Journalists Provide Some Light into Using Twitter as a Media Pitching Tool

Journalists Provide Some Light into Using Twitter as a Media Pitching Tool
May 29, 2014 PRSA-Author

Like millions of others, I glommed onto Twitter when it emerged as the latest social media venue. Although, by nature, I am not a “social media kind of guy,” and save for a few guest blogging endeavors, I have mostly eschewed the likes of Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube. With Twitter, I thought I recognized a possible business application that might serve me well.

What I liked about Twitter was its scaled-down content (as a media pitcher, I had become an expert in the subject line pitch) and the ability to know what my core group of reporters was covering. On Twitter the wall between journalists and PR had been torn down, albeit slightly. But after I moved beyond the novelty of the medium and actually Tweeting a few things myself, I settled into the notion of Twitter as a more social than business milieu. What cemented my thinking was when one of my go-to media contacts from a national daily newspaper Tweeted that he and his young daughters were leaving a furniture store in Brooklyn. Stop the presses!!

My hope that Twitter would become a cross between the Algonquin Roundtable (those under 40 please refer to Google) and TED Talks was dashed as a business tool for proactive media relations, there was no there, there. So, after letting my disappointment marinate for a few years, I am on the precipice of giving Twitter another shot, but before I do I thought I would poll a few of my PR colleagues and a couple of reporters , getting their take on its use within what I call the news equation between press and PR. I was particularly interested in hearing whether Twitter had matured and possibly evolved as a forum for pitching and whether journalists wanted to be pitched via social media.

The consensus I gleaned was “No.” The overriding notion was that “editors place a big premium on original stories that don’t come from a press release, and are therefore different from what everyone else has.” In this person’s case, he has never been pitched via Twitter. However, if that were to ever change, he would most likely look askance at the information –  thinking that any story proposed using this very public means would be more spam than usable content and the kind you get from a mass email or press release. His reasoning would make him reject the pitch based on its unoriginality, and knowing that his competition was receiving a similar entreaty. His preference is for “a personal email with a little more content to follow up on.”

One reporter told me that “any PR person approaching Twitter as a channel to pitch journalists is missing the point/opportunity.” He said that instead of using it proactively to mine for coverage, he suggested using it to gain valuable insight into the “personalities, interests, and coverage” of your core group of reporters that cover a particular industry and/or company. His feeling is that becoming familiar with a reporter and his/her beat will help towards building a relationship with the reporter when the right time to pitch comes around. In working with reporters, all PR professionals concur that it remains a relationship business and one that it is grounded in knowledge of needs of both parties. He now finds himself working the other side of the street as an in-house social media/PR director for a company that he used to cover as a reporter, and wanted to go on the record as not using Twitter for pitches.

A PR colleague who is a VP at a mid-stage biotechnology company agrees with this assessment of Twitter. She follows a handful of reporters that she knows cover her company on a regular basis and lets Twitter “wash over me” with their Tweets about articles they have written, breaking news, and the trends moving the biotech industry. For her, it’s not an appropriate medium for the type of interaction that would lead a reporter towards writing about her company.

So, in this very small sample it seems that there is a clear case for Twitter having limited impact as a pitch medium. But, I have come across the exceptions to this way of thinking and remain curious as to Twitter’s use. What’s been your experience? Are you using it successfully, and am I just not understanding the current rules of engagement? Can I really cold-Tweet a reporter? Is it part of my arsenal when pitching a story? Are email and Twitter interchangeable? What is my Twitter strategy?

Post Author

Blog-author_kidwellPaul Kidwell is principal of Kidwell PR. He has 17 years of public relations experience in the biopharmaceutical sector. He can be reached at paulkidwell@comcast.net.

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