Today’s post is written by Patrick Garmoe, a former reporter for newspapers in three midwest cities. He is a digital marketing specialist who loves helping businesses spread good ideas through social media and search engine optimization. Patrick also works with me as a senior associate at Cross Border Communications.
This post was originally published at Spinsucks.com.
I spent 10 years as a reporter in the BT (Before Twitter) era. Now as a social media strategist and public relations professional, I’ve found Twitter to be my primary and most successful method of building and maintaining relationships with reporters. It’s brought myself and clients I work with tens of thousands of dollars in free press coverage.
One public relations agency I work with even grew out of a connection made on Twitter. And that’s perhaps the main reason I advise every public relations professional to become a regular. Just like real life, you communicate with a large circle of professionals, but the bulk of the benefits come from just a handful of clients or connections you make over months and years.
I consider Twitter the tool that delivers tangible value in great gulps, so long as you commit to it for a year.
Skeptical? Here’s exactly how I use it. This will work both for one-person shops and advertising agencies trying to build a following to use for clients.
And more 
