For years I had a Twitter account but never did much with it. In the last few years, though, that has changed, as I have found it to be an invaluable tool to help with media relations.

Twitter is useful in several ways. You can use it to –

Conduct research and learn what is trending. When you are on Twitter you can see what reporters are covering and what are the current events. You also can discover the relevant hashtags.

Respond to reporters. Not all reporters put our requests for experts via Twitter, but there are many that do, and I try to follow reporters who cover the sector in which I work.

Amplify your reach. Once I have sent a media release, I always share it a few times on Twitter. If a reporter writes about my organization, I will tweet the story and acknowledge the reporter.

Talk about your business. You may have lots of great content on your website, but if no one knows to go to the site or where to look the information, it’s not helpful. Tweet about the content and include a short link to the content.

Pitch the media. If you aren’t getting any traction reaching out to reporters via email or with a media release, try a tweet. When I’ve done that, my stories have been picked up by outlets I was not aware of and I was able to get more coverage of a story.

This post is adapted from a workshop Cynthia teaches on using Twitter for media success. If you are interested in having her present on this topic or others, including crisis communications, personal branding or media training, please contact her at cynthiapricecp@gmail.com.