Public Relations Links

Here is The Fire PIO’s ever growing list of PR related sites. Something can be learned from each and every one.

News Websites

CNN, the absolute leader in online news and information delivery (based on popularity and traffic stats), features the latest multimedia technologies, from live video streaming to audio packages to searchable archives of news features and background information.
Yahoo! News – a convenient place to find headlines from local to world news sources across the Internet. More popular than Google News, Yahoo! News is more than a news search engine.
The New York Times – still the reference for professional journalism standards, and still one of the most popular news publishers in the World.
USA Today – it doesn’t need more introductions. Ideal for US news, it has however a very well researched international coverage too.
BBC – delivers news in 32 languages, an amazing network of information globally. In adittion, the BBC is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world.
Reuters – reliable, the world’s largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information.
The Washington Post – news and video on politics, national, federal government, foreign policy, business, green issues, science and more.
Google News – a news search engine, with some cool features not many know of (like Fast Flip), indicative of what the world is interested in (displaying most popular stories based on its own algorithms).
The Huffington Post – coverage of politics, media, business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and comedy, and is a top destination for news, blogs and original content.
FOXNews – when everything above fails, this is the only valid alternative.

PR and Marketing News Sites

AdAge – the leading global source of news, intelligence and conversation for marketing and media communities. Our top favorite as well.
Alltop PR – indexes various PR resources, randomly categorized, submitted by website owners and approved only if they meet a set of quality requirements.
PRSA – the world’s largest and foremost organization of public relations professionals. It has an extensive network of periodicals, daily news updates and blogs and a vast, easily searchable database that gives instant access to research, articles, white papers and Silver Anvil Award-winning program case studies organized by subject, industry and business outcome.
PR Week – news, reviews, profiles, techniques, and timely research for in-house and agency professionals. The annual PRWeek Awards honor the best campaigns, companies and people in the industry.
PR News Online – describes itself as the “blueprint for the strategies, tactics and insights you need to become an even more effective and successful communicator.”
Topix Public Relations News – somehow it manages to index high quality titles in the industry. Refined, focused, very useful.
Brand Republic – one of the best online business portals for the advertising, media, marketing and PR industries. It aims to keep the people who work in those sectors informed, educated and connected with each other.
Everything PR – hopefully you already know who we are and what we do. If you don’t, stick around.
Marketing Magazine UK – ideal for European marketing news and analysis, exclusive industry data, such as Adwatch poll of which TV ads consumers recall, league tables of the biggest marketing services agencies and rankings of the biggest-spending advertisers and brands. There are also dedicated news sections for digital, media, branding and direct, plus features that explore the cutting-edge issues facing the sector.
BrandWeek – everything from online marketing, CMO news to increasing brand loyalty analysis and news coverage.
About Public Relations
PRstrategy.net Great list of PR links and resources.
Bill Stoller’s PublicityInsider.com A public relations pro shares his inside secrets for getting free publicity. The website is dedicated to teaching how to write a winning press release and score big publicity — without spending a fortune. Tons of free articles, tips, how-to’s and much more. Publicity Insider is useful for any businessperson, regardless of budget, size or experience.
Public Affairs Council The leading professional organization for public affairs executives.

PR and Media Blogs

PR 2.0 by Brian Solis – is among the top 1.5% of all blogs tracked by Technorati and is ranked as one of the leading voices in the Ad Age Power 150 index of worldwide marketing bloggers.
Ogilvy PR 360 Digital Influence Blog – more than a blog. It actually aggregates all Ogilvy PR Twitter feeds, video and pics, blog network, portfolio of best practices, the events they will attend and job openings.
Deirdre Breakenridge – social networking, blogging, microblogging, podcasting, streaming video, RSS technology and how communications is changing the way that businesses need to think in order to fully take advantage of community networking.
PR Sarah Evans – pink and classy. Sarah is a “social media freak,” who initiated and moderates #journchat, the top-trending weekly live chat between PR professionals, journalists and bloggers on the microblogging platform, Twitter.
The Bad Pitch Blog by Richard Laermer – PR professionals should read this more often. It teaches them what NOT to do when pitching a media source, journalist or blogger.
Richard Edelman – a veteran in PR, extremely busy and too important, but the man still finds time to write.
Chris Brogan – the most powerful voice in communication and social media, a ten year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals.
Marketing Pilgrim – brings the latest news, rumors and reviews of all things related to internet marketing and online advertising.
Online Marketing Blog – provides insights, resources and commentary on a range of digital marketing and public relations topics including: search engine marketing and optimization, social media marketing, business blogging and marketing and online public relations.
Dosh Dosh – internet marketing and blogging tips, alongside social media strategies. Best consumed by bloggers, entrepreneurs, web publishers, marketers, freelancers and small business owners.

Social Media and Social Bookmarking

Twitter – needs no introduction.
Facebook – is a a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. It finally shows potential.
Digg – surviving… stubbornly. Still popular, and still managing to bring out the best stuff on the Web, as voted on by the users.
Yahoo! Buzz – new and trendy, more popular than Mixx, Propeller and a few others. Like Digg, it brings out Web’s most remarkable stories, determined by the users who vote.
Reddit and Delicious – probably unfair to include them in the same place, but they are not that different. Delicious managed to improve its aesthetics a bit. Both bookmarking sites.
Newswine – smart news networking, brings together big and little media in a way which respects established journalism and empowers the individual at the same time.
Dzone – free link-sharing community for developers, ideal for the PR industry to understand the tech audience.
Diigo – research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other.
Business Exchange – by BusinessWeek, content aggregator for business professionals. We already reviewed this, please follow this link for more information.
LinkedIn – networking tool that helps users discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts and business partners.

PR Corporate Sites

Waggener Edstrom – the second most powerful PR agency in the world (after Edelman), showcasing its image and expertise with a visually striking web presence. This is our top choice for the Studio D aspect of the site – simple, elegant and very refined. Since we reviewed the site, many things have changed for the better.
Padilla Speer Beardsley is known for experienced, strategic counsel built on a research-based planning methodology, communicating for action. Now it will also be known for one of the best PR corporate websites in the world. We reviewed the site before and after the changes and we can tell you that this company is going places. Actually, we predict that in 2010 Padilla will be among the top 10 PR companies in the world. This year, in March, it occupied a honorable place 13 according to O’Dwyer PR.
APCO Worldwide – redesigned in July 2009, reviewed by Everything PR soon after the re-launch. The new corporate site is better than the old version of the site, more modern, and like everything else, it needs continuous improvement. The web is a constantly evolving entity. Note that APCO is the third most powerful PR company in the world.
Dan Klores – we gave them a PR Goofy award in February this year. Today we should give them an award for excellence. The new site is visually striking, perfect representation of a company that describes itself as ” being a smart, aggressive and inventive team with a wide range of public relations and marketing talent and experience serving a diverse array of clients.”
Taylor – excellent usability, features, content and information. Nothing has changed since our review (some companies are unaware that they are being watched by the media, maybe they need some of the tools below?). Taylor is the “go to” lifestyle, sports and entertainment public relations agency.
Alisson and Partners – also known as Allison PR – for many reasons a to site this year, our review is yet to come. A rather aggressive approach to PR, but this is what makes Allison a winner.
Makovsky + Company Inc. – good aesthetics, although we did find a few things to criticize when we first reviewed the site. However Makovsky is trying hard to prove why it’s the 25th most profitable PR company in the world, and the site reflects the expertise.
Ogilvy – nothing extraordinary, however the information needed by a potential customer is there, accessible, in plain view, and very relevant. Our in-depth review will follow.
KCSA – another site we will be reviewing in-depth soon, visually striking through simplicity. KCSA is extremely skilled in brand marketing, and it shows. 29th at O’Dwyer.

PR Newsletters

Ragan – if you are a PR and you don’t get Ragan’s Daily Headlines in your mailbox every day, you are not serious about your business.
Warcmail: somehow they always send news after the fact, but they compensate through in-depth analysis.
O Dwyer’s – breaking news about public relations (PR) and marketing communications, commentary, professional development, database of PR firms – subscription based. The newsletter goes out every Thursday.
PR Watch – The Weekly Spin – they should actually send this more often. You can also subscribe to author RSS.
AdAge email newsletters – again, if you are serious about the business, you should definitely have AdAge in your mailbox. Note that they have many different newsletters – our favorites are AdAge Daily News, AdAge CMO Strategy and CAT Email.
Brand Republic News Bulletins – another must have, with various newsletters. Our favorite is the Daily News Bulletin, the “flagship morning news email that delivers the top stories from across the industry to thousands of inboxes at 9am each day.”
Bnet newsletters – requires site subscription, but with this you will have access to some of the most relevant industry e-newsletters, and whitepapers. Owned by CBS.
MarketingProfs – offers actionable know-how to help you market your products and services both smarter and better.
SmartBrief – editors hand-pick the most relevant and important news from all over, summarize it, link to the original sources and deliver it in one-stop-shop e-newsletters.
PR News Online – e-letter – comes once a week, and sometimes you get coverage on issues ignored by the other top ones.

News Distribution

PRWeb – Online news and press release distribution service for small and medium-sized businesses and corporate communications. Highly innovative, and a good friend of Everything PR.
PR Newswire – news and information distribution services for professional communicators.
Business Wire – commercial news distribution. Thousands of member companies and organizations depend on Business Wire to transmit their full-text news releases, regulatory filings, photos and other multimedia content to journalists, financial professionals, investor services, regulatory authorities and the general public worldwide. A professional service, highly recommended.
MarketWire – newswire service offering press release distribution, media contact management, multimedia, media monitoring services and other workflow solutions for public relations, investor relations, journalists and other communications professionals.
PR Leap – allegedly the company that built the world’s first search engine optimized press release distribution platform in June 2003.
PR.com – A cross between a public relations and advertising entity, PR.com is a directory of businesses, products and services, a press release distribution service, job search website, and online publication of articles, reviews and celebrity interviews.
24-7pressrelease – an effective press release distribution service offering an affordable alternative to expensive PR and press release promotion services. Submitting press releases with 24-7 Press Release is always free but they also offer enhanced distribution packages.
eReleases – partnered with PR Newswire – still useful for founder Mickie Kennedy’s expertise.
Wired PR News is an online press release distribution and newswire service reaching 400+ newsrooms.
Newswire Today – is a press release newswire distribution service, a directory of businesses, products and services, and online publication of articles.

PR Software

Vocus On-Demand Software for Public Relations addresses the critical functions of PR including media relations, news distribution and news monitoring.
Sysomos – brings business intelligence to social media, providing instant and unlimited access to all social media conversations to quickly see what’s happening, why it’s happening, and who’s driving the conversations.
Cision – one integrated solution for everything you need to do when managing your PR campaigns, including media contact search and list development; press release distribution & optimization; monitor print, internet, and broadcast media coverage; and media analysis of PR programs
DNA13 – on-demand software for real-time reputation management.
BuzzStream – a new platform for building more effective and more human relationships online, without all the overhead and bandwidth.
PIER Systems – Web-based software for managing crisis communications, business continuity, press release distribution and public relations.
Nielsen BuzzMetrics services and solutions uncover and integrate data-driven insights culled from nearly 100 million blogs, social networks, groups, boards and other CGM platforms.
Reputation Defender – particularly MyEdge, a solution for owning your Google results.
Radian6 – listen, measure and engage in social media. Scan over 100 million sites and sources, from blogs and comments to photos, videos, forums, public Facebook groups, and Twitter.
WordStream – is a Keyword Management solution for continuously optimizing & expanding PPC and SEO efforts involving large numbers of keywords. If you didn’t know that online PR needs SEO, you have nothing to do online.

Communication Miscellaneous

Google Wave – we have received invitations to test this platform – and I can now confirm what I initially predicted. Google Wave is the ultimate online collaboration and communication platform. And in-depth review about how to use this for PR needs will follow.
Basecamp – web-based project management and collaboration tool. We are using Basecamp for PR projects, uniting our team under one roof. Basecamp is almost our office.
Remember The Milk – makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience. You no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand.
Salesforce – CRM software solutions and enterprise cloud computing, expensive, but essential. They have a wide range of solutions. There are some more affordable applications on the web, but we promised you the best.
Oncontact – budget-tailored CRM — customer relationship management software with a logical interface, and instantly-familiar Microsoft look and feel.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM – a fully integrated customer relationship management system.
RescueTime - time management and tracking tools for your team to help with focus, productivity, and project tracking.
SendBlaster – a free (desktop) bulk email software, a mass email marketing program and a bulk emailing sender.
VerticalResponse is an easy-to-use, web-based marketing tool that helps you grow your business through email marketing, online surveys, and direct mail postcards.
Lyris – create, send and track email marketing campaigns and email newsletters (they also have a web analytics solutions