12 Feb Why twitter helps us write better pitches
Okay, this is also a thinly-veiled – well I guess it’s not veiled at all now – attempt to get more followers on twitter. I’m waxgirl333, in case you didn’t know.
But the 5 million people on twitter are learning a valuable lesson – how to communicate your message in 140 characters or less. People still write pitches the old fashioned way. We used to call the reporter, get them interested, and then send a long backgrounder with all the detail. And today many of the old school publicists still send out horrifically long emails as their first contact. Guess what? If you can’t get them hooked in the first sentence these days, you’re done. They won’t read the rest unless they know you very well or they are incredibly bored.
You’ve got to have a good hook. That hook may not have much to do with the rest of your message. Or it may be a tiny detail that just happens to grab attention. For example, I got a ton of hits about a successful restaurant chain by telling the reporters that the owner had to sell her car to come up with the money to buy her first cafe. That certainly wasn’t the core message but it got their attention. Then I could reel them in.
Use twitter and see if you can create meaningful messages in 140 characters. Then take your email pitches and read the first 1 or 2 sentence to someone else. If they’re boring, write it again. It’s all about the hook. THEN you can thrill them with your dynamic and compelling message.