Utah Public Relations Agency, Utah PR, Online PR, PR For Small Business, Utah Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing

Just a few days ago a friend of mine was featured on CNN. He’s an Elvis impersonator. Yep, I know a real live Elvis impersonator. He didn’t get on with a press release and he doesn’t have a website with a newsroom. He actually uploaded his photos to Flickr and then responded to a request on a CNN blog for Elvis stories (to commemorate the King’s 75th birthday). Before he knew it, CNN producers were on like Donkey Kong to get his story. To further the report he then posted it to Facebook, Twitter and his own blog.

Things have changed, folks.

As I write, Brittish news outfit, Sky News, is installing Twitter software across their network to encourage more use of social media for news gathering and reporting.

One of the ways I personally use to reach reporters is through Twitpitching, or chatting them up on Twitter to tell them about stories I’m working on for clients.

Don’t just toss your old PR tactics out the window, though. Press releases are still valuable. They just aren’t the first way to approach the news people anymore.

Think about your own strategies this past year. What has worked and what hasn’t? Adopt social media pitching in this new year and you’ll see the value it can bring to coverage for your company.

Need help with a creative PR or Social Media campaign? Big Star PR specializes in online public relations and social media. Call and ask about services today at 801-708-0958.

Sincerely,
Sarah Buhr
Owner / Consultant
Big Star PR
801-708-0958

p.s. Easy ways to find Big Star PR (and me) on the web:
http://www.twitter.com/sarahbuhr
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahjanebuhr

In case you missed it, breast cancer awareness went viral yesterday with a campaign to get all the women on facebook to share the color of their bra. You may have noticed the one or two word status updates mentioning just colors. The note that went out from women to their girlfriends went like this:

“Some fun is going on…. just write the color of your bra in your status. Just the color, nothing else. And send this on to ONLY girls no men …. It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status… Haha”

Women who got the message copied and pasted it and sent it on to the other women friends on their list.

Whether it sparked anyone to do something about breast cancer was not the point. It was to spread awareness in a way that engaged and empowered women to feel that they could personally do something to help spread the message. At the same time it involved men’s curiosity, enough for some to start typing out their own random colors and discuss what they thought the women were doing. It was a social experiment that seemed to go really well.

No one knows exactly who started the trend, but there is much speculation. Whoever it was really gets social media and just how powerful it can work to raise awareness.