Twitter Impact on Breaking News and PR

Over at Mashable, there's a piece by Josh Catone about two recent news stories that made some waves in the sporting world yesterday. The stories were about Brett Farve coming out of retirement (again) and the $15 million contract that uber-agent Scott Boras landed for Baseball’s top draft pick Stephen Strasburg.

The common thread with these stories was in the way they were broken - via Twitter. Josh gives three great reasons why breaking news via Twitter is, and will continue to be, the norm for mainstream media:

1. To avoid being scooped. For news organizations, there can be a lot of value in being first. The source that breaks the news is more likely to be the one invited onto TV talk shows to talk about the story, attract mentions in other newspaper or magazines, and boost their reputation as a quality news source. Tweeting first is a way for news organizations to in effect “time stamp” the news and ensure that their name is on a breaking story first, even if they’re not the fastest to get a full story out.

2. Because there is value in awareness. Both WCCO and Yahoo put their names in the text of their tweets, and the result for WCCO was that they became a trending topic. That brand awareness can be hugely valuable. For WCCO, they’re now likely looked at by many people as a source of reliable Vikings news, which could be hugely profitable as football season nears. For Yahoo Sports, building brand recognition ultimately means more people turning to them first when looking for the day’s sports news.

3. To reach new audiences. As a result of the Favre tweet, WCCO — a local TV station in a medium-sized market — was able to more than triple their usual web audience. Their tweet was able to reach people all over the country (and the world) in ways that their television news broadcast never could.

As PR counselors, we are constantly digesting news and determining how we can leverage trends to advance our client's media programs. Typically there is time to mull over angles and work out a pitch. However, with the speed and efficiency of sources like Twitter, we must be just as quick, if not quicker.

~ Don Martelli, VP & Dir. of Digital Communications