As I stated in my last blog post, I am a tech geek. I am fascinated with learning about new start-up companies and social media tools. Here are a few new social media tools I have read about recently on my favorite tech news websites and have seen on my social media feeds.
Storify
Storify is a new interactive way to tell a story using social media. You can incorporate tweets, videos and pictures, which you search through the Storify website, into your story. You can also add a headline and text and publish your story by embedding it into your client’s website or sharing it through other social media sites.
The great thing about Storify is you can continue adding and removing content, even after it is published. In addition, you can notify those who were quoted in your story, helping your story go viral. Readers have the ability to comment on any photo or text in the story, which is different from the general article comment box.
Storify is a great tool to announce news about your clients, such as a new product or an event. It can be used during a communication crisis, as this is a great way to keep stakeholders, media outlets and your target audiences up-to-date via social media sites and through your client’s website with information. It also provides an avenue to answer questions.
Viddy and Socialcam
If you enjoy taking photos using Instagram, then you will enjoy these new mobile video apps. Viddy and Socialcam are similar to Instagram, except they allow users to take mobile videos, add visual effects and share them with family, friends and followers.
Viddy allows you to create and share a 15-second video clip and customize it with audio effects and camera filters. Currently, Viddy is only available to iPhone users, but the company is in the process of working on versions for Android, iPad and Windows Mobile. Socialcam is similar to Viddy, but there is no restriction on the length of the video clip. Socialcam is available for download on iPhone and Android platforms.
PinAlerts
With Pinterest gaining popularity, there is a new way to track your Pinterest boards and content being pinned off your website. PinAlerts is similar to Google Alerts in that you can create alerts for when someone pins content off your website. In addition, you can monitor your competitors to see who pins content from their sites. PinAlerts can be used to engage in conversation with and increase your followers, and it allows you to keep track of your content and reputation.
While these are a few tools that can be used for your campaigns, there are more tools being created daily. You can keep track of new social media tools through Beta List, a site that monitors new tech start-up companies and their technology, or by reading tech news on Techcrunch and Mashable.
What new social media apps or websites have you discovered for use by public relations professionals?
