A Broadcaster's Take on Social Media and How it Impacts PR and the Media

Live streaming video technology presents an exciting — but often overlooked — earned media opportunity for public relations and communications specialists.The next time you pitch broadcast media, think beyond traditional on-air coverage.In addition to using social media to gather information and interact with viewers, many television newsrooms across the country are turning to social to broadcast stories – even when the station is not on the air.“It gives public relations clients more opportunities to get in front of multiple audiences,” says Michelle Li (@MichelleLiTV), award-winning evening news anchor at WISC-TV, the CBS-affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin. “Get your folks in front of a screen. Always push your clients to do webcam-type interviews.”Phone interviews, she says, make for “bad television.”Li, whose following on social media accounts includes more than 670,000 subscribers on Google Plus, recently participated in a Twitter chat focused on how broadcasters use social media. During this #ConnectChat, she also offered tips to public relations professionals interested in engaging with television news personalities.“You have to make an effort every day,” says Li of her involvement on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat, Periscope, YouTube—the list seems endless. “There are great tools to keep you active.”[Don’t miss the next #ConnectChat: PR Newswire’s @ProfNet hosts a Twitter Q&A every other Tuesday between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. ET.] In a video Li shared with #ConnectChat participants, viewers get an inside look at how newsrooms like WISC-TV use social media to enhance their work.Following an outbreak of severe storms that spawned tornadoes, the station used social media to take its audience behind the scenes, live streaming as crews collected footage and interviews between newscasts. When riots broke out in Ferguson, the station identified and spoke with a local connection through live streaming video, which editors later downloaded for broadcast.

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