Well, not exactly. But a growing number of reporters and editors are actually following my movements and tracking my thinking.

Let me explain. A few years ago, one of the members of my firm’s team suggested that I begin to Twitter. Considering that I was just starting my Unconventional Thinking Blog, I wanted to focus on that and, equally important, I had no appetite for what I viewed at the time as a digital gimmick.

Some time later I began to Twitter, but only half-heartedly, in part because I didn’t think it would ever build a real following.

And then a month ago, I noticed that an editor I had not talked to in six months at least was following my Twitter postings even though they had been few and far between. Just when I thought it was a fluke, another reporter showed up on my Twitter following.

I started thinking that the traditional model of PR people tracking down media may be changing in a way none of us could have predicted. As we all begin to communicate increasingly though digital pathways, including Twitter and Face Book, reporters, editors, PR people and our clients can share ideas that build relationships and lead to story ideas without pitches and press releases.

We engage, this way, in informal conversations. We build and enhance media friendships that weren’t likely to evolve in the standard modalities. I discovered many years ago that the best salespeople never really sell anything. They simply educate and inform and the sale takes care of itself.
It becomes the by product of this information exchange.

I see a similar dynamic occurring in the PR process. On Twitter, I am musing about all manner of observations and experiences that have nothing, on face value, to do with PR.

But I have also learned years ago that face value is the superficial level.
All of the real action occurs beneath the surface.

You can send 100 media pitches a day and get nowhere. Have lunch with a reporter, bring a good idea, and it’s likely you’ll walk away with a story. Think of Twitter as the 21st century version of that lunch. And keep in mind that the old ways are fading into the woodwork across all fronts. Will you be in the rear or at the vanguard?