Archive for Twitter
‘Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter’ Marks 1st Year
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Today is the one-year anniversary of the “Sawmill Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter.” What started in 2009 as a simple listing of a handful of 
media on Twitter has grown to a list of 210, with WJZ’s Marty Bass (below) and WBAL Radio’s Rob Lang (left) as two of the names added this New Year’s morning.
You can scroll through the names and follow by clicking on the link on the Sawmill home page (upper right corner). If you’d like to follow all 210 as a single list – a great way to see what they are collectively
tweeting about – click here for the list created by Jeff.
And as always, if you come across any new names or changes we should know about, send us the news and we’ll update the guide right away.
Sawmill Media List Shows 200 Are Using Twitter
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Today marks a milestone for the Sawmill Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter, the list we launched on Jan.1, 2009. As of this morning, we’ve hit 200 reporters/producers/editors on Twitter, all accessible here.
For anyone in PR who’s still wondering whether Twitter is today’s version of the CB Radio, take a scroll through the list, check out who’s actively engaging with their followers and even asking for news sources. You might be surprised at what you’ll find. We’ve located numerous stories for clients using this list and invite you to jump in and do the same!
LinkedIn and Twitter are SyncedIn
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If you’re like me, figuring out the boundaries of the various social networking sites can get confusing. I use Twitter primarily as a tool for staying on top of industry trends and communicating with fellow PR and social media professionals. On Facebook I have more personal friends than colleagues, while LinkedIn is more about building and communicating a professional identity. While I realize it’s an option, I haven’t allowed my tweets to appear in my Facebook feed and vice versa, as I have built them with different audiences in mind (not to menton the head-scratching that would go on if some comments were cross-posted).
However, a new development announced this week by LinkedIn and Twitter allows your LinkedIn status updates to simultaneously appear as a tweet on your Twitter account. And when you tweet, that same message goes to your LinkedIn connections as well. “Like peanut butter and chocolate,” according to company founders Reid Hoffman and Biz Stone. It’s worth checking out.
Reminder: Twitter is ALWAYS a Conversation
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Oops, my bad.
I recently bumped into an acquaintance that I hadn’t seen in months who explained her absence by telling me how consumed she is with the ongoing woes of the company she has been with for nearly 15 years. The shining example of these woes is the dramatic drop in headcount since the first of the year.
Later that day I tweeted about this update using “local, one-time high profile, fast rising firm’”as the descriptor of her company. I hit “update,” never giving the tweet a second thought, other than it was more substantive than “…can’t wait for this day to end” sort of post.
In a flash, I received a DM (direct message) from @robterry26, associate editor/Web editor of the Baltimore Business Journal, asking me for details about that tweet, including the name of the company. Then, and only then, did the reminder light bulb go off in my head that Twitter and other social media tools are all about conversations!
Also, this tweet could have had serious consequences. However, the information was accurate, verifiable and caught the attention of a good reporter who knows the source of it as well as the value of the information he was handed.
In addition to being reminded that Twitter is all about the conversation, I hope this also serves as a an elbow in the ribs to think before I tweet and then think again before I hit “update.”
‘Social Media Road Show’ – Links from My SMEI Presentation in Baltimore This Morning
Posted by: | CommentsHere are links to some of the Web sites and resources I mentioned this morning during the 2009 SMEI Conference and ”Social Media Road Show” in Baltimore. These are good, basic social media and PR tools to get started, and everything listed here is free.
For those of you who were not there, I covered some of the latest thinking in Twitter and PR before a national audience at a conference of the Sales and Marketing Executives International. 
Have anything else to share? Leave a comment!
There are a number of directories to find Twitter followers. A good place to start is Wefollow, where you can search by topics such as ”Celebrity” or “Social Media” or “Baltimore.”
Looking for a dashboard that allows you to better manage your Twitter follows and set up searches for key terms or competitors’ names? Try Hootsuite or Tweetdeck.
To follow the media on Twitter, try this great compilation of national journalists by Jeremy Porter. Interested in Baltimore? Click on our ”Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter” link on the right.
Want to engage in a weekly Twitter conversation involving journalists, bloggers and PR professionals? Check out #journchat every Monday 
from 7 to 10 p.m., CST.
PitchEngine is a social media news release builder that enables PR pros to effectively package stories and share them with journalists, bloggers, and influencers worldwide via the social web.
Sign up for HARO to receive free daily summaries from media seeking sources for news stories in development. For urgent source needs, follow the companion Twitter account, @HelpAReporter. You can also follow Profnet on Twitter for leads.
And 10 people in PR and social media worth following on Twitter? Love ‘em or not, here’s a variety pack to get your own list going (in no particular order): Scott Monty, Jason Falls, Todd Defren, Geoff Livingston, Amanda Chapel, Chris Brogan, Shel Holtz, Annie Heckenberger, Bill Sledzik and Katie Paine. [Update - here's a great list of 100 PR people to follow, compiled by Valeria Maltoni.]
[Photo, above right, shows my view from the SMEI panelists' table as Gus Sentementes, technology reporter with The Baltimore Sun, makes a point while Greg Cangialosi, CEO of Blue Sky Factory (center), and Steve Kruskamp, head of social media for 1st Mariner Bank, wait for the mike.]
Tweetup at the Baltimore Business Journal
Posted by: | CommentsHere we are this morning at the Baltimore Business Journal’s first-ever tweetup! It was good to see the new offices on Pratt Street, take a tour of the newsroom and catch up with our BBJ friends. You’ll see Reporter/Researcher Rachel Bernstein with Jeff; Susan and Managing Editor Scott Graham; and the impressive new lobby with scrolling news ticker (that’s Scott Dance speaking with Julekha Dash). If you want to follow them on Twitter, go to our “Sawmill Guide to Baltimore Media on Twitter” section (see the link above) and scroll to the BBJ listing.
<Sorry to disappoint. Having trouble with the pics>
The Biggest Mistake PR Newbies Make on Twitter
Posted by: | CommentsA lot of PR people who are new to social media tell me they just don’t get
Twitter. Then I take a look at who they’re following and have to agree - I’d be bored, too, if I had a similar group of ho-hum accounts to follow!
Here’s what I’m seeing. Since they’re in PR they think, “Wow, I’ll follow CNN, AP, The New York Times and the local newspaper and TV stations. To spice it up I’ll add Lance Armstrong, Oprah and Shaquille O’Neal.”
Guess what? All they’ve done is create another one-way newsfeed of information they were already getting through other sources. There’s little chance for any interaction with the “bots” behind the news accounts, and ditto for the celebs, who have hundreds of thousands of followers (as of this morning, Shaq had 1,906,352 followers!)
What they really need to do is invest the time in following a healthy number (at least 100-200) of people who are interesting. Real people who work in their town or industry, and have demonstrated they have something interesting to say. People with informative links to share, conference tidbits to tweet or news to report (so that means the actual beat reporters and editors, not just the newsroom’s Twitter bot).
So to those who don’t appreciate Twitter, take a look at who you’re following and that should offer a clue. It takes time to build a solid group, but that’s the first step to “getting” Twitter in my opinion.
LPGA Golfers Driving, Chipping and Twittering
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We’re probably not going to see tweets like: ”Really nailed it with the driver, now thinking 7 or 8 iron,” or “Looking like this putt breaks left to right. Whaddya think, tweeps?”We got a taste of their tweets last week when the State Farm Classic was played, and now we’ll get an insider’s view during their play just up I-95 at Bulle Rock. @AtlanticGolf (Sawmill client) is following all of them and we encourage others to do the same, as interaction between players and fans can only be good for the game! We counted 33 LPGA golfers on Twitter, including last year’s McDonald’s champion Yani Tseng, in photo, above (@YaniTseng on Twitter) who tells us via Twitter that she’s already had dinner with Taiwan Ambassador Jason Yuan and that Bulle Rock is in great shape, but watch out for the 4-inch rough!
Popular LPGA players on Twitter include Morgan Pressel (@MorganPressel), Paula Creamer (@ThePaulaCreamer), Michelle Wie (@TheMichelleWie), Natalie Gulbis (@Natalie_Gulbis) and Suzann Pettersen ( @SuzannPettersen)
For your convenience, here is a link to all the LPGA players on Twitter!
[Post republished with permission from the Atlantic Golf blog]
