Jason Kintzler created a new site devoted to the building and distribution of social media releases (SMR). It is private now, in the Alpha development stage, but he shared access to the site with all the members of PROpenMic. Many thanks, Jason.
I imagine he’s slowly adding to his alpha testing group. Who knows how many have looked at it so far, but with the PROpenMic membership and his own group at MediaPitch / PitchEngine, Jason now has almost 2,000 people to poke and prod the site in an effort to help tweak and and share suggestions.
Jason describes PitchEngine, in part, as follows:
PitchEngine is more than new tools for PR, it’s an entirely new approach to craft. It’s taking what we’ve learned from decades of traditional methods and stepping up our game to participate and succeed in a new media ‘sphere – where the conversation is as important as the message. From the PitchEngine Network to the feedback from our users, we’re listening and committed to connecting PR and media in new and innovative ways. It’s not about distribution or tricks and tactics either. For us, it’s about meeting the actual needs of PR and media worldwide.
Jason has plans for more. He promises the offer of a custom media newsroom option and more. The site already offers a blog and social network to complement his PitchEngineTM SMR tool.
There are two other sites we may use for comparison with regard to SMR building tools. They are Shannon Whitley’s PRXBuilder and Edelman’s StoryCrafter. We’ve used both of these sites in class.
Those two examples approached the process from different perspectives. Edelman, first and foremost, was experimenting. Their focus would be to provide such a service for their clients, for instance. Shannon, also experimenting, came at it from the perspective of a service provider. His social media release builder already has a tie-in with PRNewswire. You can deliver your releases through their newswire after creating it on Shannon’s SMR building tool. He also offers a WordPress plugin for creating SMRs.
Perhaps Jason seeks to provide the same kinds of services. First up on Jason’s list of offerings, after this release building tool, seems to be the opportunity to create those social media newsrooms. I’m betting there is a market for them, especially if they can be mapped to a domain.
Certainly, within the various newswire company sites – PR Newswire, Marketwire, Business Wire, PRWeb and a bevy of other smaller offerings – you may include a variety of links, multimedia and sharing/RSS functions. They all seem to vary in their depth, breadth and GUI user experience.
I’ve created a screen capture video of the PitchEngine SMR building process. It is in two parts and runs about 10 minutes. The video takes you through the various functions of the site.
Find more videos like this on PROpenMic
Find more videos like this on PROpenMic
Related links: PRX Builder, Shannon Whitley’s excellent site, PRX Builder’s New WordPress Plugin, Micro Persuasion: Edelman StoryCrafter Video Demo, » Steve Rubel on StoryCrafter @ sixtysecondview, Edelman StoryCrafter slideshow, StoryCrafter by Edelman :: My Take | infOpinions?, Edelman release announcing StoryCrafter.
Burying the lead, here. 
The best part about all of this? One more way to get students to pay attention and, in the end, really have them practicing writing.
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