So this Thursday, May 6 at Busboys and Poets, I have the distinct pleasure of hosting an awesome panel of Washington, DC journalists to talk social media for the second installment of Twitch! Public Relations in the Age of Social Media. For talk two, PoliTwitch we’re hosting journalists who focus on political reporting, and I must tell you we’ve got some heavy hitters who you won’t want to miss. Haven’t gotten your ticket yet? Register here.

Our moderator will be Peter Cherukuri, the DC Bureau Manager of the Huffington Post-and the real media mogul in the room for the evening. I hear he’s going to be talking about some of the HuffPo’s newest social media endeavors which should be exciting. And perhaps even newsbreaking.

We’re honored to have Mark Preston, Political Editor for CNN and editor of CNN’s Political Ticker.

Patrick Gavin from Politico will also be on the panel. He’s a staff writer for Politico and editor of Politico’s new “On Media” blog, which you can ask him about in person. You can see him below interviewing David Gregory on the new Meet the Press set.

Roll Call’s Jackie Kucinich will also be at the table as well as the National Partnership for Women and Family Policy Manager Rachna Choudhry, and of course me, Amanda Miller Littlejohn and my husband Marc Littlejohn the organizers and hosts.

Here’s what we’re going to be talking about:

• how social media and new media technologies have transformed the way news is reported
• how political and advocacy issues make it to the top of the news heap
• how organizations are using social media to set themselves apart from their competitors and get news coverage

So bring your questions for these decision makers in the news business. You won’t want to miss this discussion.

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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