Valerie Simon
I am new to Twitter and on Monday I participated in my first ever #journchat. An interesting mix of journalists and PR professionals provided a lively conversation that spanned a variety of subjects. The two topics I found most compelling related to pitching and analysis. Can Twitter be used to pitch journalists? And regardless of the method, is it possible to successfully pitch in 140 characters? As @CMM_PR pointed out, “The blogosphere is humming with blogs about how PR Flacks are trying to perfect the 140 character pitch. Is it worth the effort?”
@arikhanson seems to think so, “From PR perspective, 140 characters forces us to refine our pitch. Get to the nugget. To the point faster.” In today’s fast-paced environment, brevity is essential. Case in point: @DeRushaJ, a journalist, told the group, “I have to pitch to my newsroom bosses and catch their attention in about 140 char. PR people should pitch me in 80.”
Understanding measurement was also a hot topic of conversation. For the PR folks on the chat, it was apparent that analysis is more important than ever. @bosilytics raised the question, “How difficult do PR folks find it to find the analysis they need. not #’s but insightful data” While @kanter noted that “the most important part of analytics is not the numbers, but how you harvest insight” But how do you define insight?
At BurrellesLuce, our clients have told us that they need a clear picture of their relevant coverage. This includes both customized quantitative and qualitative data, as well as expert analysis of the nature and reach of their coverage. They need measurement metrics, content evaluation, executive reporting and competitive studies. And of course, with time and money tighter than ever before, it is essential that the reports come ready to present to the board, client or prospect.
If you are curious to learn more about smart measurement, I’d like to invite you to join my colleague Johna Burke, VP, BurrellesLuce, who is teaching a free PRSA webinar: How Smart Measurement Can Help You Survive the Media Revolution http://tr.im/gtv5
For those of you on Twitter, I’d recommend that you stop in the next #journchat (every Monday evening at 8pm eastern). It’s a nice opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with a diverse group of PR professionals and journalists. And if you have any other suggestions of similar groups for this Twitter newbie, I’d love to hear from you. Just leave a comment or send me a tweet @ValerieSimon.
