All the World is a Twitter — Especially for PR Folks and Reporters
Media Relations
01.19.2009
In:
Social Media
Twitter is a free, microblogging service that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (or tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters.
Reporters need sources, human ones, and they need them fast. PR folks need results and opportunities for their clients’ voices to be heard.
For reporters, Twitter has received a preliminary stamp of approval from highly respected publications, such as the American Journalism Review (AJR).
According to the August/September 2008 AJR (1 http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4601) , Daniel Victor (@bydanielvictor), a reporter at the Harrisburg Patriot-News, was once a Twitter skeptic, but is now a fan. Daniel uses Twitter routinely to find stories and people from Harrisburg and Hershey through a combination of TwitterLocal and Tweetscan, third-party applications that allow searches of Twitter by topic and geographic location.
On the other side of the coin is Sanchez, a pioneer for using Twitter both as a source and as a broadcast medium. During his coverage of Hurricane Gustav, Sanchez sent his followers this tweet: “Going on air at five, need you guys out there, especially around New Orleans, what’s going on? What’s the mood?”
Sanchez received eyewitness accounts and was able to make direct contact with those in New Orleans who decided to ride out the storm.
PR folks use Twitter for everything from pitching story ideas to meeting journalists to researching ways journalists like to receive information. I find Twitter a valuable resource for learning more about current topics like social media trends.
According to the October 2008 issue of PR Tactics ( http://www.prsa.org/supportfiles/news/viewNews.cfm?pNewsID=842347614 ) , social media tools such as Twitter are now essential tools for doing business. The days of communicating via a single news release are long gone.
As PR professionals, our strongest talents are our ability to listen, be observant and offer counsel. In Twitterland, these skills are essential, as we respond to tweets from journalists whose calls for information and sources can easily be addressed by a PR person on a mission.
But enough of this talk, I’m off to Twitterland to make some more connections and meet some new people. BTW, I’m @Lilyn on Twitter.
