How to keep up with influencers in 10 minutes per day

Keeping up with your influencers’ latest articles and social media posts is one of the most important things you can do as a PR professional. It’s a very simple, very effective way to know what’s on their minds from day to day, which will help you send better pitches, add more value, and stay relevant to media contacts.

Better still, it won’t take you much time at all. Here’s how to stay on top of your contacts’ blogs, articles, and social media posts in just 10 minutes a day.

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1) Integrate their social streams with your inbox.

Use a plugin like Nimble to pull your contacts’ social media data directly into your inbox. Simply enter a contact’s email address into a new email, and these plugins will automatically bring up their social profiles and latest updates, which are perfect for weaving into pitch emails.

2) Follow them on social media. Read their updates every day.

Before you claim that this will take you more than 10 minutes, hear me out. It takes a little upfront effort, but it can be done. It’s not that hard, either. First, you need to gather all your contacts’ social data in one place. Then create a Twitter list that lets you see their latest posts in one view and in real-time.

To do this, locate the Excel spreadsheet you use to keep track of your media contacts. Next, add social media account information for each contact. You don’t have to do this manually. Use media pitching tool Prezly to automatically enrich all your contacts with social profile data.

Once you have social media information for your contacts, add them all to a new Twitter list. This lets you easily browse their updates via the Twitter website or via a Twitter client like Tweetdeck.

3) Repeat step 2 for your contacts’ online articles and blog posts.

You already know which blogs and publications to follow. Add your contacts’ articles to an RSS reader like Feedly so you’ll get automatic updates whenever they publish something new.

4) Set a reminder.

That’s it! Now you can easily go through your contacts’ latest tweets and articles. Set yourself a reminder, and make it a daily habit. Your contacts will thank you and your pitches will improve.

All, as promised, in 10 minutes a day.

Ready to bump up your brand strategy? Read our quick guide to influencer marketing →