of Marketing Operations Works, and Jay Hidalgo, president of The Annuitas Group and others who have helped define this field of study. Each course can be accessed on-demand allowing the end-user to attend at their convenience, navigate the content and define their pace to best suit their professional and personal development. "Lack of trained staff is the biggest obstacle to marketing automation success. The MAI offers a vendor-neutral solution to breaking this bottleneck," said David Raab, principal of Raab Associates, in the release.

comScore (www.comscore.com/companyinfo), a leader in measuring the digital world, and Buddy Media (www.buddymedia.com), the social enterprise software of choice for eight of the world's top ten global advertisers, recently announced a strategic partnership to help brands and agencies measure and maximize the value of their social marketing programs. Mutual clients using the Buddy Media social marketing suite and comScore Social Essentials measurement service will not only be able to optimize their social communications via owned media, but also quantify the impact of the earned media using meaningful social media metrics, such as reach/frequency, demographics, online behavior and benchmarking of competitive brands in the social landscape. As part of the partnership, the companies have agreed to integrate comScore data into the Buddy Media product suite and workflow to foster seamless social marketing optimization and performance measurement. "Brands and agencies understand the importance of social media marketing, but often cite the need for the right tools to implement their strategies and the right metrics to evaluate their effectiveness. They have largely been designing their social marketing programs on faith, without the appropriate feedback loop to ensure their strategies are maximizing returns," said Linda Abraham, CMO and EVP at comScore, in a news release. "comScore is excited to join forces with Buddy Media to help brands gain the insights needed to design and improve their programs to deliver the greatest social marketing ROI."

Bizideo recently announced the inaugural version of its patent-pending software that automates the process of building a video-based website. Visit www.bizideo.tv to try it for free. "Video is by far the most powerful and persuasive method of sharing your story and providing interactive user experiences on the Web," said Bizideo CEO Bill Pelton in a news release. "Video encourages site visits and sharing, attracts new search traffic, engages visitors and conversions, and increases the ability to build customer loyalty. Best of all, video production and digital bandwidth costs are falling, making video website building more accessible." The software represents six years of development to create a video-based, website builder that's as intuitive and user-friendly as word processing programs. With monthly packages as little as $25, Bizideo also offers free ongoing support. "The Bizideo system has opened up a whole new world for me," said Jon Flor, a Bizideo customer who runs a boutique marketing firm, in the release. "In the past, putting together a website, especially one with video, was complicated and required me to hire outside programmers and IT personnel. With the Bizideo online video solution I can upload my designs into the Bizideo wizard and the programming is automatic."

iPerceptions Inc., a provider of web-focused Voice of Customer (VoC) analytics based on actual visitors, recently announced iPerceptions Mobile Website Feedback — the industry's first random sampling survey solution for mobile websites. Similar to the existing iPerceptions VoC survey invitation methodology for traditional websites, the new mobile survey randomly invites visitors to participate on arrival to the website to provide immediate post-experience feedback. Random sample surveys that are shown on arrival are proven to deliver the most accurate feedback representation of all website visitors. With mobile website usage on the rise, the need to understand the effectiveness of the mobile channel is increasingly important. But until now, mobile devices have only been able to gather website visitor feedback through always-on feedback buttons, an approach that skews feedback toward negative experiences. "Mobile websites are a completely different animal," said Claude Guay, president and CEO of iPerceptions, in a news release. "The mobile channel introduces unique challenges for websites — such as longer download times, significantly reduced screen sizes and platform cross-compatibility problems. With this in mind, it is easy to see how mobile website visitors' experiences could differ considerably in comparison to the experiences of traditional website visitors. By collecting feedback on both of these platforms and analyzing the results separately or in conjunction with one another, companies can gain unique insights and much-needed perspective."

Business Wire recently announced a promotion with iStockphoto that will encourage newsmakers to maximize the impact of their announcements through imagery. The promotion provides Business Wire customers with a 20% discount on their first purchase of 50 or more iStock credits, which can be redeemed for images that will ensure news releases receive the attention they deserve. Over the past decade, the news release has evolved from a text document used by organizations to convey news to members of the media into a powerful communications tool geared toward a variety of audiences including media, investors, bloggers and customers. Today organizations can take advantage of Business Wire's Smart News Release format to include product photos, executive headshots, video, audio and other types of content to make it easier than ever for an organization to tell their story and generate interest from a variety of audiences around the world. "On average, a release that includes even a single compelling image is five times more likely to be clicked online to be viewed than one that only includes text," said Laura Sturaitis, executive vice president of Media Services and Product Strategy for Business Wire, in a news release. "As a stock industry leader with a massive collection of imagery and multimedia content, iStockphoto provides one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to illustrate a concept, punch up a story and make sure it gets seen."