I must admit, despite my profession and the growing popularity of Twitter, I am still not on the bandwagon. But many who know me in my work life, would be shocked to hear me say that (or type it as the case may be).
Do I have a Twitter account? Absolutely.
Do I check in daily? Yes, multiple times throughout the work day.
Do I ever find any value in it? Yes.
But here is where my issue lies –
Do I care what my roommate eats for lunch everyday, or where she is in Manhattan filming a segment for her show? Not really. If it is that interesting, she will tell me about it later.
Do I care what Saul Hansell of the New York Times eats for dinner or what news he finds interesting? Without a doubt. And not because I am a stalker or obsessed with his dietary habits (really.), but because it could help me build a stronger PR professional to reporter relationship with him.
To me, Twitter is an extremely powerful tool for PR people. It is the best outlet I have seen throughout my years in this business that gives us the edge we need to make our outreach more personal to each individual reporter. With Twitter, we can find out sometimes useless, yet mostly interesting everyday information about the reporters we are trying to build relationships with. It is with this awareness and knowledge that we can pique the attention of the media with our pitches and entice them to listen to what we have to say.
There have been many occasions when I have noticed tweets from my favorite reporters and simply dropped them to let them know I am paying attention. For example, I once sent a reporter I have been trying to work with for years a note regarding a tweet that simply said: “I was just skimming through Twitter and saw that you like Bon Jovi better than Bruce – right on! Couldn’t agree more!”
No pitch needed. Sometimes relationship building should be just that – building a relationship.
Due to those 30 seconds I spent showing this reporter that I listen helped me professionally, he now responds to every email I send, whether he is interested or not. Without Twitter, I would not have been able to find this information out so quickly and act on it so fast.
Now, if I see another one of my key contacts posting trash talk on the Yankees because he or she was born and raised in Boston, I might refrain from an email. I would not want to scare him or her off with my keen awareness of Yanks stats and the handful of Red Sox jokes I have memorized over the years. But at least I will know he or she is interested in baseball!
And Britt – if you are reading – you can update me about lunch later.
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