Nedra Kline Weinreich Weinreich Communications Preventing Injury: From Research to Practice to People Ann Arbor, MI September 30, 2013

1. REACHING
REPORTERS
THROUGH THE
CLOUD
HARNESSING SOCIAL MEDIA TO GET
YOUR STORIES COVERED
Nedra Weinreich (@Nedra)

2. OLD CONCEPTS
NEW MEDIA
@Nedra

3. IT’S ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
• Develop relationships with journalists
BEFORE you need them
• Use Twitter lists, Muck Rack to find
relevant journalists
• Follow reporters/bloggers/news outlets
on Twitter, RSS
• RT/comment on/praise their stories and
tweets
• Offer them something of value @Nedra

4. PITCHING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA
• Optimize online news releases for social
media
• Use Twitter, not Facebook
• Target your pitches carefully
• Pitch individual reporters, not outlets
• Make it short and sweet
• Timing is everything
@Nedra

5. ENGAGING BLOGGERS
• Who does your audience pay attention to?
• Don’t just focus on the A-list
• Do your homework
• Customize your pitch
• Talk like a person, not a press release
• Email may be preferred, but check
• Approach and promote the blogger as an
expert
@Nedra

6. USING BREAKING NEWS
• Be prepared
• Track keywords via Google Alerts and social
media monitoring daily
• Check Twitter trending topics for
keywords/hashtags and jump in
• Provide an original take on the news from
your organization’s perspective
• Offer journalists info that provides context
• Livetweet events in real time @Nedra

7. BECOME A SOURCE
• Become the go-to source for your issue
• Cultivate relationships online and offline
• Be a font of valuable information
• Respond quickly and appropriately to
potential media needs
• Make your website news-friendly and
social media-oriented
• Develop a broad online network
@Nedra

8. NEWSIFY YOUR CONTENT
• Create an online newsroom
• Offer sharable visual content such as
infographics, photos, powerful quotes
• Think “transmedia” – different pieces of
the story across multiple platforms
• Link to your sources
• Provide tweetable sound bites
• Consider SEO/online lifespan of content
@Nedra

9. STAY IN TOUCH!
Nedra Kline Weinreich
Weinreich Communications
www.Social-Marketing.com
weinreich@social-marketing.com
Phone 310.286.2721
Twitter @Nedra