3 ways to make your PR plans more social

Are you practicing media relations from 20 years ago? Update your strategy with these tips.

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Ten years ago the formula was much the same, with email replacing fax and mail.

Today, the landscape has changed vastly.

I had dinner last week with one of my friends who is a reporter for a local news station. She told me that she turns more and more to Twitter to reach out for interviews, find local sources, and gather information for her stories. She also said it’s her preferred method of being reached for follow-ups.

Why? Because it’s instant, convenient, and more likely to grab her attention. And despite what your PR professors may have told you, she said the phone call follow-ups are not only a waste of time, but a huge annoyance to reporters who are inundated with hundreds of emails each day and working on tight deadlines.

In my experience, the old way of pitching and distributing news releases has become less effective, and I’ve seen how it’s often easier to reach reporters through social media than phone or email. I think that’s the case for several reasons, two of them being:

1. It’s more efficient. Reporters don’t have time to read hundreds of three to five paragraph pitches every day. If you can pitch the story in 140 characters or less, reporters are more likely to read it , and your pitch is much more likely to be focused. Less really is more sometimes.

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