Anytime a new technology product or service begins to get national consumer play in media outlets like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times or CNN you know that product/service has reached the Tipping Point (a la Malcolm Gladwell’s book of the same name) and is well on its way to mass market acceptance.
That’s obviously the case with Twitter, a free social media tool that allows users to write and publish extremely short pieces on the Internet. How short? 140 characters tops.
Twitterers can also create a short bio which is hosted on a blog-like page inside of Twitter (one of my accounts can be seen at www.twitter.com/dpolitis). Users can then follow one another, sending microblog posts out into the general Twitterverse or directly to another individual via a Direct Message.
In less than three years since Twitter’s founding in March 2006, more than six million Twitter accounts have been created, with close to four million active Twitterers last month.
And yet, the purpose of this post is not to provide a Twitter 101 primer - there are several other resources that do just that.
Rather this post is designed to specifically address the issue of the near- and long-term viability of Twitter as a potentially valuable communications tool/service for use in the public relations arena, particularly for media relations.
During more than 25 years as a public relations/marketing communications professional, particularly working with technology companies of all varieties, I have seen dramatic changes in the tools and services that we PR pros use to conduct our campaigns and programs.
That said, after nine months of using and experimenting with Twitter, I am totally committed to ongoing and expanding use of Twitter - for myself, for our agencies (Politis Communications and SOAR Communications), and for our clients.
Here (in reverse order) is my list of five reasons why Twitter matters for PR professionals, especially in the realm of publicity and media relations.
5. More journalists/bloggers/media outlets begin using Twitter every day (and the more journalists, bloggers & media outlets on Twitter, the better Twitter becomes as a tool for PR people).
It only makes sense that the number of journalists using Twitter is growing right along with the overall growth of the service.
Can I put quantitative figures behind this assertion? No.
But I can point the interested PR person toward two links that will help them begin to build a list of editorial types on Twitter: namely, Twellow and the My Creative Team wiki.
Specifically, Twellow is an independent, Twitter-focused search engine, and you can use it to search for just about any one individual or any group of people, including journalists and bloggers.
Similarly, the wiki from My Creative Team includes lists of both journalists and media outlets on Twitter.
There are also a growing list of posts that contain their own breakdown of journalists on Twitter, such as this list from Carlos Granier-Phelps on Red66.com. (Make sure you check out the more than 70 comments for additions to Granier-Phelps’ initial list, some of which were added within the last week.)
The point is journalists (and media outlets) continue to adopt Twitter, and this trend does not appear to be slowing down or stopping.
4. Twitter provides a new mechanism for connecting with journalists.
Back when I got started in PR more than two-and-a-half decades ago, we used printed directories of media outlets and contact information to help identify editorial team members.
Such databases still exist, but most have moved to an electronic format, at a minimum these are encapsulated onto a CD-ROM or DVD, or better yet, maintained online so they are accessible in real-time 24X7. A number of these services, like Cision, also contain information about the individual preferences of these journalists.
Additionally, many (but not all) media outlets have Websites, many of which contain the names, titles, beats and contact information for their reporters and editors.
Certainly, search engines like Google and Yahoo! have also shown they can be valuable services in the PR toolkit for indentifying which journalists cover what topics and what they’ve written about or covered in the past.
Now . . . enter Twitter.
Central to the entire concept of Twitter is the ability to identify individuals and/or organizations one is interested in and to be able to learn about what’s important to them. In addition, there’s also the potential to follow and be followed by said journalists.
All of which makes it easier to begin to develop the beginnings of a relationship, be it professional, personal or both.
3. Cream rises to the top.
Just because a so-called PR pro has identified a reporter on Twitter, that doesn’t mean she has good Twitter etiquette.
Specifically, if all you do is use Twitter to pitch story ideas or hound a journalist about covering your employer or clients, you will quickly find yourself banished to the Twitter garbage bin and “blocked” from contacting said journo.
And if you’re really pesky and break Twitter’s own rules, you’ll probably find your account suspended from the Twitterverse. That wouldn’t necessary prevent you from creating a new Twitter account and starting all over again. Regardless, bad form is still bad form and cretins tend to remain cretins.
Remember, that Twitter is part of the entire social media landscape, the Web 2.0 world, a world centered around openness and conversations.
The best PR practitioners understand this and are true PR pros in every sense of the word.
Such professionals understand that passing along information to a reporter that is germane to his/her beat is a good idea, a smart idea, even if it means such efforts generate zero media coverage in the process.
What a concept! It’s called the Golden Rule. It’s called common courtesy. It’s called being nice to other people.
The best PR people also understand the constraints and restraints placed on journalists. They understand deadlines and beats and assignments and journalistic integrity and many (if not most) of the ins and outs of the media world. And they respect the editorial professionals who do their best to create new news product day in and day out, particularly in countries that enjoy freedom of the press.
Just because Twitter is a new service, one that allows near real-time interaction and connectivity with anyone, but especially journalists, real PR pros do NOT abuse such capabilities. Instead, they judiciously use Twitter to meet end goals and objectives while respecting the needs and wants of others.
2. Media relations is STILL about the story idea (or the angle or the fit).
Although some media types claim that they never use information or materials provided by a PR person, the truth is that smart journalists recognize that good sources can come from anywhere and from anyone.
That’s why the most key element of successful media relations efforts is finding the right story idea for the right journalist at the right media outlet at the right time.
Just because Twitter is some newfangled technology tool doesn’t obviate this fact.
Case in point, use Twitter to “pitch” a non-tech story to one of the many C/NET journos on Twitter and 99.9 percent of the time your pitch will fail.
Conversely, pitch a cycling story via Twitter to @FredCast or @carltonreid and chances are you’ll generate serious interest.
Bottom line? Wasting a reporter’s time is NEVER a good idea. That’s been true for as long as I’ve been in PR, and just because I can pitch a journalist an idea in 140 characters doesn’t mean I’m gonna be successful if I’ve got
- the wrong reporter,
- the wrong media outlet,
- the wrong story idea,
- at the wrong time.
1. It’s the 140 characters, stupid!
With credit given to James Carville - he’s the consultant who gave Bill Clinton the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid” - in Twitter, it’s all about the 140 characters.
That’s it. Everyone has the same limitations.
Even if you use such tricks as URL shorteners to display a Web address within a tweet, such as TinyURL.com or bit.ly, there is no guarantee anyone will click on your shortened URL.
You still have a mere 140 characters to catch someone’s attention, and this reality is multiplied many times over for media types who get pummeled with long-winded, poorly written and off-topic story ideas day after day after day.
Microblogging a story pitch to a journalist inside of Twitter is like the elevator pitch in the VC world. Get it right and doors begin to open. Screw it up, and that door may never open.
Consultants working with businesses looking to raise money from venture capitalists tell the executives to shorten their business proposition down to an “elevator pitch.” In other words, they’re told, make sure you can describe your company’s value propostion between floors when riding an elevator.
Those entrepreneurs who can best fulfill this elevator pitch guideline have the best chance of catching the attention of a prospective investor, and that’s just the potential beginning of a relationship between a company and an investor.
Microblogging a story pitch to a journalist inside of Twitter is like the elevator pitch in the VC world. Get it right and doors begin to open. Screw it up, and that door may never open.
In that regard, creating the perfect Twitter pitch is rarely something that’s thrown together; rather, perfect Twitter pitches tend to be crafted, often offline first where they’re vetted and reviewed before being DMed directly to a journalist.
And with only 140 characters to play with, precise brevity is key.
Bonus Idea: Create Unique Twitter Accounts for Your Company/Client, Product/Service or Individual
One last thought.
Although you’re limited to 140 characters per each microblog post within Twitter (also known as a “tweet”), you have fewer limitations if you create a separate Twitter account for your company, client, product, service and/or individual.
Case in point. If you visit www.twitter.com/SchwinnTailwind, you will find the Twitter account that we (SOAR Communications) recently created to promote the new Tailwind brand electric bike from Schwinn Bicycles.
In addition to creating the layout so it fit within the corporate brand identity for both Schwinn and the Tailwind, we also crafted a page background that allowed us to highlight a few key facts that we believe differentiate the Tailwind from other eBikes.
We also listed the booth address (#74840) where Schwinn will be exhibiting this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, as well as contact information for journalists interested in checking out the Tailwind at CES09.
Has it worked? Well, it certainly hasn’t hurt as we’ve got interviews, demo rides and briefings set with some of the top media outlets attending CES, including a slot coming early this morning on The Today Show — so you tell me. 
Your Thoughts?
So what do you think? Did I nail the top reasons why Twitter matters to public relations professionals or do you have a different list altogether? Or do you disagree with the premise entirely and feel that Twitter is merely a passing fad?
Please include your thoughts, additions and/or deletions to this list in the comment section below. And on Twitter as well.
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: A special thank you to everyone who has participated thus far in the weekly #journchat sessions every Monday evening, 7-10PM CST. In addition, a special thanks to Sarah Evans (@PRsarahevans) for her role in envisoning, creating and organizing the virtual @journchat meetups as a vehicle for PR and media professionals to engage and share on a weekly basis - all via Twitter.
