Like everyone else, journalists are using social media to multitask, carry on multiple conversations and be in more place at one time. Of course this ends up meaning they are able to communicate with more potential sources than ever before. The limitations of communication are (almost) removed, creating a hyper-journalism. Kinda like journalism on steroids.

PR pros consider these limitless pathways to communication in a pitching context of course, but it’s nice to know that journalists think of it that way as well. Thanks goes to DC Social Media Examiner Mary Fletcher Jones for capturing this great footage at Twitch! Public Relations in the Age of Social Media, the panel hosted by Mopwater on Thursday evening.  In the clip, Washington Business Journal reporter Jennifer Nycz-Conner discusses how reporting, aided by social media, is akin to cooking on a restaurant range as opposed to on your standard kitchen stove.

[Other #TwitchDC panelists included Jim Long of NBC (@newmediajim), McLean Robbins of Washingtonian Magazine (@deacondoesdc), Jamila Bey of NPR (@jbey), Arthur Delaney of Huffington Post (arthurdelaneyhp) Lindsey Mastis of WUSA9 (lindseymastis)]

Ryan Grim, Senior Congressional Correspondent for the Huffington Post and author of the 2009 Wiley release “This is Your Country on Drugs” was billed as one of 6 speakers for Mopwater PR + Media Notes’ first PR. 2.0 panel  Twitch! Public Relations in the Age of Social Media on Thursday night in Washington, but ended up canceling last minute due to an emergency.

A journalistic emergency?

Not quite. Turns out, it was Grim’s third wedding anniversary, which he obviously could not skip.

Grim sent fellow Huffington Post reporter Arthur Delaney in his stead, and to avoid becoming an official Twitch Ditch, he also sent these responses via email to my questions about his use of social media during his reporting and sourcing.

Mopwater: How has social media changed how you do your job?
RG: The biggest shift I’ve seen is toward IM [instant message], both on Facebook, blackberries, gchat or plain old AIM. People seem more relaxed on IM. So build an IM relationship with a reporter.

Mopwater: How do you use social media to find sources for your stories?

RG: LinkedIn has been an enormous help and is a great way to find people online, as is Facebook. If you want reporters to be able to reach you, make those accounts as public as possible and have a phone number easy to find.

Here’s my broad point: The PR people who are successful for me are the ones who can get through. Getting through is a function of staying ahead of the stream of communication that rushes our way. Once, emailing a reporter was the way to do that, but the inbox now is so stuffed it’ll just get buried. There will continuously be new ways to stay ahead, though. Facebook chatting is a good and underused way now. Some reporters might get annoyed at getting a FB ping from a PR flak, but whatever. It’s not your job to make us happy, just to get our attention. A direct Twitter message would get through, too, as would a tweet with my handle in it. Reporters are always out there looking to see what people are tweeting or writing about their work, so you can trap us that way.

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You haven’t heard from me in a while because I have been working day and night putting together the very first Mopwater PR + Media Notes Panel, and it promises to be amazing. If you’re in the Washington, DC area, you won’t want to miss it. If you’re not, hopefully we can do some sort of recap for those of you who could not attend.

If you manage the public’s perception of your company or are concerned with increasing your organization’s media exposure in 2010, you will want to attend Twitch! Public Relations in the Age of Social Media. If you are like 80% of PR professionals who participated in the VOCUS fall survey on PR planning for 2010, you will be focusing more on social media this year. And if you are working in the nonprofit world, you probably can relate to the 85% of nonprofit executives polled by Weber Shandwick who say social media will be demanding a larger share of nonprofit spending dollars in 2010. But how do you harness the power of social media to get traditional media coverage? How do you embark upon, what I like to call, “social media relations?”

Find out how at Twitch! This event will feature a panel of working journalists who use social media daily to interact with PR professionals, communicators and the public. Think of this event as a “How to Pitch 2.0 Workshop.” Come with your questions about how to effectively use social media to land traditional media coverage. Learn how journalists are accepting pitches and twitches via twitter and Facebook, what they like and what they hate. Do some networking and  workshop the idea of social media relations.

Twitch! Public Relations in the Age of Social Media
Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
Busboys and Poets Langston Room
2021 14th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Cost: $20
Note: Space is limited. We can’t accept payment on-site. You must register online through Eventbrite.

Register Online

Panel

Moderator:
Jim Long, NBC Universal / Verge New Media, LLC (@newmediajim)

Panelists:
Jennifer Nycz-Conner, Washington Business Journal (@jenconner)

Lindsey Mastis, WUSA News Channel 9 (@lindseymastis)

Ryan Grim, Huffington Post / Author of “This Is Your Country on Drugs.” (@ryangrim)

Jamila Bey, National Public Radio and WAMU (@jbey)

McLean Robbins, Washingtonian and DC Modern Luxury Magazines (@deacondoesdc)

Organizer:
Amanda Miller Littlejohn, Miller Littlejohn Media Group / Mopwater PR + Media Notes / Author of “The Mopwater PR + Media Notes Manual for a Stellar PR Career” (@amandamogul)

Other fun stuff:

RSVP on LinkedIn

RSVP on Facebook

Join the Mopwater Facebook Fan Page

When referencing the event, before during and after, please use the #TwitchDC hashtag on Twitter.

Last night I attended a public relations seminar at the WUSA Channel 9 Station in Washington,DC. The topic du jour was digital media and making the transition, but as it was a roomful of PR pros in a televison statio, questions naturally came up about pitching television producers in a digital world.

It’s no secret that newsrooms are shrinking. In December the Washington Post reported on WUSA9’s new approach to multimedia journalism; deploying anchors equipped with digital cameras, camcorders, and video editing equipment. This approach has been met with praise and criticism; but it still begs a question: how can PR pros successfully function in this new multimedia environment?

I found the comments of Khalim Piankhi, Vice President of Community Relations for WUSA9 to be extraordinarily spot-on. To sum up Piankhi’s thoughts, don’t pitch producers.

This may seem counterintuitive to public relations professionals, but the media industry is changing, which absolutely affects the way we work with media organizations. How do they liked to be approached? What are their preferences?

Piankhi says news organizations like his don’t particularly care about your client. They care about their audience. He suggests that instead of thinking of how you can get yourself or your client in the news, think how you can help a news organization meet its objectives. At the end of the day, news organizations need the most relevant content to keep their audience, and if a big story breaks they will be searching for content to pump out to their consumers.

So instead of thinking a pitch, think relationships, he went on to say.  Frame yourself as a resource to a news organization. Check in from time to time. Send background materials. Keep your issue on the back burner-close enough that when that major story breaks bringing your issue to the fore, the producer will reach for the phone and call you.

Autumn is my favorite season of the year. It’s not just the high drama of the fiery foliage, leaves crunching underfoot, the wind whistling through the trees, acorns thumping down on the pavement below (while I do love all of this). It’s also a time of great reflection and preparation for the coming winter months. Like any other mammal, I’m readying for the cold season–fretting here and there getting my cave ready for  a sort of professional hibernation.

When it comes to business, this certainly means generating leads to last me through the colder months.  I do some of my best prospecting in the fall. Because the season is ripe for events of all kinds, I find myself on the circuit more than normal, so it’s a great time to network. This greater movement coupled with the  biological need to prepare for a physical and seasonal slow-down, I’m motivated to get out there and get some business to last me at least until the next thaw.

This September, after a busy summer of working with one of my main clients on our big annual project, I got to work reaching out to prospects who I thought might be a good fit for my services and followed up on a number of leads. I received an overwhelming number of positive responses. One response that stood out to me most was from a national cultural organization that I was *dying* to work with. The contact told me that my timing was “excellent” because the organization is gearing up for it’s ten year anniversary next fall. So they will definitely start the process of working with a public relations consultancy much like mine very very soon.

I think fall is a busy time for most of us because of the back to school season, gala season, etc. And the holiday season is busy in its own way. But the very end of the year and the very beginning of the new year can be rough for some PR pros, especially independents, who are between contracts. My advice? Look forward, towards “the thaw”.

Think Spring. For your existing clients, already start thinking and talking about great campaigns for spring. Especially if your contract is up at the end of the calendar year, let your current clients know that you see yourself on their team past the winter months.  Don’t give away all of your great spring ideas, of course, but let them know that you enjoy working with them and look forward to continuing the relationship and are hoping to renew a contract at the beginning of the year.

Prospect 2-3 Years Out. To do this, you can study calendars and conference schedules. If you’re looking to build a relationship with a new, dream client, keep your eyes peeled for large conferences that may be coming to your city. You may be able to help an organization facilitate a nice  reception for local leaders on the ground. Large conferences are generally booked 1-2 years in advance, sometimes more, so you have time to develop your pitch. If a large event isn’t coming to your city until 2011 or 2012 even, you have time to get your ideas together, research the proper contacts and even do some targeted in-person networking before you pull the trigger. Obviously, if you want to land a good client for 2010, you need to have started yesterday. But there is still time. There are a lot of great conferences happening towards the end of the year. Find out when and where they are and whether or not you can help out on them.

Keep an Ear to the Business Ground. An organization’s launch, anniversary, etc. is obviously a great opportunity to introduce yourself to a public relations prospect; many times the organization or business that’s having the anniversary isn’t in planning mode, so it’s up to the enterprising  to capitalize on insider knowledge. So keep your ear to the business streets by knowing what business projects are in the pipeline of your industry. I read the Washington Business Journal’s business leads section for general ideas about what’s going on behind the storefronts-who’s applying for business licenses and liquor licenses, who just registered a business, etc. As long as it’s not another PR firm, there’s a chance they could need PR, right? So just ask yourself the questions that pertain to the kind of PR that you do. What restaurants will be opening in a few months? What art galleries will be hosting the work of a prominent artist in the spring? What organization will be releasing an important study and will need help putting together a press conference? Now is the time to begin the big PR push.

Stay Way Ahead of the Prospect. Whatever your field of interest, always be a few months ahead of the potential client so that you can approach them before they even realize that they need you. When they do realize they need you, they may value you even more for your timing and instincts.

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I had the pleasure of meeting today’s TDMJ PR Pro a few weeks ago, and was so compelled by her story that I knew you would be, too. In addition to being a new wife and mother like myself, Mrs. Lara is a tenacious public relations professional who started out in the world of academia and leveraged a thirst for knowledge and willingness to work hard to create her own  opportunities. For Lara, this has translated into a pretty impressive career track only a few years out of college-not bad for someone who didn’t study communications in college! Already a senior account exec with several  agency positions under her belt and a consulting practice in the works, Mrs. Lara is one to watch.

Name: Jacqueline Lara
Age: 26
Current City: Silver Spring, MD
Job Title: Senior Account Executive, Lyons Public Relations
Owner, Mpact Communications
Length of Time in this Role: 18 months

Web Site |LinkedIn|Twitter

Mopwater: Describe your path to PR. How did you wind up in this field?

JL: My path to PR was nontraditional, but I wouldn’t change it for the world because each step has molded my experience. I received my B.A. in Sociology and a business certificate from the College Park Scholars program at the University of Maryland.  While I enjoyed my major and loved analyzing groups of people and their behaviors, as well as organizations and the key factors influencing their effectiveness, I often wondered what profession I’d pursue after college.  I felt pigeon-holed between working in HR and becoming a social worker.  Neither of these options appealed to me, so I took a few communications courses and was intrigued by the power of words and the way media pundits ‘spun’ messages to advance their platforms. Read the full story