PR 2.0 Tools & Resources

When I returned from the PRSA Conference in Detroit, the first thing I said to my PR account managers was, “There are so many incredible PR 2.0 tools and we don’t know half of them.  Let’s get out there to see what we can use for our own company and what would work for our clients.”  My directive has caused a flurry of demos and meetings with several PR service providers. Some of them we currently use, and they are discussing their updated services and others are completely new to us.  My PR managers definitely took me seriously as we are now re-evaluating all of our licenses and current contracts.

According to my PR managers, today’ top two PR 2.0 tools are PitchEngine, which is a social networking site that connects PR professionals, bloggers and journalists and MyMediaInfo.com, a comprehensive new media database with hundreds of thousands of media contacts/new influencers as well as additional PR tools including editorial calendars and outlet profiles.

I asked Jacqueline what she thought about PitchEngine and here’s what she said:

“It is a well known fact that more and more people are heading to the Internet for news, current events and other types of information. PitchEngine is one of the companies in the marketplace today that is contributing to the next stage of the PR 2.0 evolution. Incorporating features and capabilities that enhance traditional PR methods and building relationships with other news sites such as Google News, PitchEngine is revolutionizing the news release.”

“PitchEngine provides PR and media pros with the ability to upload images, videos, and audio directly into a news release in addition to sharing and bookmarking features, providing the end user with an interactive news experience, increasing retention and conversions.  We are living in an era where customers want to feel engaged and PitchEngine provides that tenfold.”

Candace reviewed MyMediaInfo and here’s her take on the service:

“My team recently participated in a demo with media database provider, MyMediaInfo.  After the demo, they walked into my office smiling and proceeded to talk about all the great things MyMediaInfo offers.  Primarily, they couldn’t believe how easy and quick it was to a build a targeted media list where you didn’t have to go through different pages for each step in the list-building process.  And it’s NOT case sensitive like the media database provider that we’ve been using for more than 10 years.  That in itself shaves time off searching for media outlets.  It’s exciting to learn how these cutting-edge technologies consistently evolve to give us faster ways to access the info we need on a daily basis.”

I think these PR service providers deserve two thumbs up from the reviewers!