[Image courtesy www.briansolis.com]

Lets face it, one reason many a PR pro is on Twitter is to follow journalists or other "influencers" in their space that they would like to connect with. Now, a free service called MicroPR has been created to allow journalists a more formal way to "crowdsource" their stories through Twitter. It's almost like HARO for Twitter.

Created by Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks PR, and Stowe Boyd, here's how it works:

1) Writers looking resources or help with a story just send a tweet with their request to @micropr (twitter.com/micropr)

2) PR professionals following the MicroPR feed will see a writer's request and respond directly via the writer's preferred channel

3) The media is also able to block PR people who do not follow the preferred contact model, etc.

Many reporters we've talked to can be weary of using services such as this, as it can publicly "out" their story ideas to writers at competing publications as well as the public in general.

The list of journalists on Twitter that Solis lists on his blog and hopes to get using MicroPR is very tech focused, but includes a mix of traditional and new media. Needless to say, there will still be some significant convincing involved. BoingBoing editor Joel Johnson, who is on the list, tells PRNewser, "I could see that being useful if there were actually smart PR people on the other end of the tweet." It is Mr. Solis' goal to prove that there will be.