Apparently, no one knows for sure, especially when it comes to pitching stories.
Last week, TechCrunch reported on a new investment for a social discovery app which was announced on Vine, twitter’s new micro-video platform. At the end of the story the reporter wrote that she hoped that “[making press announcements on Vine] doesn’t become a thing.”
How to pitch journalists is a topic that resurfaces every time a new technology emerges. And everyone seems to have their own idea about what works and what doesn’t work.
In the last few weeks, Vocus released their annual State of the Media report which says that 80 percent of reporters want to be pitched by email (and not social media). While in DC, PR pros and journalists gathered at a TWITCH panel event to discuss how social media became the new king in media relations.
This lack of consensus about how journalists want to be pitched underscores the importance of establishing your own relationships with the reporters on “your beat.”
It’s okay to use studies and panel discussions as a guide for how things can be done, but it’s much more effective to find out the preferences of the reporters that you’re interacting with on a day-to-day basis.
Because what they want is the thing that really matters.