How social media is your biggest PR tool

Now, it's a whole new ball game.

I can directly communicate with a journalist on Twitter or LinkedIn, and start a conversation.

On Twitter, it's a two way street. Sometimes I may write a story and share it on Twitter, directly sharing it with a particular journalist, so that it comes up on their notifications area, or I direct message them. Other times I may choose to hashtag a story that relates to something that they have written about, so when they are looking up sharing results, my tweet comes up. The third way I communicate is by retweeting relevant stories that they have written and shared on Twitter, then making a comment on it. 7 times out of 10, they respond in some way - then all of a sudden your relationship with that journalist has started and you can nurture them all the way to a story.

Linking with journalists on LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn, you can check out what groups they are part of and post interesting stories and commentary in those groups. You may also choose to send them an Inmail, but it is imperative that you are up-to-date on what they are writing about and what stories interest them. Otherwise, its likely that your costly Inmail will end up in the trash can. If you are particularly bold, you may choose to friend request them with a witty comment, or a reason as to why they should connect with you.

Social media has given us huge in-roads into directly communicating with journalists, but be aware - the same PR rules apply. Don't send them information on something they won't be interested in or that they don't write about, and don't bore them with details - that's for the next conversation. And a journalists pet hate, spell their name write - there is nothing worse.

Some sources you may like to subscribe to: 

www.sourcebottle.com
www.muckrack.com

Each day, these platforms list stories that journalists are looking for sources on. The next big story could be yours!