Sarah Evans, PR chick and blogger recently created a wiki around the media on Twitter including their Twitter handles and brief description around what they cover. As the description says, the wiki is here with "the hopes of creating and maintaining the ultimate Twitter resource of current Twitter contact information for journalists and bloggers. This wiki will be managed with integrity and honesty by #journchat members." (Note: Apparently integrity management already took place as Sarah tweeted about her damage control over a self promotion takeover on the wiki during the first days it went live--typical!)
For many PR people, this a dream come true. A full (and free) list of how to reach out to journalists who may not respond to emails, phone calls and Facebook messages when we pitch them 30,000 times during the day? Wowie! OK, I'm being a bit cynical but to be serious about this for a second, this is a GREAT resource for us and we should NOT take advantage of it.
As many know, the PR world has been scrutinized a bit lately (I'm not linking to it) for abusing our power and access to media contact information. Let us remember that knowing where these media outlets are on Twitter should be looked at as a valuable resource and we should interact with them through this channel with the same basic principle of good traditional PR outreach. Twitter has opened new doors for PR and we need to use it to our advantage...not ruin it.
I've written about my personal thoughts on creating relationships with reporters before and how important it is for journalists to realize that we're just as important in helping them out as they are to us. To elaborate on what I've already said, let's add guidelines to the new wiki that will prove to be even more beneficial as journalists continue to join the community and interact on a new level. (Feel free to add more guidelines or suggestions in the comments as well.)
1. Follow the reporters and get an idea of what they're interested in. Just like we do with researching what reporters cover on a daily/weekly basis, we should do the same with them on Twitter. Twitter allows us to get updates about journalists interests. Families. Favorite sports teams. Where they go for a beer and what TV show they watch on a regular basis. If you follow these updates that they are offering openly to the community already, you have an upper hand on beginning the conversation and getting their attention through the clutter. Plus, you can see if you have similar interests and maybe have a good conversation on a personal level! I don't know anyone who would say that creating a friendly relationship with a reporter is a bad thing.
2. Check out where they are online besides Twitter. Many reporters have blogs. Many reporters even have guidelines on their blogs as to where they want to be pitched. If they say they want PR peeps to reach them via Twitter, go ahead. If they say they prefer email or im or any other outlet---LISTEN TO THEM and contact them there. Just because we have this new resource of Twitter handles does NOT mean every reporter is using it to get pitched by PR people. Go back to the basic rules of PR and how to reach out to reporters and this falls right into it.
3. If a reporter DOES want to receive news/pitches on Twitter make sure you don't over pitch. If you have a news announcement that you want to send to a lot of reporters and four of them happen to be on Twitter, don't publicly tweet at them all at once. Guess what? When your last few tweets look something like this...
@media1 I have news from client for you would love to take offline.
@media2 I have news from client for you would love to take offline.
@media3 I have news from client for you would love to take offline.
@media4 I have news from client for you would love to take offline.
...they'll figure it out and see that you're spamming every reporter out there for the news.
I'm interested to see how this new resource plays out over time and whether journalists like it or not. Is it valuable for them to be contacted on Twitter or do they want to use it more as a resource to gather and hear the news, rather than communicate?
Are there any success stories about pitching media on Twitter? Share them in the comments as well as any tips you've learned from interacting with media on Twitter.
3 comments:
It'll be interesting to see where the PR train goes, with this unprecedented use of New Media, and Social Media.. It's falling on deaf ears, in some quarters, but in other places, it's actually being skillfully put to use. The Smirnoff sponsoring of a London Bloggers meetup led to some interesting responses, and was a great example of how to do it well ;) Now if only the others could learn :)
Unfortunately most of our fellow PR peeps either don't know or don't understand and will use Twitter like they used the phone, the fax and the email.
I on the other hand am pleasently surprised to see a number of reporters I've been pitching for years with no luck now following me on Twitter and chatting me up about holiday recipies and the weather.
Exactly! That's the stuff that matters. A reporter friend of mine even helped me during my apartment hunt. THAT's how you make relationships and hopefully this is a new way to create additional ways for us to connect on this level.
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