Voting for “The Best of PRWeb” Opens to PRWeb Community

Judges Narrow the 10 Most Read News Releases of 2009 Down to the Top 3

Lanham, MD (PRWEB) December 2, 2009

PRWeb, the online news distribution service of Vocus (NASDAQ: VOCS) today announced the three top online news releases of 2009 – the second step in a three-phase process to determine the #1 news release on PRWeb for 2009. PRWeb identified the 10 most read news releases and then a panel of six judges narrowed the list by voting for the three news releases they deemed the best. PRWeb is now inviting its community and the larger public to cast their vote to determine the #1 spot.

The top three news releases include those submitted by Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, OpenOffice.org and the NEoWave Institute. To view the top releases and to vote on the #1 news release, please visit PRWeb’s contest page here:

http://www.prweb.com/pr/best-online-news-releases-2009.html

No decision criteria was given to the judges, rather the well-rounded panel, that includes PR, blogging, SEO, online marketing and small business experts, voted for the three best news releases based on their own judgment. However, the results were determined through an online polling system and those selected present a consensus view.

Judges were also asked to comment on why they selected a given release. For example, Lee Odden, the founder and CEO of the social media SEO agency TopRank Online Marketing, noted that that the news release by Better Homes and Gardens Magazine made effective use of social media and search optimization.

“The key words in the title and body copy, use of anchor text links pointing to landing pages, excellent photo and video of the product make this release both attractive and engaging for readers,” said Odden. “It’s also impressive that the landing page ranks #3 in Google for the key search term ‘Halloween Pumpkin Carving’.”

Janet Meiners Thaeler, author of “I need a Killer Press Release, Now What?!?” agreed. “The use of video adds value and overall the release is multimedia and content rich. However, they didn't over emphasize the brand, but led with a story.”

NEoWave’s release captured the judges’ attention for its newsworthiness and timing.

“They took a timely topic and used that to promote their tracking and trading services,” explained Amy Mauzy, public relations manager for Malibu Boats. “I think this was a well-written release and extremely repeatable on the retail and media level.”

“I admired the bold statement and shock-value of NEoWave's news release, which is backed up with a solid history of market analysis from financial "rock star," Glenn Neely,” added Heather Allard of the The Mogul Mom.

Mihaela Lica, a senior partner at Pamil Visions PR, cited timing and news hooks for OpenOffice.org’s news release, as did Denis Hiller, a Silicon Valley-based PR professional and publisher of a weekly PR newsletter.

“OpenOffice.org set the standard for what a press release should achieve,” said Hiller. “The release communicates the product's global reach, has a clear call to action, and conveys all the necessary information in the first paragraph.”

The judges’ decision sets the stage for open voting on the #1 online news release of 2009. Members of the PRWeb community and all interested parties are encouraged to cast their vote online.

About PRWeb
PRWeb is recognized as a leading online news and press release distribution service worldwide. Since 1997, PRWeb has been changing the way businesses, marketing departments and public relations firms think about press releases. PRWeb was the first company to develop a distribution strategy around direct-to-consumer communication and to build and offer a platform for search engine optimized press release distribution. PRWeb is an online news distribution service of Vocus, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand public relations management software. For more information, go to http://www.prweb.com.

About Vocus
Vocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: VOCS) is a leading provider of on-demand software for public relations management. Our web-based software suite helps organizations of all sizes to fundamentally change the way they communicate with both the media and the public, optimizing their public relations and increasing their ability to measure its impact. Our on-demand software addresses the critical functions of public relations including media relations, news distribution and news monitoring. We deliver our solutions over the Internet using a secure, scalable application and system architecture, which allows our customers to eliminate expensive up-front hardware and software costs and to quickly deploy and adopt our on-demand software. Vocus is used by more than 4,000 organizations worldwide and is available in seven languages. Vocus is based in Lanham, MD with offices in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit http://www.vocus.com or call (800) 345-5572.

This release contains "forward-looking" statements that are made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These are statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as "may," "will," "expects," "projects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "intends," "plans," "should," "seeks," and similar expressions. This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to, among other things, Vocus’ expectations and assumptions concerning future financial performance. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual future results to differ materially from those projected or contemplated in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may be significantly impacted by certain risks and uncertainties described in Vocus' filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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