How Public Relations is Changing in 140 Characters or Less

Brown Bag Teleconference - Recorded March 4, 2011

Join members of the PRSA Health Academy to discuss the growing power of Twitter, both as a means for public relations pros to pitch stories and for the news media to find breaking news.

While there are naysayers who point out 70 percent of tweets are never read, brown bag facilitator Sandra Fathi has successfully used Twitter to pitch major news media outlets like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal . Also, for Health Academy chair-elect Leigh Fazzina, the medium saved her life when she tweeted her way to safety after crashing her bike during a mini-triathlon. Twitter named Fazzina’s tweet for help one of the “10 Most Powerful Tweets of 2010.”
 
During this interactive discussion, Fazzina and Fathi will share their perspectives on how the news media is currently using Twitter to source stories, and how you can effectively leverage this dynamic social media tool to connect with both mainstream and health care trade media.

Moderator

Sandra Fathi, president and founder, Affect Strategies, has spent the past 15 years helping technology companies achieve their communications goals. A celebrated speaker and active contributor to public relations industry publications, Fathi's expertise is turning emerging communications tools into practical, useful strategies for clients with tangible ROI. Prior to founding Affect Strategies in 2002, Fathi led corporate communications and investor relations for RADVISION, a provider of video conferencing infrastructure products. Earlier in her career, she was on the technology team at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide, where she specialized in the networking, telecommunications, computer hardware, software and Internet business verticals.

Leigh Fazzina is an award-wining health care communications pro and principal of Fazzina & Co. Communications Consulting, Inc., a health care and social media communications consultancy. With 17 years experience in developing and implementing integrated internal and external communications, Fazzina’s work has been in pharmaceuticals, clinical trials, medical society, and the hospital sides working for and on behalf of public relations agencies and companies such as the American College of Physicians and its medical journal the Annals of Internal Medicine, Schering-Plough, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Neuromedical Systems Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Fazzina has held a leadership position on the PRSA Health Academy Executive Committee since 2003, where she continually gives back to the health care PR industry. She is also a senior judge of the PRSA Bronze Anvil Awards and the prestigious PRSA Silver Anvil Awards. Most recently, she was also an adjunct instructor in the masters program at Temple University.

The handouts for this event are also available via SlideShare.