Last month, we announced that ProfNet Connect had won the 2011 Web Marketing Association’s WebAward for Outstanding Achievement in Web Development.

This month, we’re excited to announce that ProfNet Connect has won another award -- the 2011 Internet Marketing Association Award!

ProfNet Connect, an online community where PR practitioners, experts and media professionals can connect and share industry knowledge, was awarded Best Website: Overall Content by IMA. With more than 150 contributed blogs each week from experts in a variety of industries, it’s not hard to see why.

Take a look at our Blogs section to see for yourself. You’ll find blog posts on a variety of topics, from the science of press releases, diversity in the PR industry and how social media changed branding, to tips for landing your first PR job after college, how to get the attention of travel editors, and many, many more.

We’d also like to congratulate our colleagues at PR Newswire’s Twitter account, @prnewswire, for winning IMA’s Best Twitter: Tweet Consistency award. Victoria Harres and her @prnewswire team were recognized for engaging with followers on industry topics in a way that is consistently approachable, knowledgeable, attentive and responsive. Congratulations, Vicky, Tom, Christine and Brett!

And thank you to every one of you who has contributed, and continues to contribute, your industry knowledge via blogs on ProfNet Connect. It is because of you that the network has been such a success!

I’m working on a tips piece for journalists on best practices for using ProfNet to find expert sources. If you’ve successfully used ProfNet to find experts, I would love to hear your tips for other journalists who have not yet used the service or have not been as successful in finding sources. For example:

• How far in advance of your deadline do you send in your queries?
• Do you cloak, or do you include the publication/outlet name in the query?
• How specific are you about the expertise you need?
• Have you used ProfNet Connect to search for experts? If so, do you have any tips on searching through and choosing experts to contact directly?
• Do you subscribe to Expert Alerts? If so, what subjects are you subscribed to and how do you decide which ones interest you?

If you have any tips you’d like to share with other journalists on how to use ProfNet to find experts, I’d love to hear from you. You may remain anonymous, if you prefer.

Please email me at maria.perez@profnet.com with any tips you’d like to share.

Thank you!

One of the first rules of Twitter is: Be generous to your fellow tweeters. If you see something interesting or informative, retweet it (with proper credit, of course).

But for those of us who are a little (ahem) anal retentive, that can cause a conundrum: To edit or not to edit?

Let's face it, not everyone pays a great deal of attention to grammar or punctuation on Twitter. I'm never sure whether it's appropriate to make corrections when I'm retweeting. On one hand, it's their tweet, their voice, and all I'm doing is forwarding it along. On the other hand, if I retweet a glaring error, a tiny little part of my heart breaks. (I know, it's pathetic. Welcome to my brain.)

Where do you stand on this issue? Do you correct grammar on retweets? Or do you leave them alone, knowing others will understand it's not your error?

Options:

• Yes, always. Even though it's a RT, I can't tweet something with an error in it.

• Sometimes, but only for the most egregious errors.

• No, never. It's their voice; I'm just retweeting.

Please feel free to elaborate in the comments below. Thanks!

If you haven’t checked out the Blogs section of ProfNet Connect lately, you’re missing out on some really great posts. Here’s a link to some of last week’s most popular blog posts:

• In “Five Tips for Effective Live Tweeting and Keeping Your Followers,” InkHouse Marketing’s Laura Paine Maas shares a few live-tweeting best practices.

• In her weekly answer column, “Dear Gracie,” ProfNet Editor Grace Lavigne enlists the help of experts from the ProfNet Connect community to answer questions from readers. In last week’s post, five PR experts addressed the topic of “Managing the Client-Agent Relationship.”

• In “Six PR Starter Tips, Care of the MBTA,” Sarah Cunningham, an account coordinator with InkHouse Marketing, shares tips for PR newbies that she has learned through her experiences with her MBTA bus rides.

• In his weekly roundup of interesting PR/media-related stories online, ProfNet Editor Jason Hahn shares links to stories on “Media Coverage of Occupy Wall Street, The Relevancy of Traditional PR and the Dangers of Word Clouds.”

• In “The Art of Pitching the Media,” InkHouse Marketing’s Beth Monaghan shares her advice for crafting a pitch that will get the media to pay attention.

• Each week, we spotlight an interesting expert from within the ProfNet Connect community. Last week’s spotlight, “Interesting Expert of the Week, Fraud Edition,” featured Linda Webb, aka The Fraud Dog.

• Diane Harrigan, account manager for PR Newswire, shared some tips for “Making it on Mashable: Calling Guest Writers with Great Ideas.”

• In “A Brief Blog Profile: Mobile Cuisine,” Thomas Hynes tells us about the website dedicated to bringing us info on “every must-read street food, food truck, food cart and food stand story bubbling up across the Internet.”

What were some of your favorite blog posts this week? Which ones did you find most helpful, interesting?

In an effort to better understand the needs and goals of the ProfNet Connect community, we are posting a series of quick polls. Each poll will contain 2-3 questions each, and will cover basic demographic information, as well as how users participate in the community and what they hope to achieve from their participation.

The first two questions covered demographic information: age and education level.

Today’s questions focus on income and career priorities. Please take a quick moment to complete the polls:

Question: What is your annual income level? Reply here.

Question: When choosing a job, what is your most important priority? Reply here.