I’m so fortunate to work with some incredibly smart social media minds at PR Newswire.
In September, the Internet Marketing Association awarded PR Newswire with Best Use of Twitter, during IMA’s IMPACT13 Conference and Awards in Las Vegas.
And while I can’t give away *all* of our secrets, a small lesson on how we handle Twitter curation may be in order.
It starts with the leader of our Twitter efforts, Victoria Harres, vice president of audience development and social media with PR Newswire. Harres created @PRNewswire, and several of us help manage the account (Incidentally, I’m the ^cc you may have seen at the end of some tweets. Pleased to meet you.)
From there, senior media relations manager Brett Simon, with the assistance of customer content services manager Anna Deleo, leads the curation of some 47 industry accounts. This is no small task.
It began in April 2011. Of the 47 accounts, roughly 30 actively are being curated.
What does that mean?
PR Newswire has a dedicated team of volunteers – social media ambassadors – who are part of the curation effort to put human voices, engagement, and quality content across every Twitter handle. Volunteers come from every department – customer content, sales, and audience development – with the aim to grow PR Newswire’s social media presence and allow ambassadors to nurture social media skills.
“Curation is a mix of information on a given subject all in one place,” Simon said. “I tell each of the curators to think of it as a magazine you like, and you’re the managing editor of that magazine. They find news and content that’s of interest to them.”
Now, we wouldn’t be PR Newswire without our wire content. But only a couple of releases daily actually reach the curated accounts. If folks are looking for newswire content, there are other places for that: The public site, prnewswire.com, and for members of the media and bloggers, there are PR Newswire for Journalists and PR Newswire for Bloggers.
The most popular curated handles – which also get the most interaction on Twitter with quality influencers – are @PRNmedia, @PRNpolicy, @PRNhealth, @PRNtravel, and @PRNTech.
Deleo says it’s almost a game between the social media ambassadors for “best tweet.”
“People are challenging themselves – who can write the better tweet,” Deleo said. “They’re asking themselves ‘how can I make this better?’ We try to get really creative with it. My favorite part is how engaged everyone is. The enthusiasm. We’ve doubled the number of curators we have.”
Christine Cube is a media relations manager with PR Newswire and freelance writer. You can follow her @cpcube or check out her curation efforts on @PRN4Bloggers.