Stumbled on this new service called The Interviewr - it's basically an online portal where you can set up interviews and their system will call out to you and the person being interviewed and connect the two of you for your interview. You can attach files and notes to the interview, as well as record the interview. The best part - it's free!
The value here in my opinion is the 'reminder' factor. It's not uncommon even with calendar reminders, to miss a conference call because someone's day got overly hectic. However, with The Interviewr, the system calls you, so you can't miss your interview (unless you choose not to answer your phone).
There's also a serious cost-savings factor at play here. This provides both parties with a 'no cost' long-distance option. After all, the system is calling you, so you aren't incurring any LD fees (nor is the other person on the call). Not sure what the call quality is like, but provided it's not bad, this is a great feature for small businesses.
I wish I could say that it's a Web-based conferencing system, but right now it's simply designed for two people, which is to say the system only calls out to two phone numbers.
Their focus in developing the application seems to be on making journalists' lives easier. I wish they had approach this app from a PR person's perspective though, because I actually think this could be a killer app for PR. Interviews are a PR person's bread and butter, anything that makes them go smoother is gold.
Having said that, they are clearly building out a generic voice platform that I'd imagine could be very easily customized to suit various vertical. Simply come up with feature bundles specific to various industries and up-sell those features on top of the generic offering.
Anyway, the service just launched so we'll have to see how it develops over time, but it definitely seems interesting. With the right features built in to it I could see PR people really liking this - provided they can somehow ensure confidentiality of recorded calls and do things like important contact lists.
This is something I think Marketwire or CNW would be wise to take a look at as I could really see them making a lot of money off PR-specific voice services and/or integrating voice with existing PR services.
As the cost of voice services race towards zero, the money is going rest in vertical applications, embedding and tailoring voice services around the specific needs different professionals have. PR folks will be one of the most receptive verticals as this happens I think.
The value here in my opinion is the 'reminder' factor. It's not uncommon even with calendar reminders, to miss a conference call because someone's day got overly hectic. However, with The Interviewr, the system calls you, so you can't miss your interview (unless you choose not to answer your phone).
There's also a serious cost-savings factor at play here. This provides both parties with a 'no cost' long-distance option. After all, the system is calling you, so you aren't incurring any LD fees (nor is the other person on the call). Not sure what the call quality is like, but provided it's not bad, this is a great feature for small businesses.
I wish I could say that it's a Web-based conferencing system, but right now it's simply designed for two people, which is to say the system only calls out to two phone numbers.
Their focus in developing the application seems to be on making journalists' lives easier. I wish they had approach this app from a PR person's perspective though, because I actually think this could be a killer app for PR. Interviews are a PR person's bread and butter, anything that makes them go smoother is gold.
Having said that, they are clearly building out a generic voice platform that I'd imagine could be very easily customized to suit various vertical. Simply come up with feature bundles specific to various industries and up-sell those features on top of the generic offering.
Anyway, the service just launched so we'll have to see how it develops over time, but it definitely seems interesting. With the right features built in to it I could see PR people really liking this - provided they can somehow ensure confidentiality of recorded calls and do things like important contact lists.
This is something I think Marketwire or CNW would be wise to take a look at as I could really see them making a lot of money off PR-specific voice services and/or integrating voice with existing PR services.
As the cost of voice services race towards zero, the money is going rest in vertical applications, embedding and tailoring voice services around the specific needs different professionals have. PR folks will be one of the most receptive verticals as this happens I think.
This service sounds killer indeed! I'm a PR student who just recently learned about popular communication technologies used in the industry. I know I'd be interested in using this "Interviewr" in my career. It has all the benefits of a web conference but it provides all its services in one neat package that makes life simpler for PR pros and reporters, as you mentioned. I really like how it reminds both parties about the interview too. That's a new feature I haven't seen other services offer. I saw online that it's offered anywhere serviced by Twilio. Do you know if that means its in Canada?
ReplyDeleteHi Nancy,
ReplyDeleteSorry for such a delayed response. I took a break from blogging for a bit there and missed you had left a comment.
I used the service to call my home phone and it rang, so I'm assuming Canada isn't an issue. In their FAQ on their site it says they even do International calls (I'm assuming at no charge - which is amazing if that's the case).
For most corporations they use things like Webex which I think can call out to multiple parties, but as you can imagine, it's an expensive service which is why you tend to see it only in corporations.
I haven't used Webex lately, but back in the day I found it annoying and would set up conference calls via the in-house conferencing system if I could. Or most often, we'd just get everyone together and hold the call from someone's office and simply have parties call in to that person's office line.
It's definitely a chore to keep up with the various applications that are of value to PR. Perhaps I'll do a blog entry on what is out there because there are lots of neat apps that aren't targeted to PR folks, but which are helpful nonetheless.