PR People: Get on Twitter. Now.
About a year ago, I started to hear buzz about this thing called Twitter. What was it, I wondered.
“Oh, it’s a microblog,” said a colleague.
“Oh,” I said. “How does that relate to PR?”
“Basically, you tell people what you’re doing right now,” he said.
“Oh,” I said. “What’s a microblog?”
He showed me maps of the world, where icons denoting each new tweet would pop up. It was sort of cool, but it made no sense to me at the time. I gave Twitter the cold shoulder, thinking it really had nothing of value to me. I thought it was stupid, a waste of time. I decided to shun Twitter, which gives you 140 characters with which to make your point.
Fast forward one year. I’m no longer in PR. I am a reporter. My wallet is thinner, my industry is in peril and I am quickly becoming a Twitter advocate.
It’s more than telling people what you’re doing right now, though that is an aspect. Think of it as a perpetual list of Facebook updates. You can use it to keep tabs on your hip friends, for sure.
But an even better use is to connect with reporters who use Twitter to find story sources.
It’s an ingenious method of culling sources. Just last week I was freaking out about a looming deadline, and I had a huge hole in my story about university security. I desperately tweeted at a friend – I guess you would call it a friend. This friend, micropr, acts as the ProfNet of Twitter, sending reporter queries to others who could possibly help out.
Bottom line is that within a matter of minutes, I had three sources to work with. It was an eye-opening moment.
Soon after that, I looked up everyone who listed Lawrence, Kan., as their hometown and added them, in case I need local sources.
I know other reporters do the same. I’ve friended reporters at my paper, the Lawrence Journal-World, the Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times. I know of a number of PR people, former colleagues and randoms who have stumbled upon me, who are just beginning to use Twitter.
All the new social media out there can be overwhelming. But guess what? It’s there, and it’s there to be used.
There’s even a movement to develop a “Twitter pitch.”
So get on your horse and start Twittering. You can find me @AlexParker.
Alex Parker is a reporter at the Lawrence Journal-World, and a graduate student of journalism at the University of Kansas. He is a former Arment Dietrich employee.
