Comet Branding - Branding | PR | Social Media

Before and After: Social Media Pitching

Call me crazy, but one aspect of my job I thoroughly enjoy is media pitching. I like building relationships with reporters and bloggers around the city of Milwaukee and nationwide. Besides making some pretty sweet new friends, there is nothing more gratifying then to see a story you worked hard to get coverage for, published. I can honestly say I have a true affinity for media relations.

In my opinion, social media has changed the playing field of media relations. The basic model is still the same but some of the vehicles have gone in for a tune up. The idea is unchanged. It’s still about building a relationship and being top-of-mind to the reporter. Social media enables companies and organizations to build and maintain relationships with the media, all with the goal to be the coveted expert resource in the industry.

Here are some of the tools that I’m using to build stronger relationships with the media.

Twitter

Twitter is valuable for building relationships either through your personal brand or your client’s online personality. I make a point to stay up-to-date on what journalists are writing about, besides seeing what they are doing professionally. It never hurts to have a grasp of what they like to do in their free time. Take a look at what they retweet and who they converse with on a regular basis. It is always nice to know more about the person behind the journalist.

Twitter is also a great tool to listen to the conversation before you dive-in and start contributing. Twellow and WeFollow are two tools I use to help me start building relationship through Twitter. Both of these services search Twitter biographies, so do some simple searches to find various beat reporters nationwide. By finding who’s covering your field of interest, you’re able to stay up to date on what is fresh within those industries.

PitchEngine

PitchEngine is a fantastic tool that will turn your static traditional press release into a magically dynamic social media release. What I like about this tool is it creates an easy-to-share landing page for your press release. I have often done some of my pitching directly through Twitter using PitchEngine by sending a quick direct message through Twitter with the URL to the social media release.

Within PitchEngine, you are also able to jazz-up your press release by adding relevant photography and video content. This can give the story a more humanistic, personal touch as well as a much needed breath of fresh air. Text-heavy press releases can grow old and stale, but incorporating video and photography online brightens up the story.

NewsBasis and Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Social media is making it much easier for journalists and PR reps to connect. NewsBasis and HARO are the tools I’m currently using to cut through the clutter of media pitching. Think of NewsBasis and HARO as the ultimate PR matchmaker. Through these services, members of the media can reach out to PR representatives for particular experts in the field they are covering. If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so now.

Any other social media tools or services that you’re using for pitching that I didn’t mention?

Do you have a personal social media pitching success story that you’d like to share?

Go to Formspring.me/AndrewWiech and ask me a question about social media. I’ll do my best to find an answer, provide my opinion and increase our collective knowledge.

Tags: Andrew Wiech, HARO, Help a Reporter Out, Journalist, Media Relations, NewsBasis, PitchEngine, PR, Public Relations, reporter, social media, Twellow, Twitter, WeFollow, writer