I ran across a blog posting the other day titled “Will Twitter be the platform that unites journalists and PR pros?” authored by Heidi Sullivan.
I’ll let you read the post and develop your own conclusion. But I think, for now at least, that Twitter can certainly help bridge that gap between the two parties. It does, as Heidi points out, help weed out those folks who give PR a bad name by mass emailing a story idea to journalists and hoping for a hit (the ‘spray and pray’ method!). It forces PR people to research (or follow) journalists before pitching them, which should lead to more relevant pitches.
The comments on the post are interesting, too. One reader brought up #JournChat, a weekly online discussion via Twitter where journalists, bloggers and PR people come together to discuss the media and PR industries. I haven’t participated in #JournChat yet, but I’m reading the meeting recaps and they’re quite enlightening.
So, what do you think? Is Twitter bridging the gap between journalists and PR folks? Do you use a different platform that you think does a better job? Tell us about it.
on Facebook
on Twitter
Thanks for mentioning the CisionBlog post, Beth. The more that we are all able to engage in this discussion, the more we bring the issues related to PR, social networks & media and how they inter-relate to the surface. Hopefully all of these posts will foster more and more symbiotic relationships cross industries!
I haven’t joined in for #journchat yet either… hopefully I’ll read you next Monday.
Heidi
Thanks, Heidi, for the comment and for raising a great question. I really enjoyed reading the comments on your post. Hopefully we’ll get a good discussion going on this end to add to what you started.
Thanks again!
Beth