In today’s world of 24 hour news cycles and social media channels that never sleep, people across the globe are constantly gaining access to large amounts of information on a daily basis.
However, in times of crisis this constant flow of never ceasing information can create challenges when trying to get an accurate message across.
It is particularly challenging when communicating via Twitter, when your clearly written and informative media release is reduced to a 140 character line.
How do you express essential and maybe even critically important information in only 140 characters? Enter ‘TwitterCue’ – the new social media idea created by Australian public relations agency Creative Territory.
A TwitterCue is a 140 character line written at the top or bottom of a media release which sums up the content and can be then spread through social media channels without losing any essential information.
Not only is a TwitterCue a great addition to a social media optimised media release – distributed to bloggers, citizen journalists and through services such as PR Newswire – it will also be useful for time-pressed journalists.
The challenge, however, is getting all the information needed into that 140 character line. To help you get the most out of writing a TwitterCue, here are some useful tips:
- Lose the fancy talk and get straight to the point – concentrate on facts only.
- Always use a suitable hashtag
- Include a URL that links to the full media release
- Leave space for unedited re-tweeting – 120 characters should be your aim
- Channel the language of your Tweeps – use abbreviations e.g. to = 2; for = 4; you = u
That last point will make most PR practitioners cringe in disgust, as it seems to go against everything we’ve been taught when it comes to communicating with consumers.
However, any negative attention received about using abbreviated words would be insignificant when weighed up against the damage one inaccurate and viral tweet could do to an organisation.
Here is an example of a TwitterCue we did for our client Community Engine when we released their annual survey. We included the hashtag on all tweets:
The Nielsen-Community Engine 2011 Social Media Business Benchmarking Study released 2day http://t.co/6KoQiXt #B2Bsocialstudy
Sydney Public Relations Agency, CP Communications provides specialist media, traditional and online PR strategies that get amazing results. Contact us today. For more great tips visit our website www.cpcommunications.com.au.