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Twitter in your Toolbox

By: Christi Dixon | 01/21/2009

It was obvious on Inauguration Day. Twitter is becoming more respected as a mainstream news source, professional communications tool and a mouthpiece for citizen journalists. CNN was lauded this past fall for promoting Twitter on air, and NBCWashington.com used Twitter yesterday to inform Inauguration guests of everything from traffic alerts to schedule changes.

As communicators embrace Twitter as a professional resource, consider these ideas for making it an essential part of your toolbox. 

• Connect with Twittering journalists. Check out #JournChat on Twitter at 7 p.m. (Central) every Tuesday, when journalists and PR folks meet to hash out issues facing both industries and bat around ideas for building stronger relationships.
• Build on existing relationships. There's a lot of banter in the PR world about how professional communicators should use Twitter. Overenthusiastic pros can use it to the point of being blocked. (Yes, that's a defining difference between e-mail and Twitter. You can ban people from following you. That means that following a high-echelon journalist can either earn you respect or a blackball.) Check out the tempting list from BusinessWeek. If professional communicators take the time step to find out if our existing media partners are on Twitter, we can take our offline relationships to a new level.
• Think before you act. PRNewser announced last week that Cision will soon add reporter Twitter handles to its database. Follow the advice of many a-media relations counsel: participate first, pitch later ... a pitch in 140 characters needs to be just as thought out as an e-mail, phone call or note.
• Integrate Twitter into your existing news monitoring. Twitter can update you via RSS, SMS, email, text or through social networking sites like Facebook. Crisis communicators should also integrate Twitter into their plans; it's often the first place that breaking news surfaces. Check out Josh Catone's recent experience.

Posted in Digital Communications, Issues and Crisis Management, Public Relations