Pitch Perfect: Microblogging

Pitching is all about relationships. Twitter is all about instantaneous exchange of status updates/information. If you combine the two, you no longer need to muddle through stuffed inboxes and mailboxes to get to that prized reporter.

More reporters are hitting up the genius of Twitter nowadays, and they aren’t just tech reporters. You can now find a whole slew of journalism mavens positing themselves on Twitter, Friendfeed, and Facebook. In pitching a reporter, Facebook has been the exchange agent of choice, though your best bet is microblogging – because it’s personal, fast, and unconventional. Reporters love to be people.

In order to properly navigate this new information exchange, you might want to remind them of their humanness by sending a greeting. First, it’s important to see what they’ve “tweeted” and respond to it in a professional manner. You can even “follow” them first and type in an @ followed by their handle to send a message. Same principles of a pitch: if they like what they see, they’ll follow you too.

Next, check out their numerous tinyurl link updates that will give you access to their latest articles written. Follow same procedure as above, only this time mention their article and your client’s area of expertise—but as with the length of a voicemail pitch, you must do it in 140 characters or less.

Happy Tweeting! And for Pete’s Sake, stop poking on Facebook.

A Twitter Experiment

A blogger enlisted a few Twitterers to post a link to one of his blog posts and see how traffic improved. The results of his experiment are here.

This is an idea Ive always wanted to try. I figured that it would work, but it is hard to tell to what degree. The problem with this blogger's experiment is that he simply said that the hits on his website doubled. Did they double from 5-10 people or 5k to 10k? It is a vague term. I wish he would have clarified that, but it is an interesting experiment never the less.

Your Press Release is Lame

...now you can have your press releases graded for you. Press Release Grader scores press releases on a scale out of 100. Now you will be able to understand why no reporters are responding to you.

Is it accurate though? Not sure, but according to the comments from the article here, Press Release Grader gives their own press release a 0/100.

Flickr With a Timeline

While Flickr and Facebook allow you to upload your photos, LifeSnapz allows you to upload photos/videos in a chronological format. This is a great idea, since many people on Facebook have upwards of 500 pictures tagged to just themselves. Below is a sample pic from TechCrunch.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon on LinkedIn

This may not come as a surprise to you, but it definitely stunned me. LinkedIn usually sends a disclaimer when you click on a high-profile individual about having nothing in common with the person with who you are trying to connect. Well, what do you know? Kevin Bacon knows someone who knows me.

LinkedIn is a professional ground for not only celebrities but politicians. Look up all of the major politicians you see broadcast over CNN, MSNBC, Nightly News with Brian Williams, and voila-- they have 500+ contacts. Barack Obama has attained the 500+ status; John McCain has too, adding on 30 recommendations part of his tenure as the Arizona Senator.

With profiles that provide a detailed account of a celebrity's employment, or should I say acting history, can we really trust that it is indeed the person whose autograph we so desperately long to have and display?

Regarding politicians on LinkedIn, I'm not sure this is the best way to utilize social media to garner public support. It seems like a third-party website is the best way to reach your constituents. Or then again, maybe those 50 bajillion e-mail messages I receive from my presidential hopeful may do the online political network a bit of justice.

Should you ever want to send Kevin Bacon an e-mail, write to him at KEVIN.BAC0N@hotmail.com. (That's a zero between C and N in BAC0N), he says.