Stephen Davies has posted a great list of prominent UK journalists who are on Twitter.
As he says: “Twitter isn’t something that immediately strikes you as anything good and explaining the benefits of it to someone who has never heard of it – particularly a pressed for time PR person – can be quite difficult.”
OK. Here’s my current top 6 reasons to use Twitter to supercharge you PR efforts:
1. Look at the numbers – as per Stephen’s list, many more journalists are using it. Not only that, but some journalists are giving priority to communication via Twitter over any other channel. For example, I’m willing to bet that you are far more likely to get the attention of someone like, say, Charles Arthur at the Guardian, by sending him a direct Tweet and/or a link to a dedicated info landing page than by trying to call him or e-mail him. Of course, you still need a good story, but I suspect he would give you more respect for using this approach.
2. It is much easier now to manage the Twitter info firehose because of tools like Tweetdeck. Being able to keep real time tabs on specific brands/issues/people is fantastic. The kind of insight you could only have dreamed of in the past.
3. People are beginning to develop their own individual styles of Twitter usage. Smart PRs will adapt their approach depending on the various Twitter “communities” they participate in (I can now see why having separate accounts for certain things makes sense eg having a dedicated client press release account so you can separate this from more general Twittering).
4. The 140 character limit imposes a healthy discipline on communicating clearly and succinctly.
5. Lets not forget the journalist research aspect of Twitter – checking out a journalist’s recent Tweets gives great insight into the kind of things they are really interested in.
6. Being there when you can’t be there – if you can’t get to an event, you can be sure that someone on Twitter will be – and will provide useful updates and commentary on proceedings – not only that, if they are journalists, you can feed them questions that might be worth asking….
I think the excuses for not using Twitter are dwindling by the day. The only way to really understand Twitter is to dive in and use it. What are you waiting for?
Filed under: General PR, Technology PR, Web/Tech, digital pr, marketing, online pr, tech pr , tweetdeck, twitter
separate accounts? not sure I agree. Doubt I would subscribe to a broadcast-only twitter account other than MSM outlets. Perhaps it’s my own preference. But I think a good general mix of someone’s twitter includes only about 1/3rd broadcast/self-promotional tweets.
Another third would be straight conversation and the other third? Send me to valuable places you find…from creative points of interest to news items to whatever else you find interesting. That’s one of the big ways we all learn through twitter. It’s how I found this post!
More importantly? If you send me a press release link and take my above approach, I will value it more than if press releases are all I get from your tweets.
Interesting to be a part of twitter as it unfolds in pr and this is just one person’s view. thanks for the post.
Cheers –
Kevin Dugan
prblog.typepad.com
twitter.com/prblog
Kevin – thanks for the comment. And now you mention it, I hadn’t considered that aspect of a broadcast only account. That’s the beauty of the online world at the moment – I can always guarantee that someone somewhere can bring a different viewpoint that adds some value to the whole conversation