Stretching Your Social Media, Public Relations Network from Miami into Twitterspace

I had yet another fun experience on Twitter today.  Those of you who have read our blog might remember my online “encounter” with Rick Sanchez of CNN last year.  I tweeted about an interesting story in the Miami Herald about Fidel Castro.  Sanchez re-tweeted it, and I ended up with a whole bunch of new followers.  Today, I had a similar experience which shows how a public relations guy in Miami can be seen and heard all around the country in a few moments.

When I read an interesting news story online, I often pull quotes to tweet with a link to the story.  Sometimes I write successive tweets if I find something particularly amusing or relevant.  Today, while reading The Wall Street Journal’s story about the oil spill, I was surprised and saddened to read about the number of sea turtles, dolphins and birds that have been killed by the giant glob of toxic goo.

I tweeted the following:

From @WSJ documented 156 dead sea turtles, 12 bottlenose dolphins, and 35 oiled birds—23 dead—since the spill. http://bit.ly/ciZi6W

A few minutes later, someone at The Wall Street Journal decided that my tweet about their story was interesting enough to re-tweet themselves.

And they did:
 
Killed by the Gulf oil leak: 156 sea turtles, 12 bottlenose dolphins, and 23 birds http://on.wsj.com/a1B9US via @johnpdavid

Within moments, I had some new followers, including a former Miami-area reporter and friend who now works in North Carolina.

All in all, 85 people re-tweeted the item, most of them equally saddened by the news.  The power of social media continues to surprise me.

--John
www.miamipublicrelations.com