Home » Blog Talk, Features, Media Relations, PR, Public Relations, Public Relations Higher Education, Style and Design, Teaching PR

Sprout Builder :: Student Multimedia News Packages for Submission to Online News Sites

25 July 2008 19 views 3 Comments

Always looking for new ways to create news releases for newspaper Web sites, I had a little epiphany regarding Sprout Builder and multimedia news packages for submission to news outlets.

Mindy McAdams’ book has me intrigued. I’ve been going through it in preparation for including it in this fall’s PR Style & Design course. It is a great book. Her site, flash journalism, even offers class tutorials. Visit her blog, too.

Then, I had that little epiphany. Use Sprout Builder. For educators that don’t have access to a lab and the Flash software, this is a perfect alternative. Students can complete the exercise at home or anywhere else, for that matter.

Feedback? Is this viable for PR?

What do you think about this? Is it viable? Would you pursue such a project for a class, or even an agency/organization seeking placement on a news organization’s Web site?

Sprout Builder offers a great interface that is pretty easy to learn. Now, it doesn’t offer the full blown Flash software experience, but it certainly can create a great multimedia package.

I created a simple package below to show you how many different aspects can be incorporated into the final product. Cut me some slack, please. I spent less that 90 minutes on this. We made a quick video last night during lab hours. I took screen shots from that video for the photo slideshow. There is related RSS news from Auburn University. A poll from Poll Daddy is also included.

The end project provides an embed code that allows you to deliver video, photos, RSS, polls, surveys and much more. Use the “Share” button in the bottom right hand corner of the package to see the embed code. By the way, Sprout Builder will actually let you remove their logo now. In the future it will likely cost, but now it is free. I left it in since we’re using their service. Certainly it can be made much more attractive than the simple one I’ve offered here.

Please let me know what you think of this possibility. I’ve included a poll in the sample. Take it and also leave a comment here regarding the viability you see for such packages from PR to journos and placement in a newspaper’s Web site. Thanks.

Now, to the example …


3 Comments »

  • Lara Kretler UNITED STATES Windows XP Internet Explorer 7.0 said:

    This is very cool. I checked out your sample multimedia package and loved it. This is a great idea for nonprofits or other clients who can’t afford the big multimedia services. Thanks for sharing this – I plan to learn about Sprout Builder and check out Mindy’s site and book as well.

    # 25 July 2008 at 6:40 am
  • Mihaela V Mac OS X Mozilla Firefox 3.0.1 said:

    Neat service! I like it. But what’s going on with the polling application? Does it have a restriction on character numbers, why is it not displaying the full sentence?

    # 26 July 2008 at 9:22 am
  • Robert UNITED STATES Windows Vista Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.16 (author) said:

    Lara, thanks. The ease of use is a plus, too. Sprout Builder’s learning curve is much easier than the entire Flash software. So, students and those organizations can get the idea of the capability available to them, but not have to delve too deeply into software. We’ve used it for a nonprofit. The ability to “share” the embed code gives the organization a viral marketing possibility, too.

    Hey, Mihaela. I think it’s fixed now. Reduced the font size 4 points and that seemed to do the trick. Just guessing here, but perhaps it has something to do with how Sprout Builder accepts the Poll Daddy script.

    For a class, I think it’s neat, too. More focus on content, less on software. The end product is easy to share and you don’t have to host it anywhere. Sprout Builder enables you to upload video, audio, photos and more. I think it is a doable class activity now.

    # 26 July 2008 at 11:52 am