First Dates and Social Media Courtship

A few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s housewarming in Manhattan, and talk turned, as it seems to do these days, to social media.

I don’t remember how the conversation started. Somebody probably asked if we’d seen something somebody else tweeted. At some point, though, the conversation turned to best practices when using social media for work, and a friend in attendance at the party, Alex Cohen (who, I should note, was instrumental in getting ELISE on Twitter) said that deciding what social media channel to use when initiating a professional conversation was kind of like dating.

Readers of this blog will know that I love a good metaphor, so naturally I was attracted to Alex’s comparison and decided that I had to write a blog post about it. And away we go…

Say you’re at a bar with your friends. One of your friends notices that one of his friends is also there and invites him over to your table. Suddenly, West Side Story-style, everything gets quiet and everyone in the room fades into soft focus. It may not be love at first sight, but it’s something. You spend the rest of the evening ignoring your friends and talking to the guy. All too soon, it’s time to go home. You exchange information… and then you wait. Which of you is going to make first contact? Are you going to call? E-mail? Facebook stalk? Follow on Twitter? Post a love song to your MySpace page? The possibilities for getting in touch with a potential paramour these days are endless—it’s just all about the approach.

In the world of PR, it’s not too different—minus the soft focus and softer music, that is. We become acquainted with a reporter or his work, either in person; via opportunities posted to ProfNet or Help a Reporter Out; through Twitter; or by simply doing our homework. If we’ve identified that reporter as somebody we’d like to pitch, we then figure out the best approach. Do we keep it simple and send an e-mail? Kick it old school with a phone call or a fax? Or do we embrace social media and shoot for a LinkedIn invite or post to a reporter’s Facebook fanpage? Is it déclassé to pitch on Twitter for the world to see?

Pitching, like dating, is all about the approach. Does the journalist we want to pitch often tweet out information on what he’s working on and ask for input? Then he probably won’t mind if we @reply him with a 140 character pitch. Is he connected to several other PR pros on LinkedIn? Then he would probably be open to connecting with you, too. Hasn’t updated his Facebook wall in over a month? Then maybe a more traditional method of pitching, like an e-mail or a phone call, might be best.

And just like in dating, if the approach is right and you begin to see more of each other, a beautiful relationship can result.