Wondering HOW following journalists on Twitter can help you with your personal publicity efforts, let me point you to a USA Today’s journalists “Tweet” just a few minutes ago.
@barbdelollis Homewood&Hampton fans: Send me yr Qs for the brands! I’m meeting with Hilton’s exec in charge at abt 2pmeast. Will brief you this afternoon.
Reporter USA Today
http://twitter.com/barbdelollis
Responding to this Tweet may not bring you immediate publicity results but if you have something relevant to ask, it could be an introduction and give her the opportunity to learn more about you when she looks at your Twitter profile, website, or blog. The next time she’s pulling together a story and needs a source with your expertise guess who will be top of mind, maybe you!
If you don’t have anything relevant to offer, you could help her by ReTweeting this request to others on Twitter or by emailing your friend that has a relevant question.
Not only should you follow media people on Twitter but also get to know them, their work, and the kinds of things of interest to them. This will help you craft a perfect pitch for your message and creates the win-win relationship for you and the journalist you hope will pick up your story. You craft a perfect on-topic and relevant pitch to their beat, this goes a long way!
Journalists are under a lot of pressure and have their own deadlines, editors to please and a competive audience to serve. They need your input, breaking news or story sources to provide relevant and timely coverage.
So follow, follow, follow! And remember, interact, offer the media another source if you can’t help them and be an asset in any way you can. It’s all about connecting and helping them to do their jobs with ease.
Here is a recent blog post with an excellent resource for finding media people on Twitter to follow: www.laurasolop.com/media-people-on-twitter-for-authors/
