What is a journalist looking for on Twitter?

News, of course!

A better question is, How is a journalist looking for news on Twitter? A savvy journalist uses Twitter to excavate story angles in a variety of ways. PR pros with a handle on how journalists are looking for news are in a better position to offer valuable, timely expertise and generate media exposure for their clients.

Here are five great ways to leverage your company’s Twitter profile.

FIND YOUR WRITERS: The number-one reason journalists use Twitter is that it is probably the fastest, easiest way to keep up with what news sources (you!) are up to. The first step is getting in touch with them. Acquaint yourself with the search tool in the Twitter platform, peruse contact pages of news organizations, and see who your industry peers are following to bolster your feed.

• PR Tip: There are online services offering journalist directories searchable by news organization, beat, and region. PressPass (www.presspass.me) and Seek or Shout (http://seekorshout.com) are two FREE online programs that can help get you in touch with relevant media entities.

LISTEN TO YOUR WRITERS: Journalists frequently pose questions to their followers to aid in the newsgathering process. Make sure to monitor this, and deliver exactly what they’re asking for whenever possible.

• PR Tip: Journalists looking for sources will post their requests @JournoRequest or #journorequest. Search those handles for potential media opportunities.

ENGAGE YOUR WRITERS: Relevance is the key to good sharing; every tweet should tie in to something else happening on Twitter. This is what is meant by “engaging” with social media. Random posting directed at no one in particular tends to be ineffective. Imagine Twitter as a giant conversation; when it’s your turn to speak, make sure to offer something that fits in with what others are saying.

• PR Tip: Use #hashtags to start conversations. For example, when tweeting at a trade show, always add in the tradeshow hashtag. That way, journalists covering the show will see your input.

PITCH YOUR WRITERS: Every journalist has a preferred method of getting pitches. Some use Twitter, some don’t. Check their profile; it’s often a good indicator. Journalists that prefer Twitter pitches do so because the 140-character limit ensures a quick, to-the-point pitch. Ultimately, it is up to the PR pro to feel out an editor’s preference. When in doubt, simply ask — “Hello @editor, I represent @company; I have #something you might dig; what’s the best way to reach out?”

• PR Tip: A good way to warm up to an editor is to retweet stories he or she posts.

GET IN FRONT OF BREAKING NEWS: Nothing is faster and more useful than a Twitter feed for a developing story. By searching tweets with #hashtags that denote a specific topic, a journalist is able to cultivate leads in real time. 99% of breaking news stories will not have any meaningful connection with your PR, but you never know when you can get in front of a breaking story and turn it into a nice chunk of earned media.

• PR Tip: Use Advanced Search to search by topic and location for happenings that present an opportunity for getting in on news coverage. For example, a tech manufacturer that supplies electrical components for a weather-tracking device could find itself in a position to provide timely information for news media covering a storm system. Refine your search to find news opportunities specific to your client.

In our webinar we looked at how public relations professionals can get journalists to call them. In this series, we’ll look at how the experts put together an event from deciding who to invite to following up after the event.

This week, we look at the preparation before an event. 

Kei Baritugo, founder of BoldLove Communications says that one of the most important things when it comes to getting coverage, is organization.

Key Objectives

“Be creative and give yourself enough lead time. Most people underestimate how long it takes to get a pitch out,” says Baritugo. Part of that organization is to identify your overall goal with key objectives that have measurable outcomes, and demographics.

“Why are you hosting the event?” says Baritugo. “Who are your target audiences? Once you have those answers, you create your key media list.”

Some goals can be an increase in fanbase among a certain group of people or create a positive shift in public perception.

Demographics

Jillian Zrihen of Tracey Brooke Public Relations says demographics is key. “[It] would depend of the type of event I am inviting them to as well as who the client is, ” says Zrihen. “We recently had a holiday party for GLOSSYBOX.ca where everyone got to experience different beauty stations – it was a really girly and interactive event. So for something like this, I would target women who are passionate about beauty, open to trying new products and trend setters.”

Story Angles

Once the media list has been created, Baritugo finds good story angles that she can pitch to her key media. Not only does that help with getting early coverage for her product or event, it generates goodwill with the media.

“They see you’re organized and have thought about their publications,” she says. Baritugo also likes to send out a well-designed invitation and implement promotional activities such as contests and giveaways that create buzz leading up to the event.

Next week: What to do at the event.

I’m not the only one. Mark Evans points out how social media can affect a company. (Reposted from the Marketwire Small Business Blog).

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Thanks to social media sites like Twitter, nothing is secret anymore. Particularly a company’s triumphs and errors in customer service.

Numerous consumer incidents have turned viral on social media. Most notably the 2009 incident in which United Airlines lost the guitar of Halifax based musician Dave Carroll, who turned it into the video and song “United Breaks Guitars.” Read more about that famous story here.

But you don’t need to make a big fuss, or even be recounting a huge incident on social media for a story to hit around the world.

Recently, a boy in the U.K. wrote to Lego about a lost action figure. The kind and clever reply from the company, posted online by the boy’s father, has now gone viral .

It’s proof that good experiences with business can generate attention, not just the horror stories.

So, what does it all mean?

-Everyone is watching and everyone is talking. While in the past, customer service moments were shared with neighbours and family, social media now lets your clients tell their stories far and wide.

-You never know what will be big. From a returned rotten cantaloupe to a bad in-store conversation, it is difficult to tell what will get noticed by your clients, and which clients have a wide social media network in which to talk.

-Stories count. Creative customer service solutions — the ones where real effort took place — are the stories clients tell their friends and beyond. I’m always sharing the story of the Disney World staffer who stopped asking me survey questions to grab a pile of napkins to save my son’s ice cream cone disaster.

-It’s almost always worth it. Spending a few dollars to make your customers happy is never lost money. Either directly or indirectly, that money will come back to you. I also openly share the story of the cottage owners who waited for me to send them money before they would ship my son’s favourite blanket back when we had forgotten it. We’ll never rent a cottage there again.

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Has social media helped when you’ve experienced good or bad customer service? Share in the comments!

When is the best time to distribute a news release?

by Mitch Schneider

Try to avoid Mondays, Fridays and weekends when sending out your news announcements. Mondays tend to have the highest volume of press releases, so your release may get lost in the Monday swell. As for Fridays and weekends, most journalists and media members take two of these three days off, so there’s a good chance your release won’t cross the path of a reporter (and even a consumer) on that day.

As for time of day, most news releases are sent out right on the hour (i.e. 7:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., etc.). Because of this, I recommend distributing your company news off the hour, like 7:55 a.m., or 9:15 a.m. This makes your release stand out a bit more from the crowd.

If you’re targeting U.S. media, you’re better off sending news in the morning hours of Eastern Standard Time (EST), since most journalists, media members and consumers are free to consume news during these morning hours, and not in the afternoon when they’re either working or on deadline.

The ideal days and times to send out news are Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, anytime between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. EST, OFF the hour.

The same principles hold true for international distribution, EXCEPT keep in mind the time difference of where you are distributing your news release. For example, if you’re in New York City, and you’d like to distribute a release to London media, be sure to note London is five hours ahead of NYC. As a result, you’ll want to set your release time somewhere between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. EST.

Next week: The best multimedia for your releases 

Here are 5 quick and easy ways to make your press releases more social:

1. Tweet, Facebook and blog your release.  Tweeting the headline of your press release is by far one of the easiest ways to socialize your content.  Twitter’s 140-character environment is tailor-made for headlines and if yours is well-written, then it’s just waiting to be tweeted and re-tweeted.  (Great example:  2012 Miss America Contestants Create Pre-Pageant Pancake Pandemonium in Las Vegas.)  Ditto for Facebook, but remember, don’t just copy-and-paste the entire contents of your release onto your Facebook page; post a few key points, a photo or a quote from the release.  You can always provide a link to the full text.  And don’t forget to re-purpose your release content into a blog post.  You’ve already done the heavy lifting to create a great communications piece, so be sure to take that content and blog it.   
2. Use multimedia posted to YouTube, Flickr, and other sharing sites. For years, marketers have known the power of photos, video and other multimedia assets to help tell a story and support the body copy of their press releases.  Executive interviews, high-resolution product shots, customer testimonials and other multimedia used in your releases help provide context to your content, and give your readers a chance to interact with more than just words.  When you post video and photos to a social sharing site like YouTube, Vimeo or Flickr, you give your audience the chance to comment on your content and share it with others.  Of course, not every video turns out to be viral, but posting content to these sites and linking to it from your press release creates great social opportunities. 
3. Post to your social newsroom.  More and more organizations are building an online newsroom into their website as a multi-purpose hub for posting news coverage, FAQs, corporate backgrounders and press releases.  Equipped with RSS feeds, links to the organizations’ Twitter, Facebook and other social channels, these newsrooms do more than just display one-dimensional news — they let readers interact with the content that’s posted, subscribe to news alerts and other updates, and keep engaged with the company.  Be sure not to overlook posting your press releases to your newsroom.  (TIP:  If you want to take more control of your company’s newsroom by creating a ‘content destination’ for your customers and the media, Marketwire’s EasySuite 2.0 is your answer.)

   

4. Take your readers somewhere.  A hyperlink is a powerful thing in a press release.  Not only is it important to your SEO and keyword strategies, but it’s an incredibly effective way to give your readers something or take them somewhere with a simple click.  You can incorporate links in your release that drive traffic to a specific marketing campaign landing page or online product demo.  You can drive them to your social media channels, too.   Here’s a great example of a press release from KFC that directs readers to their Facebook page and gives them a coupon for a free sandwich: KFC Offers Canada a “Zinger” of a Deal.  (Tip:  Remember…all of this activity is measureable.  Marketers rejoice!) 
5. Make use of the “share” functionality with your distributed press release.   When you use a professional distribution service for your press release, you often have the option to embed your release with sharing functionality so that people who read your release online can share it with others in their social networks immediately and directly from the release.
    

The explosion of digital content and social media has certainly turned the communications world on its head and redefined media relations, but it’s also given rise to new opportunities for audience engagement and new ways for PR and marketing folks to use press releases.  

Related posts:

• What does the future hold for press releases?
• The 5 W’s of successful website content
• 3 tips for writing a headline that’s SEO and social media friendly

Include Features Releases in Your Content Marketing Strategy.

Content marketing is hot. It’s a way for organizations, whether large or small, B2B or B2C, to communicate with their customers in a way that doesn’t involve direct selling. By delivering valuable information to your customers you create credibility and trust, and in the process, you earn their loyalty and business.

A features release is an ideal component of a content marketing campaign. Try using a “hub and spoke” approach in which all of your campaign-specific content assets such as white papers, Web content, blog posts and your features release (the spokes) link to a central hub such as a microsite or landing page specific to the campaign.

By including a unique tracking hyperlink in your features release you’re able to identify how much traffic it drives to your landing page in comparison with your other tactics. And on that landing page, which includes a call to action or offer, you can see how many of the people who read your features release take advantage of your offer. That’s a measurement you can apply directly to determining return on investment.

Reach the Right People. Begin by Listening.

How do you know if your features story will appeal to the people you want to attract? Begin by “eavesdropping” in on the social media conversations your customers and target audiences are having with each other. You can learn a lot about their issues, challenges, needs and wants and you might even find new types of audiences for your products or services. There are free and paid monitoring tools to accomplish this such as BlogPulse, SocialMention, Facebook Search and Sysomos. Once you’re armed with this intelligence you’re ready to translate your messages into a features story that addresses the general themes under discussion. You’re also in a position to join in and contribute to the most pertinent of those social media conversations and, when appropriate, include a link to your features release to support your points.

As with any online content asset, make sure you incorporate relevant keywords in your features release so it will appear at the top of search engine results pages when your target audiences are searching for those topics. 

When you make your features release part of your content marketing strategy you multiply its potential reach many times over through print and online newspapers, magazines, broadcast outlets and websites – many with audiences that number in the millions.  Here are two examples: 

• EmpowHER Offers Resources to Help Women Manage Holiday Stress
• Fall Gardening Is Easier Than Ever
  

Features Themes for 2012: Now Is the Time to Plan

Marketwire just published its new 2012 Features Calendar that includes topics and copy deadlines found on 2012 media editorial calendars. Take a moment to check it out. You’ll find great ideas for timely topics that you can align with the products and services your organization offers. Put on your creative hat to find a new, interesting slant.  Perhaps you can write a how-to features story to educate people about your industry. Or you could describe how your organization solved a particular problem or addressed a need. Again, align this content around what interests people who might be potential buyers for your products or services. Remember to keep your angle interesting and content timeless to boost your chances of media publication. There’s no limit to the possibilities. 

Be sure to read these related posts about maximizing the impact of your online content:

• Ask the Expert: 5 great tips on how to create content and conversations, courtesy of Rebecca Lieb
• The 5 Ws of successful website content
• 4 ways to rethink how we measure our content marketing ROI

The examples below certainly dispel the myth that press releases are only useful for financial earnings and product recalls.  Today’s press release is as much a means of reaching media as it is a direct channel to consumers; it’s a media relations, marketing and PR tool.  With a press release anything goes, and the best ones include content tailored to a specific audience who will find value in that content – from vegans in search of a turkey-free Thanksgiving to die-hard Black Friday bargain hunters and those concerned with safe and sanitary turkey preparation.  Take a look at some of these Thanksgiving-focused press releases:

• Pamela Anderson Talks Turkey:  The animal rights activist and Hollywood starlet, together with Los Angeles-based national animal rights organization Last Chance for Animals (LCA), shares a meal of Tofurky and all of the vegan trimmings and feed pumpkin pie to rescued turkeys during a compassionate and animal-friendly holiday meal.
• Top 5 Tips to Keep Thanksgiving from Being the Most ‘Plumber-Ful’ Time of Year:  Mr. Rooter® Plumbing knows that the day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers, because cleaning up after the big feast often means putting anything and everything down the drain.  The Thanksgiving holiday brings a spike in emergency calls to plumbers for malfunctioning garbage disposals and clogged drains. 
• BMO Report: More Canadians Will Do their Shopping in the U.S. This Holiday Season:  The ongoing strength of the Canadian dollar, a still significant – although narrowing – gap between Canadian and U.S. retail prices and proximity to U.S. cities and shops, will see more Canadians cross-border shopping for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.  BMO Bank of Montreal says that 18 per cent of Canadians plan to shop in the United States this holiday season, up five per cent from last year (13 per cent), and BMO’s Holiday Spending Survey also found that Canadians are planning to spend almost $1,397 each this year on holiday shopping, travel and entertaining.
• Safe Food Handling for a Healthy, Happy Thanksgiving:  Safe food preparation and handling are critical ingredients of every healthy, happy Thanksgiving meal whether cooked at home or in a restaurant, and US Foods provides at-home cooks and diners-out with tips and processes for the safe preparation, cooking, serving and storing of Thanksgiving turkeys. 
• Don’t Turn Thanksgiving Into a Tragedy This Year, Buckle Up. Every Trip. Every Time:  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts save more lives than any other single piece of automotive safety equipment.  Of the 187 passenger vehicle occupant deaths at night during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday period, over one-half (54%) did not have their seat belts fastened (where seat belt use was known); while 49 percent in day-time crashes were not wearing seat belts.

Press releases rich with multimedia, optimized content and assets targeted to specific audiences play a vital role in B2B and B2C communications, and continue to be a relied-upon source of news and information for journalists.  Providing readers with content that is interesting, relevant and share-worthy is key to audience engagement, and a foundation for building strong, long-lasting relationships with those who can make a real difference to your brand and bottom line.

Learn more about how press release distribution can benefit your marketing and communications strategies.

Discover what makes the Social Media 2.0 press release a powerful tool to engage online audiences and consumers.

Read more about Black Friday and social media buzz, courtesy of Sysomos Community Manager extraordinaire, Sheldon Levine (@40deuce).

Here are a few ways to catch a blogger’s attention:

Research.  Know who you’re pitching to. Don’t assume that, because you Googled “medical blogger,” the first link for a medical blogger appearing at the top of a search engine results page is the best person to pitch. Always research individual bloggers, read some of their posts and review the feedback they receive.

Get Personal.  Get to know the blogger. Don’t pitch to a blogger just because you want him or her to write about what you pitch. You should also be a fan of the blogger, get familiar with his or her work, likes and dislikes, and subscribe to the blog. Pitching becomes a little easier when you add a personal touch such as “I agree with your post about …”

Don’t Beat Around the Bush.  Get to the point. Journalists don’t want to read long pitches or emails and neither do bloggers.

Don’t Drop Email Bombs.  Once you’ve emailed your pitch, don’t overwhelm bloggers with incessant follow-up. Everyone is bombarded by emails and sending an email every day or following up too soon can make a blogger ignore you. Give them time and bloggers will reply to you when they have read your email and let you know what they think.

Make it Clear Why a Blogger Should Respond.  Everyone wants to know what’s in it for them. If bloggers don’t feel that what you’re pitching them is worth their time or they’re not getting something in return, they’re more likely not to respond.

Follow these tips and a blogger can become your best ally in getting your organization’s messages across to your target online audiences. Just as you wouldn’t ignore key news outlets in your public relations strategy, blogs are a necessary and natural extension of your PR program. In fact, depending on your product or service, blogs often attract far greater numbers of engaged readers than do mainstream media.

Learn more about blogger relations and the best ways to navigate traditional and social media.  Download Marketwire’s free 6-chapter eBook, ”Mastering Audience Engagement.”

Check out the Sysomos blog for articles and insights into social media monitoring and analytics.

Meet our Chicago team and see how they go above and beyond for our clients and colleagues every day — click the video link below:

Meet Marketwire Chicago from Marketwire + Sysomos on Vimeo.

Watch another great Marketwire video, “Stop Pushing, Start Engaging,” and learn how we can help you stay one step ahead in the ever-evolving world of communications.

And be sure to check out The Pulse, our weekly look at the people, places and things that are cool in PR and social media. It’s shareable, share-worthy content with a twist.

With three decades of experience in connecting newsmakers to news consumers, Marketwire has a great deal of insight into information distribution and content sharing – communication is our business.  To say that the press release has changed over those 30 years is an understatement, and much of the functionality that seems so obvious in 2011 was unimaginable just ten years ago: direct feeds into newsroom editorial systems around the world, releases containing hyperlinks, embedded multimedia and optimized content, and the ability for readers to immediately share content they “like” with thousands of personal connections.  And while it’s far easier to see where the press release has been than it is to predict where it is going, there are three undeniable truths that will see the press release not only survive – but thrive – for years to come:

Truth #1:  Audiences will continue to play an important role in shaping how news and information is published and shared. 

Press releases have evolved not only as a result of advances in technology, but also in response to the needs, demands and behaviors of both newsmakers and news consumers.  Today’s news consumers are everywhere – Google, Facebook, Twitter, numerous web portals and company websites, and more — and they are demanding content be available to them in the format of their choice, and often in real-time.   Press releases continue to provide timely, direct-from-source news to media and financial recipients worldwide, and when they are indexed by online search, the same releases shared with editors and journalists are being found and read by the public. Press release content is blogged about and posted to Facebook, and headlines are tweeted and re-tweeted. Companies that provide news consumers and customers with up-to-date content in their online media rooms are providing news consumers and customers with a reliable source for information, insight and education about their products and services.  Knowing where your audience gathers and how they want to engage with your content will dictate how you create, publish and share your information. 

These are all developments and directions that Marketwire is actively involved in, and we work with our clients to help them leverage all channels.  Frankly, we are agnostic as to which channel is chosen. The simple fact is that we encourage our clients to choose what make sense for their particular audiences.   We view it as our role to ensure we make it easy to access all those channels as effectively and productively as possible.  

Truth #2:  Enhancements to the content and structure of the press release will continue to evolve. 

It’s difficult to remember a time when the world wasn’t online and the news we shared was on text-only pages transmitted to media, investors and other recipients.  The digitizing and socializing of press releases has liberated content, allowing us to create and share richer, fuller and more interactive stories. A simple scan through the Marketwire News Room demonstrates the myriad of ways communicators use press releases to engage their audiences: YouTube video, embedded product manuals, financial tables, executive interviews, and so much more, all of it immediately viewable, downloadable and sharable. And as communicators grow savvier with creating content that is search-friendly and optimized for online audiences, press releases play a pivotal role in a company’s ability to directly and indirectly leverage connections with other credible online sources.  Integrating press releases into today’s SEO strategies is key to a company’s lead generation and branding objectives.  

It’s important to remember that at its core, a press release is about telling a story — the opening of a new hotel, the launch of a new medical technology, the discovery of an iron ore deposit — and as the structure of the press release continues to allow for enhanced content, it will continue its evolution from a communications ‘tool’ to an interactive platform for content-sharing and audience engagement.   I like to view a press release as a distributed marketing landing page.  It is powerful and interactive content that can be distributed to and shared with thousands of relevant recipients to help a company build relationships with its audiences and achieve its business goals . 

Truth #3:  Consumer demand for relevant, customizable and portable content will continue to increase. 

The ability to send, share and receive information across countless personal channels and social networks invariably leads to increasing difficulty in managing the volume and flow of that information.  With greater frequency, we are able to customize not only the amount of content that comes to us, but also the kind of content we receive.  Press releases will continue to meet those demands, enabled by RSS functionality, social media sharing and tagging, and mobile-friendly content.  They’ll also serve to direct consumers to other relevant content destinations, be they a company’s website, marketing campaign microsite, blog, or other places where end-users can customize their experience and seek out the information that is most relevant to them.  The evolution of “more like this” and “related news” functionality within press releases will allow readers to further personalize their experiences and interact with curated content that resonates with them.

There is no doubt that the future of the press release will be dictated by a mix of what consumers want and what technology makes possible.  Our role will be as it has always been:  to stay on the leading edge of what is possible so that we not only provide what our clients expect today, but anticipate what they will want tomorrow.

Related Channel M posts:

• The 5 Ws of Successful Website Content
• Still think audience engagement isn’t essential to public relations? Three reasons why you need to think again
• You.com: Storytelling at its best takes social media To Infinity and Beyond