Wanna See What "The Media Pitch 2.0" Looks Like?
I've written before (here and here) about how PR pros could use a combination of del.icio.us and RSS to keep reporters in-the-loop, in a highly contextual way, about clients' news and views on industry events.
But sometimes, once you've got a reporter's interest, you really want to guide them down a trail. You want to sculpt their research. You can see the final story, fully-realized, in your own head: you just know that if you could get the reporter to see things the way you do, they would get really jazzed.
But to do so today is next-to-impossible: your toadying help is just not that welcome; the reporter can do their own research, thank-you-very-much.
But what if you could make it really, really easy? What if you could simply point the reporter down a trail, knowing that your efforts to construct a story for them will be fully understood (and maybe even appreciated)?
That day is dawning, thanks to new 2.0 services like Trailfire. Check out this trail, a demo I put together for this blog post, that explains how the Social Media News Release came to be. After you've checked it out, extrapolate how you might use this kind of service to communicate with the media on behalf of your own clients.
Pretty cool, eh?
NOTE: the Trailfire service is still in beta, so please be patient if you discover any glitches.
HAT-TIP: to Scott Monty of the Social Media Marketing Blog.
Tags: trailfire, social+media+news+release, public+relations, pr, pr+2.0
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Comments
This is outstanding. I can not only see a use for this tool as you suggest, for media, but for colleagues, too. Whenever I want to construct a story for a colleague to educate them on something social media, I have to piece together several web sites/blog posts, etc., into an email. Now I can simply create a Trailfire. I love it.
Posted by: Jeff Risley | September 18, 2006 10:07 PM
neat tool, I already have some ideas for it.
Posted by: Kami Huyse | September 18, 2006 10:38 PM
Todd, very cool...I was looking at Trexy for something like this as well. I think it all nets down to providing a solid, yet targetd, foundation without too much focus, at least to get reporters started...without holding their hand down a particular path. Let's keep trail blazing the path for new, and improved PR! Good one Todd.
Posted by: Brian Solis | September 18, 2006 11:30 PM
Glad you guys like it. It is pretty darned cool, I agree.
Really, we're just 10 years in to the Web stuff. 10 years after Gutenberg's printing press, I doubt its influence had reached all-that-far outside of Germany. But 20, 50, 100, 200 years later, it had transformed civilization.
I wonder what our grandkids will be able to do...
Posted by: Todd Defren | September 19, 2006 09:37 AM
Wow.
This tool is awesome. I can't wait to play with it.
I agree with the above. It's usefulness, I think, will go very far.
Imagine a TrailFire on the story of how Strumpette got created and popular.
Imagine a TrailFire on the debate about accreditation in PR.
Where has this been all my life?
Posted by: Owen Lystrup | September 20, 2006 01:49 AM
This a fantastic way to aggregate a variety of new tools into one space. I can see this being used for demonstrating the evolution of an online PR, word-of-mouth or viral campaign to a client.
Posted by: David Jones | September 21, 2006 10:21 AM
I am now officially in love with Trailfire - thanks for the demo, Todd! (I was actually checking out the site today and was about to dismiss the tool b/c they were not nearly as effective in conveying the value as you were here.)
Your trail just enabled me to uncheck about 5 'keep new' posts in my bloglines (yes, including this one...).
Posted by: JesseCiccone | September 27, 2006 04:30 PM