Text messaging has many business advantages, and unlike Trix, texting is not just for kids.

The only frustrating thing I think we can all attest to however, is that most of the time, texting isn’t the fastest form of communication, even these days with shortcuts or mini qwerty keyboards – especially when we’re driving. What? Texting while driving? Come on, you know you do it too…

OK, so to communicate faster, and do our part to keep the roads safe, new voice applications are starting to hit the mobile market. That’s right, say the name, your message, and hit send. That’s the promise anyway, and some companies are actually worth trying today.

For example, Nuance’s Dragon Mobile offer the most sophisticated application on the market, but I’m waiting until I can experience it with the iPhone until I can comment on the experience. SpinVox is also worth a look at as well. It converts voice messages, from any phone, to any screen: making messaging natural and accessible for everyone. SpinVox Voice-to-Screen Messaging converts your voice into text-based messages for use voice-to-text memos, voicemails, group communications, and also blog posts. I’ve signed up for this service (although the process doesn’t mention anything about the iPhone or AT&T; as a service provider, so we’ll see.)

Today I stumbled upon an interesting free service and decided to give it a try.

Pinger lets you send text messages using your voice, to anyone in your contact list. Yes, it’s that easy, but it does require a small time investment upfront before you can send your first voice text. When you register, you receive a dedicated phone number for calling in your texts. Also, your Pinger profile is the main hub for managing your contacts. Pinger does make it easy to import your address books and is compatible with Yahoo, Gmail, Palm, Outlook, Hotmail, .Mac among others.

First, let’s talk about what Pinger isn’t. I say this, because some of the marketing material I reviewed left me with a different impression…you can say a contact name, vocalize your message, and then have your words automatically converted to text so that your friends see a regular text message from you. For example, if you use Guy Kawasaki’s Truemor’s phone-in service, the software converts your words into text to post directly in the Truemors comment river. I believe this capability is enabled through SpinVox.

Instead, with Pinger you say a name, verbalize your text, and then your friends receive a text from Pinger that lets them know they have a new voice message from you. But, they have to dial the number in the text box to hear it. And, they can’t reply to it via text…for example, “10x, got ur msg.” But, then can reply via voice over SMS…which is cool, but it really starts to mimic voice mail tag in some ways.

So, once you understand how the process works, you may or may not find Pinger ideal for one-to-one text messaging. If you look a bit deeper into the service capabilities though, you’ll discover a powerful feature for enabling one-to-many communications. Pinger Groups allows you to record one message and have it sent to an entire group of people instantly.

Now this is cool.

You can easily create groups in your account at Pinger.com. For example, I can create a group of my top blogger and press contacts who prefer early or breaking news announcements via text to let them know that something is about to drop. Please note, I prefer direct communications and relationships with important contacts. I am not condoning or promoting spam blasts here, nor should you.

When I travel to events, meetings, briefings, etc., I can use client specific Pinger groups to update everyone on the latest activity, simultaneously.

I can also create various lists of chapters and organizations that I belong to for the times I need to share a quick message or thought with them or call a last-minute meeting while I’m on the road without having to manually group text everyone.

Or, if I’m out of the office, one voice text message, alerts the managers back at the office so they know where I am or what I’m doing.

I think you get the picture.

One call. Say the name or names of people or the group you want to reach. Voice your message. Hang up.

It’s very cool indeed. I just need to figure out how to have people acknowledge the receipt, without having to first establish a Pinger account. I also hope Pinger explores the possibility of using voice-to-text software to extend the capabilities of the service.

OK, while I’m on the topic of voice, I’ve been also meaning to cover Dave Winer’s TwitterGram application.

TwitterGram is a neat little service that allows you to record and upload voice messages to share directly with your Twitter friends. Or, you can also call them in using BlogTalkRadio (link) to send TwitterGrams instantly from anywhere you have access to a phone.

Both services place an update for you in the Twitter stream with a link to your voice message for your friends and followers to enjoy. I’m pretty sure that if Dave felt so inclined, he could easily adapt this application to work with those using Jaiku and Pownce.

Connect on Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce or Facebook.

dragon+mobile dragon

With Social Media Releases (New Media Releases) in the spotlight again, I felt this was the ideal timing to introduce you to the Video News Release (VNR) redux. Ready or not, start brushing up on flash, screencasting, video production, online video networks, and Web marketing.

Online video is the next frontier for the communications industry adding a new layer of engagement to any existing PR, marketing and web initiative. In my opinion social media has reinvented the VNR, putting the power of creation and distribution in the hands of those with a camera, PC, and a broadband connection – well, and a little marketing savvy and an understanding of the pains and needs of the people they’re trying to reach…

What the social media press release is to traditional releases, amateur video, screencasts, and demos are to traditional video news releases (VNRs).

For those who may not have direct experience with VNRs, they are an age-old, somewhat effective tool for telling a story visually and are directly related to many of the stories that you see on traditional broadcast news networks. While effective, they are incredibly expensive – especially in the Web 2.0 genre. Production segments, b-roll, satellite transmission, and not to mention the legwork associated with calling attention to the distribution time of transmitting the feed, easily hits the $20k mark for one story.

I’ve long said that for the right marketers, Youtube, and the other video networks out there, represent what could be constituted as the new broadcast channel for social video news releases. And with the technology barriers of entry are so low (in terms of expertise required and cost of equipment), there’s never been a better time to experiment with video.

However, like all forms of social media, it requires a level of understanding, ethics, and transparency that can only be possible with hands-on experience – not as a marketer, but as a participant of all forms of social media.

While many readers of PR 2.0 are in the tech industry, the entire concept of social media VNRs can benefit any business.

At the very least, social video allows companies to demonstrate their product in a way that is consumable, shareable, and also much more interesting than reading collateral.

Let’s take a look at a few of the more popular videos online (keep in mind, it’s less about quality and more about participating and contributing):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1u3ekzwnYxw]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHMpcfEIGBE]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFV_DGRpZnE]

Aside from video, screencasts are also viral and effective. Here are a couple of examples:

SiteKreator

Ning
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeArbJ8JxrI]

Robert Scoble encourages PR and corporate marketing to engage by saying that we should worry less about trying to have broadcast quality production and focus more on the uniqueness of a product when pursuing campaigns through online video. Even Michael Arrington of TechCrunch supports the use of corporate marketing through video and often runs the more creative shorts on his personal blog, CrunchNotes.

However, it’s not just about getting the attention of bloggers and traditional media. It’s also a way of reaching the markets, and more importantly, the people that can benefit from the product/service. That’s the beauty of a social network.

According to a past issue of PRWeek, Nuance scored 35,000 views on YouTube from a very targeted audience and MultiVu’s work for NVIDIA earned 65,000 viewers off Metacafe.

Here’s the Nuance video:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L4Jk6GDud0]

There are several ingredients to consider when developing a video or screencast, and the choices you make for their implementation will determine the success or failure of the campaign.

1 – Be genuine. This isn’t yet another opportunity for PR to spam the world

2 – Know your targets, their pain points, and why your product will help them. And please don’t use the word audience. Viewers today are considered the people formally known as the audience. This ensures that we engage by conversing with, not marketing to, people. This is Jay Rosen’s philosophy, which many social media purists hold sacred when discussing how to participate through social media.

3 – Keep it focused on what’s unique, interesting, and compelling.

4 – Experiment. Don’t just stop at one…keep the line of communication open through video much in the same way you would with blogs, marketing collateral, newsletters, and press releases.

5 – Place the videos on the company site and offer RSS feeds for them.

6 – Ensure that the videos are placed in the social networks where the people you want to reach search for new and interesting content.

7 – Simply placing videos online isn’t enough. Just because you place in social networks doesn’t mean it will be viewed and shared. You have to do “PR” for it through the folksonomy of strategic tagging, linking, and having others point to it and republish it to spark the viral potential of your content.

8 – Be creative.

9 – Worry less about polish and more about content.

10 – Listen to feedback

While social video represents a new opportunity for marketing and PR, I can not emphasize enough the importance of maintaining traditional programs and fostering relationships with analysts, reporters, bloggers, and customers. Video can only enhance a proactive and all-encompassing marketing and PR campaign.

Social media is indeed breathing new life into Video News Releases and with that, it continues to reinvent PR for the new Web.

Lights. Camera. Action.

Update: Marshall Kirkpatrick documents how video and social media helped SplashCast rise above the noise.

Also, thank you to videographer Mikko Wilson for the artwork used in the original post.

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