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Tiny by Pitchengine
p/tiny-by-pitchengineThe next *big thing in PR is here.
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Eric Willis

Tiny Pitch - Compose a press release using only your email.

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An easy way to create and engaging pitch for you to share with your contacts and social networks. Add attachments, video and gifs.

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Jason Kintzler
Maker
@davidlidsky That's a battle I've been fighting since we launched pitchengine back in 2009. Trouble is, we're in a hybrid time. There are still too many old school hierarchies within large PR firms. They think it's 90% about great writing instead of making a genuine connection with a brand's audience and stakeholders (which includes journalists). I'll take a stellar text message over a well written lengthy press release. We're just trying to help make a bridge. Tiny Pitch is an experiment, but, at least I can sleep at night knowing I'm not offering the promise of wire distribution, SEO or some other smoke-and-mirrors. for yesteryear! Thanks for paying our *little app some attention though. It means a lot!
David Lidsky
@jasonkintzler very good. I wish you all the best while still burnishing my burgeoning reputation here on PH as the scourge of press-generating startups and products. Ha!
Jason Kintzler
Maker
@davidlidsky perfect ;)
Jae A Copeland
@jasonkintzler @davidlidsky Are there actually any Apps on here that do massive press release submissions FOR you? Like simple click and go.
Ryan Hoover
To create a tiny pitch page, simply email tiny@pitchengine.com with the text and an attachment of images. I'm curious what they're doing behind the scenes to create the page. They may be manually creating these pages. While the pages look good, reporters probably prefer the information to be communicated in the email. Asking them to navigate to another page (especially if it's a cold email) only introduces friction. Another example of an invisible interface, @BlendahTom and @kylebrussell.
Tom Masiero
@rrhoover just saw this after getting back from vacation. Love their focus on taking the friction points away from this process. Come to think of it that's what "invisible" apps do best. Don't you think?
Derek Skaletsky
I actually love this. I've known @jasonkintzler for a while and have always loved what he was doing to push the interaction between brands & journalists. The real power of TinyPitch to me is how the journalists can have all their stuff sent to their own #hashtag (explained more here: http://tiny.pr/7sfNRZfG)...To @rrhoover's point, they're working on the digest email that will summarized pitches as we speak...
Camille Ricketts
Top Product
As someone who has worked as both a reporter and in PR, I'm not too sure about this idea. The finished products are beautiful, but as a PR person, you probably have a bunch of other moving parts going on around an announcement, and you'll still want to put something out on the wire where traditional media will see it. As a journalist, you just want the facts presented as clearly as possible. No bells and whistles required. Just some thoughts.
David Lidsky
Sure @eriktorenberg, I'll take the bait. ;-) If you're sending me a press release, you've already lost. The one thing I do to eliminate noise in my inbox is immediately reject anything that's not addressed to me (Dear David) or looks like a press release below a cursory attempt at personalization. There are times when I might go back and read releases if I'm already working on something and looking for what news a company has announced recently. In that case, I could see how it would be nice to have something that wasn't as gray and foreboding as PRNewswire fare, but that's not the goal here. I agree with @rrhoover that it seems like this just creates friction for the intended recipients.
Tiffany Zhong
@davidlidsky I do the same as you, where I immediately archive any emails that aren't directly addressed to me and/or have an awful subject line (all caps, super long, etc).
Jason Kintzler
Maker
Email @davidlidsky @rrhoover is the easy answer. Of course we'll have an email formatted version, but that's making a big assumption - that this is aimed squarely at journalists. Yes, TNW's piece implies that, but there's much more at play when you're talking PR for the modern web. We're ripping up a word doc PR culture and distilling it down to a clean, little smart bomb that's dressed for almost every party - social, email or your blog. We do have a neat little vision for journalists (http://tiny.pr/7sfNRZfG), but, as you all know, the world of influence isn't quite so linear anymore. It's an experiment aimed at the next generation of mobile communicators.
David Lidsky
@jasonkintzler I see the value in a better, more appealing format for press releases. And you're right: It's certainly not all about me (or any journalist). But I would argue that continuing to think of them as "press releases" inhibits the creativity you're hoping to engender. Forgive me for referring to "content," but if companies want to participate in the world directly that way, better to adopt the forms of blogging, Twitter, Snapchat Stories, etc than reformulate an antiquated format and make it a bit more appealing. On the journalist thing, clever, but I would worry about who else was hashtagged on a release, and it would almost certainly affect my interest if my competitors were on it. I also don't think folks would have any restraint in not emptying out their contacts database, but as hashtags.
Sam Biddle
As a reporter, I can tell you this isn't the way to get our attention. Flashier pitches aren't better pitches.
Jason Kintzler
Maker
Don't make the mistake of assuming PR is just about journalists. If you're a journalist, and people are pitching you - be grateful. Today, audiences are attainable for almost any brand. Creating great content isn't just about trying to engage journalists anymore...it's about reaching people who love what you make/do/sell. Let them do the evangelizing for you!
Aaron Hanson
@jasonkintzler good stuff and dead simple! I wonder if there is potential opportunity with a side project I am working on to help startups get listed on directories. Message me at aaron [at] startuplister.com if you'd like to chat.