Pitching Lessons from Twitter

As a media monitoring and analysis company, MediaMiser often finds insightful lessons in Twitter data. However, it doesn’t take an extensive monitoring regime to pick out these valuable pitching lessons for public relations from @DearPR and @SmugJourno:

presented by:

Lesson:

Follow-up in a timely manner

but follow-ups should be timely. It’s also important to create a completely new email when following-up with a journalist, no one likes an unsolicited “RE:” email.

Slow and steady doesn’t always

win the race!

If a journalist doesn’t respond to your pitch, it’s reasonable to reach out again–

Lesson:

Personalization (or lack thereof)

However, with the advent of marketing automation and email marketing, the ability to mass-email journalists sometimes outweighs the courtesy of sending a personal email. Lack of research and personalization can, unfortunately, have the same results.

What you save in time

you lose in potential coverage!

Personalization is everything when it comes to pitching a journalist.

From understanding their audience toknowing how your client or product fits into their narrative, personalization and adaptation are key to gaining media coverage.

Lesson:

ConcisenessKeep your pitches

short and sweet!that’s why PR professionals need to be as concise as possible when it comes to their outreach efforts. Journalists only have a certain amount of time in their day to address the pitches they receive, so the more aware you are of this, the better.

As the old adage goes, time is money–

Lesson:

Offer the entire packageGet to the point

or get out!

More importantly, everything should be sent at the same time to prevent frustration on the journalist’s end. Arm the journalist with everything they would need to write an article based on your pitch.

On top of being concise, it’s important to include all of your information and multimedia with your pitch.

Lesson:

Consider geographySimilarly to

personalization, make sure to do

your research before pitching

a journalist!

However, consider where the journalist is located before extending the invite.

Yes, inviting journalists to your event is a great idea to generate more coverage for your brand or client.

Lesson:

SpellingSometimes

four eyes are better than two.

Double-check the spelling of your contact’s name by referring to their email address or social presence, and consider having someone proofread your release and subject line to ensure that everything is spelled correctly.

If you’re someone who regularly has your name misspelled, you probably understand how important it is to address someone properly –especially when you’re trying to pitch them.

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Lesson:

ClickbaitTransparency and accountability go

far when building media relationships!That’s why all public relations and

communications professionals should be transparent and accurate with their subject lines and release headlines. No, this doesn’t mean that you have to lose all sense of creativity when it comes to your pitch—just don’t mislead your audience.

Even though they’re aware that it exists, no one likes to know that they’ve been fooled by clickbait.