Twitter PR Case Study Success Story

Using Twitter and Viral Marketing For Public Relations Outreach

An AJR & Partners Public Relations Case Study 

Overview

The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas served as a Social Media experiment on Twitter for our agency and clients. Over all, it was a success and AJR & Partners will incorporate Twitter in all future PR outreach efforts with current and future clients.

AJR & Partners focused our Twitter PR campaign on a core group of media that attended CES 2009 in Las Vegas.

All tweets were targeted to #CES09 attendees by employing the popular hashtag (#) symbol to track tweets (#CES09). Tweets were also sent to @ces09 who in turn, re-tweeted them to all CES09 followers.

By using Tweeter search, we were able to find and reach out to reporters attending CES or tweeting about the show. We followed and communicated with media directly. Naturally, not all media expressed an interest in our client, but a dialogue was created and established.

The twitter campaign was initiated several weeks before CES 2009, with once-a-day updates. As the event got closer, we tweeted several times per day leading up to CES and then as needed onsite for live updates on our clients’ activities, etc.

Tweet Pitch

The 140 character limit set by Twitter did not hinder our ability to craft targeted pitches. In fact, the short and to-the-point communication enabled us to quickly get our message across while providing hyperlinks to clients’ microsites to cut down on the number of characters tweeted.

How Tweets Were Used:

a) Client informative

b) Call to action to book actual interviews

c) Marketing driven – generate foot traffic to booth

Sample Tweet Pitch:

#CES09 - AOC will be at Bellagio Tower Ballroom 3 launching Gamer Certified WLED monitor: interview/ demos available (@alecjr)

#CES09 http://www.gamercertified.com/ Sponsored by AOC visit at Bellagio Tower Ballroom 3 - interview/ demos available (@alecjr)

some additional Tweets used in this campaign: 

• http://twitter.com/alecjr/status/1097317729
  
• http://twitter.com/alecjr/status/1084005017
  

Successes

Twitter resonated with the online media community more so than with “traditional” media outlets.

Through twitter, we successfully booked 16 interviews and had a higher PR response rate versus traditional “e-mail” pitching. We also generated more PR and a different caliber of reporter than originally targeted – including an increase in blogger and gaming oriented media interest.

Metrics

Metrics for our PR efforts through twitter were measured by 1.) The number of media interviews booked and 2.) The number of articles / reviews published as a direct result of twitter.

Of the 16 booked interviews resulting from Twitter media outreach, 15 reporters showed up for their interviews / demos, resulting in 14 published articles.

Articles generated by media that were “pitched” via twitter were more engaged than those contacted by traditional PR practices due to pre-interview communications though Twitter.  

The use of Twitter before, during and after CES greatly expanded the number of niche media contacts in our database, resulting in larger and more targeted media lists.

Follow us: 

http://twitter.com/alecjr

http://www.ajrpartners.com/

http://www.thinkgreenpr.com/