Presented as part of PR News' media relations webinar "How to Leverage Social Media to Build Relationships With Journalists"

1. How to Leverage Social Media to Build Relationships With
Journalists
PR News Webinar Thursday, February 23, 2012

2. Trevor Jonas
 Identify and engage with influential media professionals on Twitter,
Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+
 Build relationships with media pros on LinkedIn and track their career
progress and beats
 Optimize press releases for social media

3. “Those who ignore the
party/conversation/network when they are
content and decide to drop in when they
need the network may not succeed. It’s
pretty easy to spot those that are just
joining the network purely to take – not to
give. Therefore, be part of the
party/conversation/network before you need
anything from anyone”
Be part of the conversation
before you need anything from
anyone
Jeremiah Owyang

4. Where journalists spend their time

5. Your playbook: education through research
 Locate media of interest to you by beat; MRD aggregates Twitter news
 Set up lists of journalists by category and identify trends – do the same with
influencers
 Connect with freelancers, many of them do not publish their email addresses
 Use RSS feeds to streamline the firehose of daily journalistic output
 Establish familiarity and intimacy with reporters. Subscribe!
 Track what media are jazzed about, writing about and asking questions
about – that you can provide answers to
 Stack rank and prioritize

6. Your gameplan: engagement through conversation
 Most important: each platform has its own rules and etiquette
 Follow, follow, follow – and be transparent when connecting
 Tweet articles your media friendlies have written
 Don’t spam tweet media
 Follow hashtags frequently used by journalists
 Engage – don’t pitch: Being invited as a friend is not an open invitation
 Facebook Subscribe – keep tabs on what journalists are sharing
 Link to your resources (i.e.bit.ly links) to add credibility, save a step in
the conversation
 Make sure your own profile is complete – and up-to-date
 Don’t be lazy – take the time to write a personal note that shows you’ve
spent time getting to know the reporter

7. An indispensable tool reshaping journalism
 Finding and connecting with sources
 “Searching out friends of friends, experts’ experts”
Jon Swartz | USA Today
 Building community
 “We want followers who are re-Tweeting us”
Tiffany Black | CBSonline.com
 Uncovering stories with legs – and giving stories
legs
 “For stories that might be off the beaten path”
Brian Barrett | Gizmodo
 Adding depth and content to breaking news
 “We’re using it as a news-gathering tool for our
reporting”
Ryan Osborn | “The Today Show”

8. Stay aware…and stay tuned
 Many journalists are using Google+…
 But primarily for search engine optimization and content sharing…
 Journalists don’t like that Google is so protective of analytics…little for
journalists to track and measure of their own coverage, readership,
engagement metrics
 Not an effective platform to communicate, but…
 Best to keep it in your PR sights, because who knows what Google will
think of next

9. Being proactive
 Strengthening relationships
 Keeping your own profile up-
dated to build trust, engagement
 Building a rapport, tracking a
journalist’s career and beats
 Use LinkedIn as a reference for
media: client information, other
news/info sources
 Sourcing freelance journalists
who mask their contact
information

10. Being smart
 Crafting a better pitch
 Be prepared when pitching a new
media target for the first time
 Look up past articles, get a sense
of style, craft the pitch accordingly
 Track what media and influencers
are saying in LinkedIn groups and
sharing with their connections, to
prepare more targeted and
personal pitches

11. Being informed
 Sourcing helpful information
 Great secondary source for finding
new journalists, using advanced
searches on industry, area,
publication, etc.
 Great to cross-reference details not
found in databases like Cision
 Confirming information – current
publications, location – is up-to-date

12. When it comes to press releases, it’s a…
5 Important Rules to Crafting an Effective Release

13. Content is King…and conversion is Queen
 New skills required to craft a good, social media optimized press
release? Not many…
 Fundamentally, an optimized press release is a press release first, and
an optimized piece of content second
 What does this mean?
 Content must be newsworthy
 Must be well-written – before optimization is even addressed
 Develop the concept
 Research the topic
 Spend your energy writing a killer release
TIP: Link to or include SlideShare versions of presentations
to make them accessible and activated for sharing, great
visual add and have their own SEO value

14. Keywords light the way…with a concept as the guidepost
 Concept: Before drafting your release, develop a concept that clearly
states what the release is about
 Keywords: Write down a list of key words or phrases that support the
concept (Q: “How does my audience describe my product or service
before they know it by name?”) – in most cases these will be the same
keywords your audience uses when searching online
 Validation: finally, verify that the list of keywords you’ve selected are
actually being used by your audience online
 “Search volume”: Google AdWords can help
TIP: Incorporate relevant hashtags, Twitter handles and
host associated images on sites like Flickr

15. Use your assets wisely…act, and talk, naturally
 Keywords are among your most
critical assets – use them wisely
as a component in every other
asset you have at your disposal
to communicate your message:
 Headline
 Subhead
 Body copy
 Boilerplate
 Don’t overdo the keywords – TIP: Make headlines shareable:
think natural conversation snappy titles and easily conveyed
messages people want to push out
 Want a guidepost?: Think one through social platforms
keyword per 100 words

16. Know where to look…and think like a search engine
 Readers look to specific locations within a release to determine meaning
 We do this by reviewing content that appears (1.) up and to the left and
(2.) front and center – i.e. reviewing the first part of a headline, a
subhead and an opening paragraph
 Think like a search engine: they’re built to determine meaning the same
way and will use this - at least in part – to prioritize ranking
 Make sure: you’ve got keywords up and to the left – and front and center
 Key to developing an optimized press release
TIP: Be sure to include owned social properties
(Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) as necessary

17. Location, location, location!
 Show the way: make sure you create a clear link between the release
you’re distributing, the concepts you’re promoting and your brand:
 An optimized link
 As you are finalizing, make sure to add a link to a major or supporting
keyword – ideally as high up in the content as possible
 Make sure the keyword links back to a page on your website that is
optimized for (about) this phrase – this acts as an entry point into your
website and will help boost search ranking
 Also creates a clear link in readers’ minds between your release and your
primary concept
TIP: Think about a post on the corporate blog versus a
press release

18. Relevant infographic
Keywords: Optimized keyword
IPv4 link:
IPv6 World IPv6 Day
Content is King
- Internet is exploding – why?
- Need for new technology
- There are challenges
- Key industry players engaged
- What is our company doing?

20. Trevor Jonas
Director, Social Media
Access Communications
@TrevR
TJonas@AccessPR.com
707.227.8257 mobile
415.844.6245 direct