Archive for Baltimore
There’s a Group For That
Posted by: | CommentsWith more than 185,000 apps to consider for your iPhone (or Android), we’re well into the stage where word of mouth is key to discovering what to download. One way to trade stories about devices and apps is through a new group in the Baltimore area called BUMPA (Baltimore Users of Mobile Products by Apple/Android). At their inaugural meeting at the Hunt Valley Wegman’s Thursday morning, founder Bruce R. Marshall and attendees demonstrated some of the more interesting apps, presented here courtesy of the PR Buzzsaw:
Bump – This app makes sharing contact info with people quick and easy. If you have the app, just hold your phones and gently bump hands with another person using Bump, and voila, the bumper’s information instantly appears in your contacts. You can share photos and contacts, compare friends, or become Facebook friends in seconds. Wild. [Free]
Fluent News Reader – Fluent aggregates news sources into a single, intelligently organized, fully customizable mobile newspaper. It allows you to create up to three of your own custom sections based on keyword searches. The New York Times and CNET both named Fluent News “App of the Week.” [Free]
Red Laser – This one allows your iPhone to scan a bar code (you could be holding a product at a store) and then it instantly displays alternative places to purchase the same item – online as well as other stores – and the related prices. As they say, it allows you to “shop smarter.” [Free]
Wolfram Alpha – Called the world’s first “computational knowledge engine,” it’s a service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer, the way a search engine would. [$1.99]
Dragon Dictation – An easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to speak into your device and instantly have your words appear in the form of a text or email message that you can save or send. [Free]
Weather Bug – Receive live weather conditions, forecast, radar, weather cameras and daily video outlook in this Web 2.0-style application designed for the iPhone. 
[Free]
shoot it! – This app enables you to send a real, photo postcard to anyone in the world directly from your mobile device. Your personalized postcard will be delivered in just days. Just take the pic and click on the app to have it sent! [App is free, as is first post card; then it's 99-cents per postcard]
The BUMPA group plans to meet on a regular basis, so if you want to connect with other iPhone and Android aficionados, make sure you’re on the list by liking BUMPA on Facebook and visiting www.bumpa.org or www.bumpa.net. In the meantime, what’s your can’t-live-without app?
‘Social Media Road Show’ – Links from My SMEI Presentation in Baltimore This Morning
Posted by: | CommentsHere are links to some of the Web sites and resources I mentioned this morning during the 2009 SMEI Conference and ”Social Media Road Show” in Baltimore. These are good, basic social media and PR tools to get started, and everything listed here is free.
For those of you who were not there, I covered some of the latest thinking in Twitter and PR before a national audience at a conference of the Sales and Marketing Executives International. 
Have anything else to share? Leave a comment!
There are a number of directories to find Twitter followers. A good place to start is Wefollow, where you can search by topics such as ”Celebrity” or “Social Media” or “Baltimore.”
Looking for a dashboard that allows you to better manage your Twitter follows and set up searches for key terms or competitors’ names? Try Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.
To follow the media on Twitter, try this great compilation of national journalists by Jeremy Porter. Interested in Baltimore? Click on our ”Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter” link on the right.
Want to engage in a weekly Twitter conversation involving journalists, bloggers and PR professionals? Check out #journchat every Monday 
from 7 to 10 p.m., CST.
PitchEngine is a social media news release builder that enables PR pros to effectively package stories and share them with journalists, bloggers, and influencers worldwide via the social web.
Sign up for HARO to receive free daily summaries from media seeking sources for news stories in development. For urgent source needs, follow the companion Twitter account, @HelpAReporter. You can also follow Profnet on Twitter for leads.
And 10 people in PR and social media worth following on Twitter? Love ‘em or not, here’s a variety pack to get your own list going (in no particular order): Scott Monty, Jason Falls, Todd Defren, Geoff Livingston, Amanda Chapel, Chris Brogan, Shel Holtz, Annie Heckenberger, Bill Sledzik and Katie Paine. [Update - here's a great list of 100 PR people to follow, compiled by Valeria Maltoni.]
[Photo, above right, shows my view from the SMEI panelists' table as Gus Sentementes, technology reporter with The Baltimore Sun, makes a point while Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory (center), and Steve Kruskamp, head of social media for 1st Mariner Bank, wait for the mike.]
