A business journalist bored of “poorly targeted press releases” from PRs has said he is to only accept pitches via Twitter, the social network.
Dan Martin, editor of businesszone.co.uk, said irrelevant press releases were “clogging up his inbox”.
So, next Monday and Tuesday, he will only accept PRs’ pitches via Twitter – the microblogging and messaging service which limits messages to 140 characters.
Martin said if the experiment worked, he may consider using only Twitter permanently.
In an email – rather than Tweet – to Press Gazette, Martin said: “While I have regular dealings with several excellent PRs, far too much poorly targeted information clogs up my inbox and voicemail so it’s time for a change.
“A key skill of public relations is writing punchy, catchy copy which draws the journalist in, so what better place to do that than on Twitter?
“Twitter is rapidly becoming a must-use resource for media professionals. It is now common place for news stories to break on the site and as well as several celebrities, an increasing number of British politicians are starting to tweet.
“Earlier this week, after failing to get in touch with Liberal Democrat shadow chancellor Vince Cable, a colleague vented her frustrations on Twitter only to receive an apologetic tweet from the party – followed by a phone call from the man himself just minutes later.
“If this two-day experiment works, I may well extend it and say goodbye to having to clean out my inbox and listen to irrelevant voicemail messages on a daily basis.”
Martin can be reached at www.twitter.com/businesszone, or www.twitter.com/dan_martin. Messages spread across several posts, he said, will not be considered.
Twitter launched in 2006 but has only recently been noticed by most of the mainstream media.
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