http:// 2010-11-15T00:23:00Z 2010-11-15T00:23:00Z mediaconnect-launches-activity-stream-pr-workflow-tool

MediaConnect has achieved a leap forward in helping PR professionals track their media interactions and manage their workflows, with the launch of its Activity Stream and Tasks modules.“PR workflow processes that are rooted in spreadsheets and email folders, prevent PR professionals from achieving the productivity gains that free their time to venture into new activities like social media and content creation,” said MediaConnect Chief Executive Officer, Phil Sim.“However, traditional CRM-style solutions, even if they are tailored for the PR community, are too difficult to use and have not been embraced by the PR community.”MediaConnect’s Activity Stream is a free new module available to all MediaConnect subscribers, that is modelled on popular social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, which are highly familiar to almost all PR professionals.“Most PR pros have never, and will never master CRM-style tools. Now they don’t have to. If you can update your Facebook status, you’ve already mastered the MediaConnect Activity Stream,” Sim said.MediaConnect will progressively integrate any component of a PR professional’s workflow into the Activity Stream, giving them real-time visibility of what their peers are doing, what the media is doing, what coverage they are receiving and what success their campaigns and press releases are having.The Activity Stream is tightly integrated with another new MediaConnect module, Tasks, allowing teams to have full awareness and accountability of the tasks they have been assigned.Email and Twitter have also been tightly integrated into the Activity Stream, making it simple to share emails and tweets with just the click of a button.“Too many PR teams either do a really bad job of sharing information or they flood every body’s inbox with carbon copied emails. With the MediaConnect Activity Stream, PR professionals can at the same time reduce the load on their inboxes, while increasing the amount of information shared and collaborated on.”The launch of MediaConnect Activity Stream comes as MediaConnect prepares to launch its first general media product to the Australian market. Traditionally, serving the PR professionals and journalists in the technology sector, MediaConnect’s general media offering will be targeted at all PR professionals in Australia.“We’ve deliberately rolled this out to our existing customer base initially, so as to get the benefit of their feedback and advice, but this is exactly why we think we’re going to have a very compelling offering to all Australian PR professionals because our software and tools functionality is streets ahead of any competitive service sold from this country,” Sim said.MediaConnect operates a dual-community model, offering versions of its service and software to both the PR and journalist communities. The Activity Stream module will also be integrated into the journalist portal over the next 3 months.About MediaConnect AustraliaMediaConnect Australia aims to be the world’s most innovative provider of solutions to the Public Relations and Journalist communities. It’s dual-community model has enabled it to successfully link the workflows of both the journalist and PR communities, making members of both communities more successful and productive. It’s Influencing suite of tools and service leads the world for ease-of-use, usability and value-for-money.

2010-07-25T23:56:00Z latest-release-of-mediaconnect-media-relations-platform-focuses-on-usability

MediaConnect has dramatically improved the usability of its media relations platform by re-engineering its application to focus on simplicity and speed.MediaConnect is a unique web platform that connects the workflows of journalists and PR professionals. It is used near-ubiquitously in its traditional market in the Australian technology sector but will soon be launched to the wider PR and journalist communities.“Traditionally, neither PR professionals or journalists have been great users of technology in their daily workflows,” said MediaConnect CEO Phil Sim. “So for either community to adopt a set of tools, nothing is more important than simplicity and ease-of-use.MediaConnect 10 also delivers significant performance improvements over previous versions.“MediaConnect is approaching its tenth anniversary in October, 2010 and we believe this version reflects the sum of our experience and lessons learned over the past decade.”“However, equally, it provides a new foundation for fresh innovation and features, as well as enabling our expansion into new markets”.MediaConnect 10 shuns the traditional CRM model used by competing solutions, to adopt design principles from tools that PR professionals and journalists are most familiar with, said Sim. These include Microsoft Outlook, GMail, Facebook and Twitter, he said, all of which are distinguished by their ease-of-use.“We realised the best way to enable users to get maximum value from our solution was not to provide better training on our how to use our tools, rather it was better to provide simpler tools that don’t require any training,” Sim said.About MediaConnect AustraliaMediaConnect Australia is the most innovative provider of media intelligence solutions to the media and PR communities in Australia and New Zealand. The company's unique media and PR portals, which seek to help journalists and PR professionals work more effectively and productively, is the only end-to-end online media relations platform built for the Australian and New Zealand markets. On top of its world-leading platform, MediaConnect Australia provides media intelligence services including a media contacts database, editorial opportunities, media news and pitch tips, media monitoring services and news release distribution. MediaConnect Australia also operates its famous Forums, the Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards, MediaSavvy educational seminars and the PRWire.com.au website.ContactFor more information please contact:Philip Sim,CEO MediaConnect Australia (02) 9894 6277philip@mediaconnect.com.au

2010-04-19T07:18:00Z top-tech-journalists-honoured-at-annual-lizzies-awards

Sydney, 19 April 2010 - Last Friday night, close to 300 people attended the prestigious eighth annual Red Rock Consulting IT Journalism Awards held at Star City Casino. Guests included Australia's most respected technology media, IT executives, PR and communications professionals. The event is organised by MediaConnect Australia and supported by naming rights sponsor Red Rock Consulting as well as Watterson Communications, Sony and Symantec. The 'Gold Lizzies' for Best Journalist and Best Title were won by BRW's Jeanne-Vida Douglas and IT security podcast Risky Business respectively. "Jeanne-Vida Douglas from BRW polled the highest individual score of the night and she polled strongly as winner of Best Business Technology Journalist and was also a finalist for Best Technology Industry Journalist," said MediaConnect CEO Phil Sim. "Risky Business is a great example of excellence in niche media. Patrick Gray's podcast is regarded as one of the world's most authoritative IT security podcasts and it's been a roaring success in terms of attracting listeners and on a commercial basis." Other winners included CHOICE Computer for Best Magazine, The Australian for Best News Coverage, The Australian Financial Review for Best Technology Industry Coverage and Best Business Technology Coverage and CNET for Best Website. The ABC's Good Game won Best Video Program while Best Gaming Coverage went to Australian 360. Over 200 entries were submitted for judging in 21 categories. The Awards are judged by current IT journalists, former journalists or columnists. Twitter hashtag for the event was #lizzies which became a trending topic on http://trendsmap.com/local/au/sydney. The event was a triumph for female journalists. Jeanne-Vida Douglas was the first female to win the Best Journalist award, while Gamespot's Laura Parker was the first female Gaming Journalist of the Year. Alexandra Savvides was also the joint winner of the Best Reviewer category. Boyd PR's Shuna Boyd won the Best Media Relations category, a category for tech PRs judged by the IT media. Please see below for a full list of the winners. * Photos from the event http://tinyurl.com/y5yjo94 ITJournalism Awards for 2009 Winners: Best Title Risky Business Best Journalist Jeanne-Vida Douglas Best Magazine CHOICE Computer HC - PC Authority Best Website CNET Australia HC - CHOICE Best Audio Program Risky Business Best Video Program Good Game Best News Coverage The Australian HC - The Australian Financial Review Best Technology Industry Coverage The Australian Financial Review Best Business Technology Coverage The Australian Financial Review HC - BRW Best Personal Technology Coverage PC Authority HC - Lifehacker Best Gaming Coverage Australian 360 Best Technology Industry Journalist Ben Woodhead HC - Petroc Wilton John Costello Best Business Technology Journalist Jeanne-Vida Douglas HC - David Braue Helen Dancer Best Consumer Technology Journalist Asher Moses HC - Adam Turner Best Gaming Journalist Laura Parker HC - Cam Shea/Jeremy Ray Alicia Camphuisen Best New Journalist David Ramli HC - Laura Parker Cass Warneminde Best News Journalist Ry Crozier HC - Ben Woodhead/Asher Moses Best Columnist Alex Kidman HC - David Braue Best Reviewer John Davidson and Alexandra Savvides HC - Darren Yates Best Technical Journalist Darren Yates HC - Simon Sharwood/Angus Kidman David Hellaby Best Media Relations Shuna Boyd About Red Rock Consulting IT Journalism Awards The IT Journalism Awards are the pinnacle of achievement in technology journalism and enjoys outstanding support from the media, PR and IT industry communities. The event recognises excellence in IT media and journalism. The Awards are affectionately known as The Lizzies, in reference to the 'Lizards' nickname that has been adopted by the Australian IT media community. Red Rock Consulting took over as the naming rights sponsor this year. About MediaConnect MediaConnect's online tools and information services help to bridge the gap between journalists and PR professionals. Whether it be via PR and media portals or conferences, MediaConnect is helping companies to build more effective, meaningful media relations. Media Contact: Tamara Jawad MediaConnect Australia +61 2 9894 6277 tamara@mediaconnect.com.au t: @tamarajawad

2009-04-26T14:00:00Z mediaconnect-announces-upgrade-of-media-relations-platform

MediaConnect has launched a tightly-integrated Twitter client on its media and PR platform, as part of a raft of enhancements which collectively make up its Autumn software release. Twitter users can now receive their own Twitter messages and post to their Twitter account directly from the 'Updates portlet' which also streams though industry-specific messages about new updates and database changes. "MediaConnect's platform has long had support for allowing people to feed their own Twitter updates into the platform, but we're extending that support with full Twitter client functionality," said MediaConnect CEO Phil Sim. "MediaConnect continues to work towards our vision of allowing users to do as much as possible from a single, tightly-integrated interface and we'll continue to extend our support for new social media platforms like Twitter," Sim said. Another key Autumn upgrade has been dramatically improved performance, via support for Gears caching technology. When enabled, Gears will load the site's Javascript libraries from the user's PC resulting in the site loading in a matter of a seconds. Performance has also been improved across the site via extensive database optimisation and support for Microsoft's new IE8 browser will deliver faster page rendering for Explorer users. Another focus with recent upgrades that make up the Autumn release has been usability. Start pages on every module now present information in a simpler, easier to understand fashion with more obvious links to key functions. Numerous pages like the press release submit form have been re-designed for greater ease-of-use. "Speed and useability enhancements have been a major focus for us over the last quarter and we'll continue to use user feedback to refine the platform to ensure it is as simple and usable as we can make it," said Sim. The final major element of the Autumn release is MediaConnect's media monitoring module, which was released in BETA earlier this year and is due for an official launch next month. "Our focus with our media monitoring module is to reduce and even totally eliminate our client's administrative burden of producing media coverage reports. We've been beta testing our media monitoring service and module with a small number of clients and will be announcing our commercial launch next month," said Sim. More than a dozen minor new features and enhancements have also been rolled out over the past three months. MediaConnect's Winter release roadmap, which provides guidance for enhancements to be released over the second quarter will include: - The launch of client portals which will allow agencies to extend visibility of their activities and coverage to clients - The launch of a products module which will help journalists and agencies manage workflow related tasks to product reviews - Beta launch of a workflow module including tasks, timesheet and project management capabilities About MediaConnect Australia MediaConnect Australia is the most innovative provider of media intelligence solutions to the media and PR communities in Australia and New Zealand. The company's unique media and PR portals, which seek to help journalists and PR professionals work more effectively and productively, is the only end-to-end online media relations platform built for the Australian and New Zealand markets. On top of its world-leading platform, MediaConnect Australia provides media intelligence services including a media contacts database, editorial opportunities, media news and pitch tips, media monitoring services and news release distribution. MediaConnect Australia also operates its famous Forums, the Sun Microsystems IT Journalism Awards, MediaSavvy educational seminars and the PRWire.com.au website. Contact For more information please contact: Philip Sim, CEO MediaConnect Australia (02) 9894 6277 philip@mediaconnect.com.au Tamara Jawad, Sales & Marketing Manager (02) 9894 6277 tamara@mediaconnect.com.au

2009-03-12T18:40:00Z mediaconnect-launches-prwire-on-twitter

MediaConnect has announced the first Australian twitter press release wire, allowing Australian tech journalists and readers to consume press releases via their Twitter stream.The new Twitter stream is an extension of MediaConnect's PRWire service and can be followed at @prwiretech. MediaConnect's PRWire is currently in beta and open only to subscribers of MediaConnect's PR portal but will next month be opened up as a free service to all PR agencies and businesses who wish to use it to help distribute their press releases. MediaConnect will add additional Twitter streams under the PRWire banner in the coming months."I think Twitter is a great way to keep on top of the latest announcements," said MediaConnect CEO Phil Sim. "Instead of clogging up your inbox, regular Twitter users can receive press release headlines flowing through their Twitter stream and then click through to the PRWire website to view those that are of interest."MediaConnect's PRWire is focused on enabling journalists and other interested readers to receive press release updates in the manner that best suits their individual workflows. For example, MediaConnect's PRWire can be received via:1. Web - Users can visit www.prwire.com.au and see which press releases are "hot" based on a Digg-style interface that ranks releases on how often they are viewed;2. Email - Users can subscribe to a daily digest of press release headlines based on their precise interests;3. RSS feeds - Users can receive a customised PRWire feed in their RSS readers or any RSS-enabled widget or gadget;4. Twitter - Users can subscribe to PRWire's new Twitter streams;5. ITJourno portal - All PRWire press releases flow through the Update and Media Release portlets on MediaConnect's journalist portal;6. Search Engines - PRWire is indexed by Google News ensuring announcements can be tracked down by users hunting for relevant keywords."The way people consume information is fragmenting. Some people like email, some people like RSS readers, some people live on Twitter. We have a mission to make PRWire accessible by whatever medium the user prefers," said Sim.PR agencies and users wishing to be alerted when PRWire opens up beyond the MediaConnect subscriber base, can email prwire@mediaconnect.com.au to receive an invitation. The basic service will be free.Media ContactPhil SimCEO, MediaConnect Australiaphilip@mediaconnect.com.au(02) 9894 6277About MediaConnect AustraliaMediaConnect Australia is the most innovative provider of media intelligence services and tools to the Australian and New Zealand PR and media communities. The MediaConnect portals represent the world's only social network connecting journalists and PR professionals, integrated with an end-to-end suite of integrated tools. MediaConnect also hosts its famous MediaConnect Forums and media training seminars.