Last Monday (4/21), the inimitable Sam Whitmore of MediaSurvey published this handy list of Old- and New-School media types who are active on Twitter.
I’ll re-publish a condensed version of Sam’s list below, but first want to pontificate on the shocking headline of this post: am I seriously suggesting that a PR person MUST become an active Twitter user if they want to have a meaningful career? Even though Twitter is supposedly still a below-the-radar service?
Well, yea, kinda. But for more – and more varied – reasons than you might think.
First: personal branding. There is no question that the managers and HR reps at savvy PR agencies and corporations are in the twitterstream. We have hired more than one new employee that we either recurited via Twitter, or, who had a leg-up in the process because we knew and respected the way they handled themselves online.
Next: knowledge. If you’re “following” and interacting with a bunch of smart people, you will learn more stuff; you will be “in the know” before peers, competitors, and clients. You’ll get first dibs on the coolest Web 2.0 applications. While your friends wonder about “that tweety stuff” you’ll already be twhirling and utterzing: this isn’t just cool-for-cool’s sake – these are the apps that will be discussed in the History Books of this era. Five years from now, you won’t be able to hold your head up in a newbiz meeting if you can’t claim to have been on-board from the get-go.
Also on the “knowledge” front: with your personal community established, I can’t emphasize enough how valuable Twitter can be when you need a hand – an idea – or, reactions to an idea. Twitter is an instant focus group, on-call 24/7, and comprised of some of the most brilliant and thoughtful people you’d ever want to meet.
Last but not least: relationships. Take a look at the list below. Twitter may not be mainstream, yet, but it’s well-known to the influencers and fellow practitioners with whom most PR people interact. Why wouldn’t you want to know what Marshall Kirkpatrick or Harry McCracken are up to today? Thanks to Twitter, you might know anything from “what they had for breakfast” to “how PR pros screw up” to “what article they’re writing.” With such knowledge, you will become a better PR pro, period.
Please note that I am NOT saying, “You can use Twitter to stalk the media!” No, no, no! I am saying you just might be able to forge a true relationship with these folks by interacting with them regularly, and in a purely social, “human” way.
If you want to keep track of our own twitterati, we’ve consolidated SHIFT’s twitterfeed using Yahoo Pipes. Check it out: over time you’d see that, yes, we interact with media contacts on Twitter – we’ll even throw out a “twitpitch” now and again – but, we also act like undercaffeinated goofballs a lot, too. (Cuz we’re human, and that’s finally cool again.)
Note: The ## after each name represents the number of “followers” each person had, at the time of the informal survey.
New-Schoolers
Victoria Belmont 14147
Pete Cashmore 6073
Marshall Kirkpatrick 2670
Ryan Block 2220
Amanda Congdon 1278
Mathew Ingram 937
Peter Rojas 644
James Kendrick 372
Dave Slusher 366
Natali del Conte 130
Old-Schoolers
Stewart Alsop 321
Harry McCracken 195
Saul Hansell 82
Lance Ulanoff 35
David Lidsky 25
John Markoff 16 (updates protected)
New Old-Schoolers
John Dvorak 6357
Molly Wood 4710
Tom Merritt 3686
Leo Laporte 3045
Sarah Lacy 2308
Jim Louderback 762
Steve Baker 293
Heather Green 202
Owen Thomas 113
Living Legends
Kevin Rose 15738
Dave Winer 8084
Tantek Celik 3778
Om Malik 2401
Jimmy Wales 1835
Mary Hodder 1803
Kara Swisher 403
Henry Blodget 129
Gillmor Gang
Jason Calacanis 21224
Robert Scoble 20090
Mike Arrington 13777
Hugh MacLeod 5276
Steve Gillmor 1735
Gabe Rivera 1303
Doc Searls 768
Dan Farber 704
Marc Canter 632
Sam Whitmore 200
Dana Gardner 192
Robert W. Anderson 86
In the Social Media era, getting better at Public Relations means getting better at the Relationships, not the Publicity. Use a list like this one to start the process – and get back to me a year from now about how it’s helped!
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Todd,
I absolutely agree.
Personal brand - check. Knowledge - check. Relationships - check! Certainly there’s the danger of shiny object syndrome in PR, but Twitter has shown not only staying power, but proven its value to me and other PR professionals over and over. I do my job better. I’m a better educator.
And it’s been fun watching my students make the realization as to the value of Twitter, in particular. I’ve watched 10 minute conversations that basically involve the “Twitter in crowd” demonstrating that they are more “in the know” than their classmates.
- Kelli
You’re behind on the stats — Dvorak (of all people) is now at 11,000 and climbing. And he GETS IT, I’ve seen him engage and @back to all comers. I’ve been reading John for 20 years, and he fits several of your lists.
Very interesting post, Todd, and I quite agree that using Twitter as a way to get to know people is a pretty interesting idea, and valuable for someone trying to pitch me. Between Twitter and my blog, you get a pretty good picture of what I care about, and can make the math from there.
Some day, I hope to make it on to the New Schoolers list. : ) Ah, lists. They are always a pain, eh?
Thanks for this interesting insight on Twitter & PR. I’ll do a trackback to your post.
Did you really spell my name del Conte!? Come on Todd! You of all people!
Hi all, thx for the comments.
Kelli, I am not surprised to hear that the twitterers are outshining the non-twitterers. You can read everything you like into that statement.
Ike, Dvorak’s not the only VIP that I missed, Kara Swisher is active on Twitter, too (and I even LINKED to her post!), but not on the list. It was Sam Whitmore’s list, fwiw, though.
And, Nat - hi, sorry, my bad. I cut & pasted from Whitmore’s list and didn’t catch the mis-spelling!
Hey there Todd,
Great post. Just caught it this morning. Funny because I did a similar post yesterday on the topic after seeing an article in PRWeek that had 11 PR folks talking about digital/tech PR and only 1 of 11 was actually on Twitter. Here’s the post titled “Digital PR? No Twitter account like no fax number in the 80’s” - http://tweetpr.com/?p=16
PS. I helped get a PR pro on Twitter yesterday. She had been considering getting on but didn’t think she had anything interesting enough to share 3 times a day and blogging was more her thing. Good point when you view Twitter that way but when I explained all of the other reasons she signed up in the next 15 minutes. I really hope we see lots of others follow.
David
I’m just having problems with my personal twitter, because I’m never sure what to post…or how often…also I’d like to know how I can follow more PR professionals…is it ok just to follow someone who doesn’t even know you? Sorry if these questions are quite novice…but I am!
I think you hit the nail on the head here. Personal brand, knowledge and relationships are at the core of my own Twitter experience. And like Chris said above, people can get a pretty good sense of who I am from my presence on Twitter, by reading my blog and in my participation on other social sites. They’re all connected, and it’s all a mash-up of the three ideas you highlighted.
Twitter has been everything from a job application to a news source, from a “friendisiac” to a get-well card for me.
P.S. Chris, maybe someday we’ll BOTH be on the New Schoolers list! Oh, a girl can dream…
When it comes to any of the “shiny new objects” as they’re referred to, it’s important to at least understand them, and to understand them, you need to use them. I thought Twitter was a ridiculous waste of time when it first came out, but after playing with it for a while, it’s become one of the most powerful connection tools I use.
Someone who calls themselves a PR person, but who doesn’t understand the cutting edge is like someone who calls themselves an expert on television advertising, but doesn’t understand digital cable. You don’t have to advise your clients to throw money at everything that sparkles, but you do need to understand those things so you can advise properly.
Todd, et al:
All great points and agreeable.
My main issue is the absoluteness (if that’s a word?) of it. Twitter is great for all those reasons — but it’s not the only way to build your personal brand, connect and learn from others. With the day-to-day creativity we see — often via those we follow on Twitter — something better may come along.
And, it probably will. There’s rarely one best way to do anything.
–Mike
I think you mean “Veronica Belmont” instead of “Victoria Belmont”
I agree with your assessment of Twitter as an essential for anyone interested in branding and corporate image. More and more, corporations are recognizing how important inter-connectivity and transparency are in determining public opinion.
In other words: as consumers, we want to feel that a corporate entity is approachable and accountable. Twitter provides us with a format for assessing, along with our peers, the commitment to customer service and the community for all the corporations we deal with on a daily basis.
Todd,
You raise a great point and I agree with you in stating that “getting better with public relations means getting better at the relationships.” However, Twitter’s exaggerated reach (They really only have around 1.3 million users) doesn’t make it logical to say “Get on Twitter or Get Out of Public Relations.” I’m on it and would encourage others in the field to be on it. However, for now the real vital thing to do is monitoring it through TweetScan.
http://racetalkblog.com/?p=231#more-231
Best,
Kyle
I think looking at Twitter to get to know the media is one side, but the other is letting your customers get to know your company. While the demographics of twitter might skew to the geek/digerati, there is momentum building here. Zappos, Comcast, and others are getting great twitter buzz not for just being there, but by using it as a platform to engage the customer in an authentic way.
-Ben
twitter.com/bsbnyc
Great post, thanks for sharing your insight. I agree, Twitter is a great way to add a more “human touch” to the media influentials we interact with every day. I like hearing their thoughts in real time, and hey, if the top tweeters are willing to post what they are doing in that exact moment in time, then I don’t think it is stalking
All those folks’ names should be linked to their Twitter accounts, nu?
Twitter’s fine until the next greatest things comes along. They’re all just one “tool” in the PR kitbag.
Very interesting post. To be completely honest, I really didn’t understand the point of Twitter until this post. I figured it was just another way to let people know what you’re doing. Similar to Facebook’s status updates. But Todd, you made it easy to understand that Twitter is much more than that. As you put it, it’s a quick, concise way to personally brand yourself, build relationships and learn about what others are interested in. We live in a world where people don’t want long versions, they want quick facts and updates. Twitter is a great way to feed this need for quick info. I’ll have to check more into Twitter. Thanks Todd for the insight!
Todd,
Interesting post - though personaly i don’t think PRs HAVE to use Twitter it just helps. I’ve certainly found it a great way of networking - but as for sharing knowledge - it’s only been of use to me because I’m interested in social media / digital PR/ or whatever you want to call it nowadays.
Here’s our take on it (which then evolved into addressing some of the critcisms of Twitter from PRs)
http://www.rainierpr.co.uk/blog/2008/04/everyone-needs-twitter-well-those-that.html
I finally did it. Today I signed up for twitter. I’ve heard about it for months. The reason that I held back: facebook. I always thought why sign up for a service that does the same thing as facebook status. Also none of my friends outside of the PR world are on twitter. I never thought about the possibility of following and connecting with media professionals. You just convinced me that my 15 minutes to open a twitter account were well spent.
It seems to me that many PR students are unaware of Twitter or its value. I’ve signed up and want to use it to network with professionals but I’m wondering about guidelines for doing so. Is it okay to just start following people you don’t know? Any advice you can give would be much appreciated!
“In the Social Media era, getting better at Public Relations means getting better at the Relationships, not the Publicity.”
So true!
I couldn’t agree more. I’m on Twitter, although for personal use, but I follow and interact with many friends, PR, tech and media people via Twitter. It’s sparked a lot of great conversations and also introduced me to new and interesting things.
One thing I fear though? That some PR and other brands will use it to spam and that will be unfortunate.
First rule of a good link-bait headline: Make a provocative statement, but frame it as a question, so you can later weasel out of responsibility for the overstatement.
My answer to one of your questions is no, you don’t ‘need’ to be on Twitter to have “a meaningful career.”
Nor do you ‘need’ to be a Second Life Svengali, a MySpace maven, a Facebook friendaholic or a LinkedIn luminary to find meaning in your life and your work.
These are all tools that help people expand their personal and professional networks, increase their knowledge and influence, and stay on top of trends.
To declare one or all of them as the ultimate test of whether you matter is a backhanded way of dismissing the 10s of thousands of PR people in the world who aren’t.
I promise you, many people who aren’t Twittering are having very meaningful careers.
Interesting post, but your points are kinda undercut when you kinda make blanket statements that are kinda insulting to folks who aren’t on the same Cluedintrain that you are.
(This comment sounds a lot crankier than I really am, but I’m too lazy to edit back the snark. Sorry, old bean!)
I am a student studying Public Relations at Towson University and just recently discovered Twitter. While it seems that Twitter is largely restricted to an “early adopter” audience at the moment, it definitely seems to have the potential to grow into a much more commonly used service, in a similar fashion to Facebook, which started as a small social networking site limited to only a few schools before growing into its current form.
One thing that is really appealing to me about Twitter is its emphasis on conversation, as opposed to just adding friends like other social networking sites. The high degree of interactivity really makes this community feel alive, and as you said, it seems like a great way to actually build relationships instead of just establishing a network of contacts.
As for cutting-edge learning, Twitter seems to have harnessed the information content and user base of some IRC channels and packaged it in a more user-friendly interface.
Twitter seems to be growing rapidly, and who wouldn’t want to be part of “the next big thing?” In a few years, its possible that not knowing about Twitter could be akin to not knowing about Facebook, MySpace, or blogs today.
Hi Eric - (Cross-posted to Eric’s blog post: http://tinyurl.com/3jlnsz)
First, on the linkbait question: honestly I don’t actively strategize for links, however, I try to both educate and entertain at PR-Squared - so controversial statements don’t bother me. If I felt bad about trying to stir the pot, I’d be pretty bored - and boring.
More to the point: I kinda feel like you didn’t read my post with the spirit in which I intended it (no doubt a failure of my writing). It boils down to: “All the smart people are doing it, and it’s making them smarter.”
I strongly feel that PR is evolving to a role akin to Community Relations, thus I espouse that PR folks get involved, as MEMBERS (vs. “just” lurkers), in ANY community which may be of value to their company or clients. Twitter’s a place that’s relevant to tech and consumer PR in particular, which is my Agency’s focus, so I feel particularly strongly about it.
Net-net, I am not a Shiny Object chaser. Nor do I advocate it (I was always a SL doubter, for example). But the paradigms *are* shifting and I do advocate that “smart people get smarter” by latching on to the tools, like Twitter, that seem to be gaining critical mass.
Todd:
Agree with everything you said except the bit about Twitter being the only road to salvation for PR people who want their careers to go somewhere (okay, I’m distorting your comments slightly, for effect).
Thanks for this interesting insight on Twitter & PR. I’ll do a trackback to your post too
great points and agreeable