What is Watson?
Could this be the real future of “semantic search” ?
Sweet commercial by Toshiba. Head over to Huffington Post for another video of how the commercial was made.
Doing your own PR? One of the first things you’ve probably been told is to “know the reporter you’re pitching,” – and if so, you’re listening to the right people. Of course, this goes a lot further than simply knowing someone’s “beat” as defined in some database. You’ll want to actually read what they’ve written lately. But what do you do if you’re not already familiar with a writer or the media landscape you’re working in; or need to research a writer who writes for a number of different outlets? If you’re a do-it-yourselfer, you likely don’t have the budget to pay for expensive research tools that we use in an agency environment. But the truth is, there are plenty of low, or no-cost ways to do some basic research on the writer(s) you’re after. In the end, taking the time to know writers and what they’re writing about *right now* (and armed with this information, pitching a story angle that works for them) will mean the difference between getting clips for your company or being ignored (or worse) by the media.
Use Google “Byline” search to find a chronological, up-to-the-minute index of articles written by an author.
On either Google News or Google Blog Search , search for:
Author:”Author Name Here”
Inserting the reporter’s name in the quotes, as you can see below.
As usual with Google search results, there are some toggles on the left you can apply – Sorted by Relevance, Sorted by Date, and some options for recency. Now it is just up to you to go read, and get to know, the writer you plan on pitching. And after doing so, ask yourself, “would this reporter really be interested in our story?”. If the answer is no, figure out a way to craft the story in a different way that seems more appropriate for the writer in question. Having trouble? Drop me a line at timothy.williams@dimepr.com with your pitch and the name of the writer. If I’m not too busy, I’ll try to help. If I am too busy, I’ll let you know. Either way I won’t ask you for a penny. Why, you ask? Because bad, poorly-planned pitches are bad for all of us, and for the industry as a whole.
Don’t Know Who to Pitch?
Check out PR MatchPoint, a relatively new service which matches your pitch to journalists based on relevance to stories they’ve recently written. This is a far better method of finding unfamiliar writers to pitch your story to than simply creating lists based on “beats” from the big database suppliers. It is also extremely affordable even for do-it-yourselfers – the service costs just $75/month on a credit card, and there is no contract involved.
As many of you who may use Posterous are probably aware, Posterous does not currently allow the use of Javascript within its themes. This has been preventing me from installing one of my favorite blog widgets, gooseGrade, since I started using Posterous late last year.
Luckily, the good folks at gooseGrade (soon to be rebranded as Editz.com) now have a solution for those who want to use their widget on Posterous blogs – or any other platform that doesn’t allow Javascript – and it is incredibly easy to use. Simply place the following in your template where you would like gooseGrade’s “Copy Edit” button to appear, and you’re all set:
Look Ma, No JavaScript!
(Insert your gooseGrade site ID where indicated in the source above)
As you’ll notice, there is zero Javascript here, meaning it will work just fine on Posterous or anywhere else (at least I suspect) that Javascript is off-limits.
I’m not sure how they accomplish (ok, yes I do, but that’s not the point) all of this Web 2.0-beautifulness without having to use Javascript (or any scripting language) embedded in my site, but its super slick – try it out yourself by clicking my new “Copy Edit” button which should appear to the right of this post!
So, hats off to the guys at gooseGrade for finally bringing crowdsourced copy editing to Posterous – a place it is surely needed as so many posts here are made while on the go. From now on, should you find any typos, errors, or other various embarrassments in any of my posts here – please click that handy Copy Edit button and let me know about them. Thanks in advance.
PS – For those who would like to “play” with that Copy Edit button, consider this a sandbox post (I’ll ignore any edits sent to this page). Enjoy!
Disclosure: gooseGrade.com / Editz.com is a current client of DIME PR.
TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. According to TinEye, it is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. TinEye says they are currently indexing only a small percentage of the images on the web right now – about 500 million – but has plans to expand their index soon. I don’t think I have to tell you that TinEye’s service could be very useful.
The technology behind TinEye is not unlike that employed by Anvato which allows IP owners to reverse search the web for their own videos. Like TinEye, Anvato “views” videos the way the human eye does, without relying on keywords, watermarks, or metadata embedded in videos.
Disclosure: Anvato is a client of DIME PR.
I've got a feeling today will be a historic day in tech. Apple's Tablet will be more than just a new formfactor and UI, but I think it is going to play an important role for content creators, publishers, periodicals, and news organizations. And while filling out Apple's product lineup, may be just enough to finally get PC users such as myself to "Appleize" their digital lives. The idea of a Macbook Pro, a Tablet, and an iPhone all working together seamlessly as my virtual "go-anywhere" office platform is beginning to sound very appealing - even as I have always been adverse to Apple's closed hardware and software.
I sure hope Apple offers a direct-to-consumer version of the Tablet with its 3G unlocked, and then does the same with the iPhone soon after.
Timothy Williams is Founder and CEO of DIME Public Relations (www.DIMEpr.com) a national boutique, mixed media PR firm specializing in technology, men's consumer/lifestyle, authors/personalities, and issues & causes.
Originally from the mid-west United States, Williams has called the Central American paradise of Costa Rica his full-time home since 2003. DIME PR maintains offices in Los Angeles and Costa Rica in addition to support staff in various locations throughout the US.
Tim's Official Bio:
http://www.DIMEpr.com/timbio.html
DIME PR homepage:
http://www.DIMEpr.com
Timothy Williams on Facebook:
http://www.Facebook.com/DIMEpr
Call me: 1-818-322-4858
The views expressed on this site are solely my own and are not necessarily those of our clients or partners.
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