by Anna Washenko
Sprout Social
March 11, 2015

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/public-relations-and-social-media/

In an article appearing on Sprout Social, writer Anna Washenko discusses how journalists use social media, and what they’re looking for when being approached by PR professionals. She interviewed three journalists: Kim Lachance Shandrow, a senior writer for Enterpreneur.com; Micah Singleton, a reporter at The Verge; and Laura Schaefer, cofounder of WordChum.com and contributor to SkilledUp, Match.com, MoneyMix and several other outlets.

All three journalists stated that Twitter is their most-used social networking site. Lachance Shandrow says she’s on Twitter “all day, every day” and tweets out all of her articles. Twitter is the most public of all social networking sites, so journalists may also use Facebook as a more private means of communication.

When it’s time to get their attention, do it the right way. The first step is to do your research. Focus on the writers themselves, and consider their preferences – do they prefer email communication to social media? Analyze their relationship with other PR sources, and how they currently network. When crafting your pitch, be honest and be brief: catch their attention within the first 4 sentences. Finally, recognize that you’re building a working relationship that needs to benefit both of you, so be sure to also offer something to the journalist in return, such as breaking news or ongoing general knowledge/input.