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1. 1

   Andrew Bruce Smith

   Great list. I think everyone has a “what’s the point of Twitter” phase before you begin to see how it can be useful.

   A number of factors are contributing to its popularity now compared to last year. First, duh, more people are using it. Two, things like Tweetdeck allow you to manage your usage much more efficiently. Being able to keep real time tabs on speciifc brands/issues/people is fantastic. Three, people are beginning to develop their own individual styles of Twitter usage. Smart PRs will adapt their approach depending on the various Twitter “communities” they participate in (I can now see why having separate accounts for certain things makes sense eg having a dedicated client press release account so you can separate this from more general Twittering).
   Four: the 140 character limit imposes a fantastic discipline on communicating clearly and succinctly.

   In short, Twitter definitely has a role to play in certain media relations situations. For example, I’m willing to bet that you are far more likely to get the attention of someone like, say, Charles Arthur at the Guardian, by sending him a direct Tweet and/or a link to a dedicated info landing page than by trying to call him or e-mail him. Of course, you still need a good story, but I suspect he would give you more respect for using this approach.

   Also, lets not forget the journalist research aspect of Twitter - checking out a journalist’s recent Tweets gives great insight into the kind of things they are really interested in.

   The only way to really understand Twitter is do dive in and use it.

   { Nov 07 }12:56 pm
2. 3

   Jon Clements

   How incredibly useful.

   And it is a way of getting journalists’ attention. My colleague received a tweet from a prominent journalist and blogger who had read his blog post, thereby starting a dialogue without it being adversarial, which is - let’s face it - often the case.

   { Nov 07 }2:10 pm
3. 4

   Neil Baker

   Thanks for the list mention.

   { Nov 07 }6:34 pm
4. 5

   Simon Bisson

   You’ve missed out quite a few folk - including Danny Bradbury, Rupert Godwins, and myself.

   { Nov 07 }7:16 pm
5. 7

   Craig McGill

   Hahahaaha, ya bugger. I was talking to Sarah Hartley about setting this up but was waylaid for time after landing two new PR accounts. Well done - of course the question is this: will journalists respond to Tweets from PR people any more than they respond to emails?

   { Nov 08 }7:43 pm
6. 8

   Craig McGill

   And d’oh, forgot to add me: http://twitter.com/craigmcgill

   { Nov 08 }7:44 pm
7. 9

   Craig McGill

   @Simon Bisson: Simon, surely you missed a trick there by not including your details in your comment?

   { Nov 08 }7:45 pm
8. 10

   Dan

   Nice list. But you always need them to follow you first…

   { Nov 09 }4:52 pm
9. 11

   Gary

   That’s an excellent little resource Steve, nice work. Perhaps it could be developed into a wiki - there’s probably quite a few journos out there not on that list who’re on Twitter. But an awesome little piece of resource nonetheless.

   { Nov 09 }5:58 pm
10. 12

    Gary

    Oh, also, Cat Gee’s from the Telegraph’s TV Desk

    { Nov 09 }6:03 pm
11. 15

    Craig McGill

    Thinking more about this raises something that I’ve been thinking about more and more recently. Just as we have different email accounts for personal and for work, do we now need different Twitter accounts for personal and work?

    I already dumped a bunch of news feeds because they were clogging up tweets from friends.

    { Nov 09 }9:28 pm
12. 16

    Becks

    Nice list Steve - thanks. I don’t think it’ll get you into trouble because one of the fab things about twitter is it is opt in. If PRs (or anyone else for that matter) abuse the system, they’ll get unfollowed. Simple.

    { Nov 09 }9:34 pm
13. 18

    Kat Hannaford

    As one of the journalists on your list (thanks, Ste!) I’ve got to say on the whole, I don’t mind too much when PRs follow me on Twitter - particularly if

    -I know them
    -if they are at an agency I’m aware of
    -have clients who are relevant to what I write about.

    As I only have limited time, and am trying to trim Twitter down a little, I only follow PRs back if at least two of those boxes are checked. And of course, a proper Twitter dialogue (and relationship) can only proceed if both parties follow one another - in which case, it just turns into me being unaware of your brand, and you peeking at 140-word descriptions of my private life.

    I’ve had a couple of bad experiences on Twitter with PRs (people trying to push their releases onto me, people spamming me every ten minutes with their @replies and so on), but the worst experiences have actually been with other journalists - who generally don’t seem to understand Twitter (and its benefits) as most PRs, and spend their time peddling links to their dry-as-stale-bread posts. And arguing with me. And pleading for freelance from me. And generally being knobs.

    Thanks for the list Stephen, great idea. I just hope no-one clicks each of those links and follows everyone! :p

    { Nov 10 }8:25 am
14. 19

    Linda

    I don’t mind if PR people want to follow me on Twitter, and I am keen to hear from them IF they have relevant information that could be helpful in my work, I put together a list of current projects and have tweeted a link to it. I hope this may be useful for me in that I need to find case studies, expert comment and news of relevant organisations etc and I am looking in lots of other places apart from from PR people.

    I can’t see that there would be any difference contacting me or ‘pitching’ me by Twitter as from any other means. So long as it’s done well then that’s okay. If you are a PR person following me on Twitter (and a few have signed up since reading this post) please take the time to find out about the work I do before you get in touch by Twitter or any other means.

    If you feel that work by any of your clients could genuinely fit with what I’m writing about then please get in touch. Ultimately, for me, it’s not the means of keeping in touch that matters but the story. Don’t push me on stuff you have tweeted to all and sundry but please do think about if there’s anything specific that may be of interest according to the list of current projects I have gone to the trouble of preparing.

    Thanks.

    { Nov 10 }10:06 am
15. 20

    Andrew Girdwood

    This list is fantastic. Thanks very much! I’ve added two journalists from here to my follow list on Twitter.

    We also thought it might be nice to compile the list as a handy RSS feed. We’ve written about that over here:
    http://bigmouthmedia.tumblr.com/post/58935803/what-are-journalists-talking-about-on-twitter-a

    All input welcome!

    { Nov 10 }11:05 am
16. 23

    Tim Anderson

    I’m on Twitter:

    http://www.twitter.com/timanderson

    (Freelance journalist).

    Tim

    { Nov 10 }2:37 pm
17. 26

    Simon Crisp

    another tweeting journalist saying hello,

    Simon Crisp - http://twitter.com/simoncrisp - Freelance

    { Nov 11 }1:49 pm
18. 29

    Julie Martin

    Hi,
    The Twitter tentacles also spread as far as Teesside!! You shocked?? Don’t be, we love this strange interwebby little tool
    Anyway, as I go on my merry way and try to spread some Twitter joy I’d appreciate being added to your list of journos. I’m at the Gazette, Middlesbrough.

    @jules_27

    { Nov 12 }3:38 pm
19. 31

    Fiona Cullinan

    I’ve been emailing some PRs since the summer to ask if they have a twitter account so that I can clean up my email inbox of travel-related press releases.

    Most say, ‘You what?’

    Twitterers often develop a ‘follow’ policy - mine is that I probably will only follow those I know or whose post tweets I find useful - or hilarious. A quick review of tweets they’ve posted so far will help determine that. I will still visit pure press release PR tweets - but not as a follower I’m afraid… too much noise.

    What would be great is aggregated PR twitterers - like travmedia - rather than tonnes of individuals.

    I’m interested in travel journalism, social media and sub-editing by the way and live at:

    http://twitter.com/katchooo

    { Nov 17 }1:31 pm
20. 37

    Matt Ball (MSN UK)

    Now I’ve seen this page I know where many of my recent new followers came from

    There are others at MSN UK you might want to add to your list including:

    Peter Bale http://twitter.com/PeterBale
    Katie King http://twitter.com/ktking
    Jane Douglas http://twitter.com/msntechjane
    Nik Taylor http://twitter.com/msntechnik
    Monica Stylli http://twitter.com/msnstylemonica
    Laura Snook http://twitter.com/LauraJSnook

    We keep this type of page separate from a second set of twitter pages we have set up for MSN UK. These are MSN channel pages (Entertainment, Tech, Cars, Money etc) that are fed by RSS via twitterfeed. We flag these clearly to users as such so they can choose whether to follow the writer/editor or whether to follow a channel’s output. The latter is obviously not social media but is a convenient way to surface your most recent content to those who want to access it that way.

    Most of these twitter pages are new except for the Entertainment page which has been public for a while(which is why it has more followers than the others). They include:

    twitter.com/msnents
    twitter.com/msnuknews
    twitter.com/msnenvironment
    twitter.com/msnmoney
    twitter.com/msntech
    twitter.com/msnstyle

    { Nov 21 }1:42 pm
21. 40

    Chris Lake

    Great list Stephen.

    E-consultancy’s writers are Twittering as follows:

    Chris Lake - editor in chief (www.twitter.com/lakey)

    Linus Gregoriadis - head of research (www.twitter.com/linusgreg)

    Graham Charlton - blogger / researcher (www.twitter.com/gcharlton)

    { Dec 01 }12:23 pm
22. 41

    s_m_i

    Hi - while there is indeed an Andrew Parker at the FT (Telecoms editor), the twitter feed you link to is for Andrew Parker at Union Square Ventures.

    { Dec 03 }10:16 pm
23. 42

    Anna

    Thanks for this post!

    { Dec 08 }2:25 pm
24. 46

    Ian Douglas

    ‘Claudia B’ in the ‘other’ list is no other but Claudine Beaumont, technology editor of the Telegraph.

    { Dec 23 }3:26 pm
25. 47

    Stephen

    Amended, thanks!

    { Dec 23 }9:09 pm
26. 50

    Mike Ashworth

    What a fantastic post. How about someone turns this into a wiki?

    One of the things to bear in mind is that the communication must not resemble the typical PR ==> journalist one.

    New social media tools such as twitter are about conversations and not broadcasts.

    Mike Ashworth
    Marketing Coach and Consultant
    Brighton and Hove, Sussex, UK
    Business advice and marketing expertise for the smaller Businesses
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeashworth

    { Jan 02 }3:21 pm
27. 52

    Mike Ashworth

    just discovered there is a wiki that could be used

    http://mediaontwitter.pbwiki.com/

    { Jan 02 }3:43 pm

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This blog is written by me, Stephen Davies, and it focuses on public relations and social globalisation. In the day job I'm managing director of 3W PR ...
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