Photo credit: http://alexhammsocial.com/5-ways-to-boost-your-twitter-engagement/

We were discussing at lunch the other day about the good old days of Twitter, you know, 2010 or so, when you could have real conversations on Twitter with real people.  Alison and I were reminiscing about a spontaneous coffee event that occurred at our office, simply because we responded to a few tweets about where to get the best pumpkin spice latte (IMHO Dutch Bros!).

And later that day, as I was scrolling through the many blogs I subscribe to, this post by Arik Hanson caught my attention, Engaging reporters on Twitter: Why it’s an over-hyped “best practice.”  Ironically, I did meet Arik via Twitter when I learned he is from the Twin Cities (as am I).

I can’t say that I totally disagree with him and that Twitter may be a bit over-hyped when it comes to being a best practice for working with the media.  I look at it as one of the many tools we now have at our disposal to connect with and engage the media.  Depending on the media person, your better approach might be a phone call follow-up to an email. For another, it may be a quick desk-side meeting (although I doubt any really happen at a desk anymore, more likely over coffee – see above!).  The bottomline for me is that making a connection with a reporter that serves you and your organization should be the ultimate goal.   If that happens from a couple well-timed Tweets, that’s great.