Who Does Twitter Work For Best?
Twitter is a popular and fast-growing social networking site, but does it work well for publicists who are looking to secure placement opportunities? What about you reporters, have you found success locating sources via Twitter? As the site and its audience continue to evolve, I'm interested to hear about how people are using Twitter.
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As a PR consultant, I’ve made several clients available for comment via Twitter. And while I haven’t obtained any direct hits yet as a result, I have seen a significant increase in the number of people who are following my posts and I really feel like it’s only a matter of time before Twitter becomes a regular means for placements. I’ve also noticed quite a few “Tweets” from reporters who are in search of sources. Are there any reporters out there who can speak to this?
One of my favorite aspects of Twitter is how willing people are to be "followed." In other social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, folks are very cautious to let new connections into the fold. With Twitter, you can set your security preferences so that people can simply view your "tweets" without you having to approve them. I actually recommend this method - even though it opens you up to random followers - because the more accessible you are, the more likely you are to be followed by the right people.
I love Twitter. It's part stream-of-consciousness blog, part groupthink conversation, part random cocktail party conversation. And, how people use Twitter changes every day. For example, when referencing another user's post, people used to preface them with "retweet," but just a week or so ago, that became the shorthand "RT." Not a big change, but it spread and everyone is using it now.
The point is that the way you use Twitter one day may not be the way you use it the next. My advice? Follow the social media pros who are at the forefront. Some good examples are @skydiver, @sarahmorgon, @chrisbrogan, @guykawasaki, @mashable, @overthinker. None of these are legal marketing folks, but that's not important. It's how they use Twitter that you should watch. And it's their new uses for Twitter that you should watch most of all.
The thing about Twitter is that, by design, it's random. There's no one-to-one correlation between what you post and what you get. You just have to be active, work it, and then sit back and see what happens. That's the challenge -- and the fun.
That ease of connection is a great feature in Twitter. Random followers can open some good doors, and really help to expand your network. I've found that most people who start following me have some connection to the legal or journalism field, so the connections are typically very worthwhile.
