‘Social Media Road Show’ – Links from My SMEI Presentation in Baltimore This Morning

Here 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.]