By Lawrence Hahn, PepperDigital
Like any diligent PR person, I do my best to stay on top of ProfNets, HARO’s and other similar resources. Doing so can help generate good media hits for my clients (and for Peppercom), so I try to jump on any opportunity that seems relevant. I recently began following ProfNet on Twitter because several opportunities are often posted throughout the day between the e-mail updates. Lo and behold, earlier this week, I found an opportunity that was perfect for PepperDigital. Since the reporter making the request is also active on Twitter, I took my colleague Jackie Holmes’s advice and “Twitched” her. She responded within minutes, and the next day the article was posted featuring PepperDigital’s own Sam Ford and his thoughts on “Governing 2.0.”
We all know that, as PR people, we must develop relationships with journalists if we hope to get our foot in the door, but the ways we can do this are much greater, thanks to digital tools. Following ProfNet and Peter Shankman (of HARO) is not the only way to do this, as many reporters have their own Twitter accounts. Following a reporter that covers your clients’ beats will not only give you immediate knowledge of any requests he/she may put out, but it will give you an idea of what he/she is interested in. A reporter will often tweet about anything from a recent story they’ve written to something that interests them personally. Having such insight will make it easier to craft a traditional pitch to the reporter should the need arise.
So if you haven’t bought into the Twitter craze just yet, give it a shot. A big media hit could be only one tweet away.
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