How Social Media PR Wins Journalists

[Jason Kintzler]

PitchEngine member Kevin Dugan, shared this article from the New York Times in his friendfeed room, The Bad Pitch Blog and it got me thinking - It's time public relations got back basics, with this new fangled social media.

The article, Need Press? Repeat: ‘Green,’ ‘Sex,’ ‘Cancer,’ ‘Secret,’ ‘Fat’ tells how a press release bearing a sexy headline about a toxic shower curtain caught the attention of major news outlets including ABCNews.com, U.S. News & World Report, The Daily News in New York, MSNBC.com and The Los Angeles Times, according to the New York Times.

PR consultants and press distribution services chimed in with their tips and tricks for using keywords in their PR methodology. The president of PR Newswire, David B. Armon, talked about his company's keyword density tool and elaborates on the statistics of recent PR trigger words.

Since when did the PR campaign become more about a mathematical equation of keywords and hits-per-click than actually serving the media? It's no wonder 'PR spam' is a term thrown around newsrooms and posted on blogs these days. With distribution services adding "sophistication" to the mix, many PR pros have skipped the basics in favor of an easier "point-and-shoot" method of content delivery. This is where social media becomes a game-changer.

Social Media and PR Harry Hoover, another PitchEngine member, is one of the masterminds behind My Creative Team's Twittering Journalists Wiki which hosts a running list of journalists and news outlets using Twitter. Not only is the list a benefit to PR pros, it could lead to more journalists adopting similar methods of less-intrusive communications.

As more media members begin to use and experience social media communication tools like Twitter and FriendFeed, the disconnect between media and PR pros will weaken. Journalists interested in receiving updates from a credible PR agency will choose to 'follow' them, and PR pros will be forced to (once again) engage with media, not just push content at them.

As PR pros, this is our opportunity to PR It Forward and help urge our journalist friends and media contacts into social media. Once there, the process becomes more beneficial for each of us. More content, more dialog and less of the rigid traditional press methods are necessary.

Distribution Takes a Turn As Social Media Press Releases the TwitPitch, and MicroPR become more the norm, spamming your release seems less and less attractive, doesn't it? Current distribution methods may be super-sized and streamlined, but are they sending the right message to journalists? And are you benefiting from the relationships generated? Not likely. Time will tell how press distribution will change in the next few years, but one thing is certain, like newspapers and other media outlets they serve, wires will have to adapt to survive. What do you think, are current press distribution methods effective?

Monitoring Over Tracking New start-ups like Radian6 allow PR agencies and brands to monitor conversations and analyze them internally. Unlike distribution services, it's not about how many deliveries, it's about what's being said. Kind of like quality over quantity.

The future of PR is in our hands. Journalists are already discovering the hardships of tradition in a changing industry, it's simply a matter of time before PR as an industry will change with it. Are you ready?

More Social Media PR at PitchEngine. Connect with me on facebook, twitter and friendfeed.

[Jason Kintzler]

Good point Lonnie. I try to point that out in my posts- it's critical they get engaged in social media and learn how it works and where there are opportunities for their brand, clients, etc., A quick way to learn is through a consultant or strategist.

[Lonnie B Hodge]

Some traditional PR Agencies are quick to jump on the bandwagon, but need to invest in social strategists and trainers who can help them correctly start the conversation appropriately equipped both technically and ethically.
(Was cut of earlier as this site was blocked in CHina)

[Lonnie B Hodge]

One very large company for which I was doing SEM loaded tags I wrote with keywords related to the Sichuan earthquake tragedythinkingit would brong them in more hits.
They treated the front page of a legitimate news agency like it was a Blogger scraper site trying to pull in a few bucks on adwords revenue. In fact, they destroyed the integrity of the algorithm I had taken weeks to build. They were no stories related to the quake on the page in question.
Even if it had been a legitimate set of keywords that they had inserted they had failed to do their homework regarding trends: By the time I caught the act Google trend was showing that searches for information on the disaster had fallen to a pre-quake low.

[Richard McInnis]

Hi Jason,
You hit the mark, PR pros and media will have a much greater impact when they make the effort to find and engage in conversation vs broadcasting. We help find those conversations as they are happening so you PR pros can join in and participate.
Great post and thanks for the mention!

Best,
Richard - Radian6