As a somewhat new player in the PR game, it hasn’t been too long since I graduated college with my degree in PR. However, the longer I spend doing PR, the more I’m finding that there is so much about PR 2.0 that they don’t teach you in school…which is why I’ve decided to share my top 3 pieces of advice on how social media changes the game.

1. Keep in mind that the first word of “public relations” is PUBLIC.
Get it out of your head that the journalist is the end-user. I understand that school may have taught you that the key to success is getting X number of journalists to pick up your story – and sure, that’s a good thing…but it’s not the ONLY thing. Keep pitching to journalists all day long, but keep in mind that you also have an opportunity to cut out the middle man and hit your target customers directly through social mediums.

2. Maintain your Twitter profile!
I cannot stress enough how important Twitter has become. It has grown 1382% in the past year and boasts over 7 million members, a good portion of which are people that you should be reaching with your PR message! If you pitch to a journalist, and they Google your name, what will they find? Imaging if they find a well-maintained Twitter profile that shows them you are insightful and a valuable resource…will they be more likely to pick up your stories? I personally have journalist contacts that prefer me to tweet press release links to them. Even if they don’t write a story about the topic, chances are they will retweet it if it interests them. AND (back to #1)…if you have a nice following on Twitter, you have an opportunity to reach your target customer directly.

3. Utilize the Social Media Release
If you’re working in PR and you haven’t heard of PitchEngine, you need to get with the times. PitchEngine is a service that allows you to turn your press release into a social media release (SMR). If you haven’t seen one, check out one of mine. This is an essential piece of the PR puzzle, and PitchEngine is one of my favorite new tools!