Real Time PR
By Sally Falkow
One of the biggest trends in 2009 is the shift to real-time content online, sometimes referred to as Now Media.
And when you say real-time web or the instant news cycle, most people think of Twitter.
“The Real-Time Web is much more than Twitter,” says Richard McManus of ReadWriteWeb in a series about the top 5 web trends in 2009. “It has changed the products and strategies of almost every major Internet company in 2009.”
Twitter has been a large part of it and Twitter search has changed the speed with which people gather information.
The old news cycle has been well and truly trampled in the rush to real-time information. There have been a few high profile news events that showed up in Twitter well before the mainstream media got their content out online – never mind in print.
The US Airways plane in the Hudson was a case in point. Janis Krums, who happened to be on the scene, took a picture just minutes after the event and posted it to Twitter. “There’s a plane in the Hudson,” tweeted Krum. “I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”
“Social media tools like Twitter -– which allows users to tap out 140-character status updates — have changed how breaking news events are recorded and covered,” says the Wall St Journal.
“We’ll get used to the fact that we can now connect, publish and collaborate in real time from mobile devices anywhere in the world that there is signal. This awareness will become widespread and more interestingly, smart uses of its potential will continue to emerge. New things are coming. We don’t know the half of it yet,” writes Laura Fitton (Pistachio).
And the first comment on that blog post states: “I haven’t even watched the news yet… I got everything I needed from Twitter.”
Journalists and bloggers have seen the value of real-time news and content. You can find them on sites like Media on Twitter and Muckrack.com.
Media Relations is not what it used to be. People find their information and news in new places. And they find it fast. In the real-time web, delayed news and information just isn’t good enough.
Journalist and bloggers are watching the real-time news stream for stories and ‘citizen journalists’ on the scene at breaking news stories. Go over these lists of journalists and bloggers on Twitter and see if anyone on your list of media contacts is there.
It’s just one more reason to be in these real-time conversations and to watch what is being said about your company, your brand and the generic phrases that describe your industry. Add Twitter search to your Google searches. Keep an eye on the development of RSS Cloud so you can make your corporate news available in real-time too.
Today the media relations race goes to the swift.
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