Most PR professionals seem to agree that media relations just gets harder every year.
In 2018, 51% of respondents said media relations is getting harder, according to the annual JOTW Communications Survey, that I’ve partnered with Ned Lundquist and Ned’s Job of the Week newsletter to field. In 2019, that number jumped 17 points to 68%. The 2020 survey results — released shortly after this post was originally published – found that statistic is up 25% in three years.
If you work in PR and have responsibility for media relations, then you have in a sense, a professional obligation to be on Twitter.
Why? Because so many journalists are on the platform.
Consider the following statistics:
- The first two places journalists go to find news is online newspapers and magazines (60%) and Twitter (22%); print news is a distant third with 5%;
- 85% of journalists say Twitter is the most valuable social network;
- 69% track how many times the stories they produce are shared on social media;
- More journalists plan to spend more time on Twitter (38%) this year than any other social media site; about half (46%) will spend the same amount of time as they did last year; and
- 75% of journalists like it when PR pros follow them on Twitter (hey, we’re all human).
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Those numbers were tallied up by Muck Rack for the company’s The State of Journalism 2020 report. The 2019 edition of their survey revealed similar data points, so it’s not new, but it’s definitely real.
Ways to use Twitter to Earn Media Coverage
Later this month, I’ll be part of a roundup of PechaKucha presentations for the Social Media Club of Atlanta. My presentation will focus on ways to use Twitter to earn media coverage. The session will be online (over Zoom, as you might expect), so there’s no reason anyone interested couldn’t register and attend.
I’m not going to spoil the presentation here, but anyone that reads me on a regular basis knows, I’m straight-forward; I don’t do gimmicks or sleight of hand stuff. If you attend, you can expect pragmatic, down-to-earth tips for earned media that you can put into practice as soon as you hang up the Zoom call.
- Online event: Social Shorts #5 – Social Media Club Atlanta, Powered by PechaKucha
- When: May 28, 2020 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (ET)
- Where: Zoom
- How: Register here; it’s free but registration is required
- Sessions scheduled (to date):
- YouTube is not a Social Media Platform by Kendrick Disch
- Business Matchmaking by Joe Koufman
- Ways to use Twitter to Earn Media Coverage by Frank Strong (yours truly)
- #2Dto3D, Making Social Social Again by Jason Dominy
- Inside Google Ads; Presenter by Josh Bernstein
- Organized by SMC Atlanta President Brian Rudolph
Hope to see you there!
Get a Copy of the Slides
Update: The session is over, but you can see or download a copy of the slides from SlideShare:
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Two Reasons PR Needs to Budget a Little Paid Social Budget
Image credits: Muck Rack and Photo by Yucel Moran on Unsplash
