Posts Tagged ‘help a reporter out’

Everyone would love to find the next big viral event to promote their business or service. Several that are going on now on the internet are interesting, successful and some just qualify as cute.

The video above goes into the cute category, but I sent it to six friends and one can’t help but wonder how many they will send their own version of this to. Classic viral.

The other that is having major impact today is the global effort to promote Help a Reporter Out, a free service started by Peter Shankman to connect journalists and sources. The service has taken off with marketing staffers, journalists from diverse media, pr pros, and small business owners who want to do a better job of getting PR. Shankman asked everyone to set their status on their social networking sites to,

“Get Sourced. Get Quoted. Get Famous: www.helpareporter.com – Putting Journalists and Sources together, one quote at a time.”

and it’s working. As of 10:30 a.m. today, Summize for Twitter had 9 pages of tweets of those who’d tweeted with that message.

Social networking is not new. It’s been going on forever, some in the past called it, “gabbing over the fence,” “the water cooler” or “gossip.” I call it good sense.

Today has been one of those days when you feel that you take two steps forward and one back. As I have been working this morning, I have encountered tiny gremlins who have nibbled away at my patience and frustrated me until have felt like a volcano about to explode. The network has turned into a notwork. However, now it seems that all the gremlins are gone and I am able to talk to the outside world and my server. How I love that connectivity.

Kudos to Peter Shankman and Help a Reporter Out. I have quickly found that this is the best public relations connection! I’ve already helped colleagues get in touch with reporters and have also been interviewed as well. Thank you, Peter!

Years ago, it was all about who you knew. Today it’s still about connectivity. We just have new technology to connect us all. Gotta love that Linkedin and Facebook and MySpace.

Peter Shankman has a good idea. He started a group on Facebook “If I can help a reporter out” that out grew Facebook and has gone to the internet. It’s a simple idea really, publicists are frequently charged by our clients to gain them press. We in turn create story ideas which we pitch to reporters. Reporters are charged by their editors to write stories. Stories are better with first hand accounts and supportive information. But how is a reporter in Rochester to get to Ray in Reno? It used to be through large syndicated services. But social networking has triumphed and now we have Peter Shankman who is connecting the dots.

Shankman begins his thrice daily e-mails with humor or insight into his schedule. Then gets down to the business of relaying queries from reporters. I’ve already found a couple that I’ve forwarded to colleagues who can reply to the queries.

So, I’m inviting all the rest of you to join the group. I know, that if I can help a reporter out I will!