***Using Twitter and Facebook To Drive Media Attention to Your Business

As public relations strategies evolve, it’s important to look at social networking sites as jumping off points for media contact. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook, by their very nature, teach key media training skills such as being concise, succinct, and specific.

The media is looking for catchy sound bites… what better place to practice than the limited posting spaces allowed on social networking sites?

These four tips will show you how to leverage your social networking presence so it serves as a media readiness tool. Remember: before contacting you, the media will go online first to check out your credibility. Use social networking as a PR strategy to reinforce your position as a sought after, credible expert.

1. Make Your Social Networking Pages Media Friendly
Your social networking profiles can be turned into PR and media pages by making it easy for visitors to understand who you are, what you do, who you help, and what answers you can provide. You can also strategically include mentions of your work, client success stories, FAQs, and kudos from others.

2. Shine the Spotlight on Success
Toot your horn authentically with the many tools of social networking sites. Link to blogs, client pages, media mentions, and achievements to round out who you are. Bolster your credibility and demonstrate authority in your subject by including articles and other content you’ve created around your area of expertise. Invite clients to drop comments on your pages, creating a win-win visibility opportunity.

3. Make it Multi-Media
Use video, audio, and RSS feeds to keep your content lively and up-to-date. Video and audio will showcase your expertise and act as a video demo, somthing professional speakers pay dearly to have produced and marketed! Focus on quality and credibility when using multi-media: your well created video tips can pave the way to TV exposure, speaking engagements, joint ventures and more!

4. Use Twitter to Practice Speaking in Sound Bites
Twitter is the ultimate place to learn to be succinct, another key skill for media success. Long-winded answers can get rephrased by journalists, possibly changing the meaning or intention. Twitter’s 140 character entries force users to get to the point. This is a prized talent when interacting with the media!

As online communication gets shorter and shorter, it’s wise to keep up with the trend by practicing being clear and concise on social networking pages. Use your pages to spotlight the highlights of your business or career, serving as an “at-a-glance” view of who you are and what information you can provide to the media. When you take the guesswork out of busy journalist’s lives, you’re more likely to be contacted and called upon for expert commentary.