How to Pitch via Twitter

I've been at this PR pitching business for 12 years now and I'm still working on getting my pitch down as tiny as possible. The best pitch is one that captures their imagination in as few words as possible.

If you want to pitch to someone via Twitter, you don't have much choice! You only get 140 characters to make your best impression. I've been told by some that you shouldn't pitch via Twitter and that most journalists don't like it. I think for those that don't use Twitter a lot, that's probably true -- but some are die-hard Twitter users and I think most of them are open to being pitched via Twitter. In fact, they're probably quite comfortable with it by now.

To tweet or not to tweet, that is the question! But if you do "Twitpitch," here are some general guidelines:

1. Be sure yourTwitter profile is complete. If they get pitched by you, they'll likely want to know more about you before they give your pitch any credence. Also, be sure to include your URL in your profile.
2. Speaking of which, include a URL in your tweet. You'll want to be sure to use your pitch to drive traffic to a web site or blog post that provides much greater detail on your company, product or story idea than you could include in your 140 character Twitpitch. You'll also want your URL to take up as few characters as possible, so be sure to run it through a shortener like http://bit.ly.
3. Just like with email pitching, don't be an annoying spammer. Don't pitch the same ideas or stories multiple times, and don't send pitches about irrelevant topics to what the writer/blogger normally covers.
4. Engage in conversation. Twitter provides a great way to dialogue with someone -- but don't make it a one-way conversation. Don't use Twitter to simply broadcast your messages, but look for ways to engage those who follow you on Twitter as well.