Everything-PR News Review: My PR Genie

Launched in 2007 by Miranda Tan, MyPRGenie takes a fresh approach to public relations and social media marketing. The company provides a cloud-based platform, which gives businesses a basic tool to get the word out. They aren’t a PR firm but are a cheap, basic alternative that helps companies to “turn buzz into leads.”

The platform does more than that. Its DIY approach to PR puts the power of public relations directly into the hands of the people who need it, but who could not afford strong PR support.

The company’s platform combines the benefits of public relations with the added perks of social media reach. Some of the company-made tools include Tweet Genie, Facebook Genie, and Genie Monitoring. These features attract thousands of clients from around the world who use the platform to devise PR and marketing strategies. These strategies help to grow brand visibility, and builds bonds with a target audience.

Extra Perks

Distributing News via Large Media Database

Instead of data-mining for contacts online, the company took the unique approach of crowdsourcing contacts, which helped to build an up-to-date database. Through this program, clients can gain points by adding to the media database, which they can redeem for paid-perks offered by MyPRGenie, or put towards membership fees.

According to Tan, “Sales professionals have had access to this kind of data for years… But this is the first time such a system has been added to a public relations platform.”

Some of the web distribution channels available through MyPRGenie include:

• The Boston Globe
• Daily Herald
• Market Pulse
• LA Daily News
• SiliconValley.com

Some of the major news channels and associated press options available through MyPRGenie include:

• Denver Post
• Miami Herald
• New York Times
• Washington Post
• Daily News

Some major broadcast TV networks MyPRGenie makes available to clients include:

• ABC11TV
• WBTV
• CBS 11 TV

Online Newsroom

The company also provides an online newsroom, real time monitoring of reach and strategy, and social media apps. These tools make it a breeze to share videos, pictures, messages, and other posts with customers and fans.

After implementing the Genie Platform, these services expanded to include additional features. Now, companies and public figures can add fans, workers, business partners, and influencers to the newsroom created on the site. In this way, once companies make a new post or announcement, all the fans in the network receive an update of the changes.

Connecting with Journalists and other Key Influencers

MyPRGenie puts more than 540,000 writers in the journalism, blogging, and content creating fields, at the hands of clients. These connections help businesses to reach target audiences through key influencers, and builds on the trust these influencers already developed with the audience.

Social Media Optimization

Optimizing content for search makes it easier to find via popular engines. Another feature in this area allows clients to share news and other posts with more than 317 social media sites, which includes the most popular options, like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Optimized content means topping searches made through engines like, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask. This helps more people to ‘stumble’ across the company, and improves credibility and visibility by making the business easy to find.

Keeping Tabs on Results

Social media accounts do not always allow content creators to track the reach of posts. While not everyone responds to a post, several people may read it, anyway. Knowing how many people come in contact with the post or share it to other platforms by linking to it, allows clients to keep track of what posts do best, and why.

It also allows clients to track how many journalists take an interest in the posts, which is exactly the kind of connection clients need to build, to increase reach.

Great Troubleshooting

Often times companies build great platforms, but then slack on the maintenance and keeping the information up-to-date. MyPRGenie uses four methods to ensure that not only is the information current, but bugs get fixed right away.

• PR Pros do the Updating: Public relations professionals update contact information to ensure accuracy. Due to hands-on industry knowledge, they can do this faster than a research team would get it done.
• Rating System: The platform includes a rating system, which allows users to point out problems, and bring it to the attention of admin or support.
• Automated Opt-Out System: Unfortunately, having media contacts does not always mean they want to participate in unsolicited projects. As a result, the platform allows an automated system for media contacts to opt out, if they so desire.
• Delete Bounced Emails: MyPRGenie also deletes any email address which gets a hard bounce. It also makes sure that contacts who unsubscribe cannot be added back to the system.

Cost

Impressively, the pricing includes a free package option, though users must pay for additional features. The company also includes a basic option, professional option, and premium option, with monthly fees. This makes the service affordable, and useful for small businesses who do not yet have the capital to hire PR firms and experts, full-time.

About Miranda Tan

Before making herself a break-through success in marketing and public relations, Miranda Tan began making great achievements in school. From as early as high school, she showed a strong ability to multi-task and network by becoming involved in several different extra curricula activities, like the Movie Club.

After moving on to Cornell University, she aspired towards a Bachelor of Science, where she belonged to the Chi Omega Sorority, and then pursued a JD in law, while working as a Corporate Attorney.

This perhaps inspired Tan to found her first PR venture in 1999, ExcitePR. Following this, Tan would go on to found several more companies; including, Excite Media Group, MyPRGenie, and Robin8. Today, Tan continues to work within the industry as CEO of Robin8, which she calls, “a [n]ext generation social and content marketing platform powered by artificial intelligence, big data and machine learning.”

Our Review

While traditional marketing and public relations methods carry weight, this is a cheap alternative. Small businesses rely heavily on this kind of brand positioning. MyPRGenie offers a great solution for businesses looking to do this, and packages it all into a nice one-stop-shop option. It is not a PR agency, and not right for all – but it’s a cost-effective alternative for some.