Blogging

I’ve been participating in an alpha test of a new social press release creation tool called PitchEngine (public beta coming soon). In the words of PitchEngine creator Jason Kintzler, “PitchEngine shakes up the PR industry making it possible for PR pros, brands, and agencies to build and share digital, social media releases with their contacts for free. Our PitchEngine SMR (social media release) takes the press release to the next level, eliminating the need for antiquated email attachments, word documents, image CDs, and more.”

Although the tool has a few minor glitches at this point (the number of characters permitted for subheads and the “quick pitch” is way too small, the feature for adding Resources and Related Links is touchy, and hyperlinks have to be recreated after cut-and-paste from Word), overall it’s very slick and easy to use. I created a social media release for version 10 of the Quick View Plus desktop file viewing utility (a VERY useful application BTW) from Avantstar, and other than a little manual effort on the links, the process was quick and easy. Reporting capabilities will be added soon.

PitchEngine provides an intuitive interface for creating the release; adding images, video and audio files; applying tags; and including social networking links for press contacts. It’s a slick tool that includes some nice touches, such as automatically creating a shortened URL for use with Twitter. You can keep with the latest developments on the PitchEngine blog.

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Original post:
PitchEngine Simplifies Social PR

Here’s a list of interesting and useful tools to help you convert files, find content, promote your blog, and add content to your website, among other activities.

File conversion tools

Still running Office 2003, but need to convert the new XML-based formats from Office 2007 so you can read and work with them? Zamzar offers a free online service to convert files with no need to download software. Microsoft also offers its own downloadable conversion utility, which I’ve found to be the easier option.

If you have more extensive file conversion requirements, such as the need to view AutoCad, Corel and other file types in addition to MS Office, Avantstar’s Quick View Plus an inexpensive utility to automatically view email attachments and other files from more than 250 formats. A free trial of the software is available here.

My Search Engines

Blogger David Berkowitz provides an excellent list of specialized search engines to help monitor buzz, find content within blogs, research websites, and find images, video clips and people. This is a “must bookmark” post for anyone conducting online research.

TypePad Widget Gallery

An extensive list of widgets that can be added to TypePad blogs to help promote content through sites like Bloglines, Digg and del.icio.us, as well as add cool features, collect email signups, embed a chat box, monitor traffic, create online polls and more.

Nabbit

Ever hear a song on the radio and wish you could “tag” it to learn more about the artist or possibly even download the song later? Or hear an ad that’s compelling but can’t stop to write down the phone number? Nabbit is a simple, free online utility that lets you easily “tag” songs and ads from your favorite radio station using your cell phone, then get the details later from a personalized web page. Very cool.

SitePal: Avatars and Animated Characters

A hosted service that enables you to add speaking animated avatars to any website. The company offers a free trial, and you can see an interesting application of the tool on the American TESOL website.

Firefox Extensions That Make Me A Better Marketer

Blogger Mitch Joel of Twist Image provides his short list of favorite Fire Fox plugins for tasks such as checking site popularity, downloading video and tagging content on del.icio.us.

10 Places to Find Free Images Online and Make Your Content More Linkable

Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal details sites where you can download images for use in blogs, websites and other applications, ranging from totally free to partially rights-protected.

Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)
Best of 2007: Website Design
Best of 2007: Blogging for Business
Best of 2007: Marketing Research
Best of 2007: Interactive PR
Best of 2007: SEO Copywriting
Best of 2007: Strategy and Branding
Best of 2007: Web Analytics
Best of 2007: Web 2.0 Sites

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Here is the original post:
Best of 2007: Cool Online Tools