Twitter is like the lottery. It can pay off big, but you have to play to win. Todd Van Hoosear mentioned on Twitter that he was on a conference call with Wall Street Journal tech reporter Kara Swisher, Sam Whitmore and his Media Survey subscribers.
Van Hoosear wasn’t bragging, he was offering to field questions from fellow PR people on Twitter during the Q&A portion of the call.
We took him up on his gracious offer and asked “what’s the one thing PR people can do to improve their relationship with her and ultimately the WSJ and other media."
Here is a transcript of her answer in 140 character bursts via Van Hoosear.
@karaswisher says (about PR people): "Be clear. Be honest. Sure, be loyal to your company, but don't be stupid."
@karaswisher says "I'll talk to just about anybody. I have great respect for PR people. They can be incredibly useful."
@karaswisher "Understand what each of us does. I don't cover every single thing. We're more analytical than most other blogs."
Twitter won’t clean your oven or cure diseases, but it is a handy communication utility that can have an impact on what we do. The above is a great example. Everyone wins in that conversation, Swisher, Van Hoosear and now you.
One word of caution: speed breeds stupidity. It takes time to ramp up on Twitter, understand it and, as a result, see the value. Anyone out there trying to apply old rules to new tools will be disappointed at best.
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tags public relations PR media relations media good pitch bad pitch bad pitch blog Twitter Kara Swisher
Thanks, Kevin. Good post. It's rare that anybody can get a 1/2 hour of Kara's time, especially if there's not an article involved, but Sam Whitmore manages to be able to do it!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, anybody thinking of any creative ways of pitching Kara (say via Twitter) should think twice--she still prefers email.
The link to Marina's question really hurt. Wow... Old school...
Im trying to use twitter usefully, but its very challenging when no one else in the office or in my city for that matter, twitters. The Social Media gurus are all a twitter about twitter, and are all over Plurk now, I just don't think the traditional media and the general public are there yet.
ReplyDeleteSoon...
Heather - Your profile says you are in Louisville. One social media guru, Jason Falls, is also in Louisville and could probably help define the local landscape when it comes to who is using Twitter. I suspect you and Jason are the tip of the iceberg. More people use Twitter in Cincinnati than I would have iniitally imagined.
ReplyDeleteThis includes local media. Here is a link to just a handful of reporters using Twitter:
http://red66.com/2008/02/a-list-of-news-organizations-using-twitter/
I only point this out to encourage you. You are clearly ahead of the curve in your use of Twitter. But "soon" is sooner than you think.
Ah yes, Madame Heather, we do have over 200 Twitterati in the River City. Todd Mundt of WFPL is the only prominent media member, though. And, of course, 48 folks showed up for http://www.letstweetup.com last week - a Twitter only gathering that @earwood and @smorty71 put on.
ReplyDeleteGranted, mainstreamers aren't exactly on board yet and media are slow on the uptick, but there is a burgeoning community here. Now if they'll just fix the damn IM, at least one of us will be happy.