How to Pitch Journalists on Social Media

Did you know that despite most journalists using social media for work, only 32% of PRs use social channels to contact them? This was one of the many interesting highlights of the 2015 Social Journalism Study, that tracks and explores the PR-Journalist relationship on social, to form the narrative of Cision’s latest webinar: How to Pitch Journalists on Social Media.

Hosted by digital specialist Jim Hawker and James Swan of Threepipe Communications, the webinar used good and bad examples of social PR to demonstrate the best practices communications professionals need to keep in mind when pitching on networking sites. 

From discussing the best platforms and time to contact media, the dos and don’ts on Twitter to a social pitch check list, Jim and James successfully covered all the elements PRs need to be ahead of their game on social media.

The discussion generated a lot of interest from attendees who engaged real-time with the conversation by sending in questions and tweeting out key facts. While all questions will be answered in a separate post in the coming week, below is a look at how attendees interacted with the webinar on Twitter. (If you missed the live broadcast and you’d like to learn more about what was said, you can request a recording here.)

75% of journalists say that Twitter is their favourite social media tool according to #CisionUK

— Michael George (@GRYCCpres) March 19, 2015

Not a surprise to see that Facebook isn’t recommended as a tool to pitch to journos #CisionUK — Catriona A Gelder (@cgelleed) March 19, 2015

Majority of UK use social media as a profession tool! #SocialMedia #PR #CisionUK — Shaw & Underwood (@ShawUnderwood) March 19, 2015

Don’t share promo material in the #journorequest tag. Wait for opportunities to arise. #cisionUK

— Jessica Wilby (@Bring_Jess) March 19, 2015

@Threepipe @JimJimhawker @jamesswan88 Picking up some top tips for pitching to journalists via social.Great webinar thanks! #cisionuk

— Melanie Nicola (@melwright86) March 19, 2015

Learnt more about pitching to journalists on social media on the #cisionuk webinar today, #journorequest will be my new best friend!

— Francesca Seabourne (@fseabourne) March 19, 2015

@CisionUK @threepipe Thanks for the interesting webinar on pitching to journos via twitter! I’ll check out followerwonk #CisionUK

— Emma Bell (@KiwiInEurope) March 19, 2015

Interesting #CisionUK webinar on using social media for PR. Thanks @Threepipe and @CisionUK for some good points

— Gareth Desmond (@garethdesmond) March 19, 2015

Good work @JimJimhawker and @jamesswan88 , great webinar with #cisionuk … Good answers too

– Duncan Ross (@duncanross10) March 19, 2015