It can be easy to slip into the habit of putting a shoutout on social media whenever you are looking for a particular expert. But sometimes there are much better ways to find the right person for your story. FFJ co-founder Lily Canter shares her top tips.
This week I was looking for a certified pedorthist. This is someone who is an expert in footwear, in particular modifications in footwear. They are different from a podiatrist, who it turns out are two a penny by comparison.
My first instinct was to put a call out on Twitter using #journorequest. This has become my go to place for finding experts and it can work very well. But it is not always the best option and the lack of (useful) responses to my tweet made be me realise I had become a bit lazy when it came to sourcing people to speak to.
My next tactic was to try a more specific community so I posted a similar request on a couple of Facebook running groups. I got no response. I then tried to find some pedorthist Facebook groups and although there were a few they had very low membership numbers and didn’t seem very active.
I considered using a PR-Journalist source finding tool like JournoRequest or JournoLink but thought my request was too niche and I’d probably end up with loads of irrelevant press releases.
It then suddenly dawned on me that I needed to go old school. What did I use to do before I used Facebook and Twitter to source experts? I would contact experts directly rather than put out a general call in the hope they would come to me.
So this is what I did. I started by googling ‘pedorthist’ + ‘association’ and found a number of organisations in the US and Canada that represented certified pedorthist practitioners. I emailed them asking if they could put someone forward for interview. At the same time I googled ‘pedorthist’ + ‘UK’ and found a company in Bedfordshire that specialised in bespoke footwear modifications. I emailed them via their website contact form and within a couple of hours I was chatting to the company director who was a certified pedorthist.
I also decided to try and track down some individuals via LinkedIn and typed ‘pedorthist’ into the search box. I found one in the UK and sent her a message and she got back to me quickly with a recommendation of a pedorthist specialising in running footwear. I messaged him and he agreed to chat.
In the meantime someone from one of the US associations had also got back to me and now I had three experts.
A few days later I was back using #journorequest on Twitter to find personal finance experts on a range of subjects because I knew for this kind of request Twitter would be the best resource. But when I wanted to speak to someone about the nuances of registering for child benefits I reached into my contacts book (AKA my email folders) and emailed someone I had spoken to in the past who I knew would be a reliable, knowledgeable expert.
Finding a pedorthist has been a really useful reminder that different tactics are required for finding different types of experts. Associations, charities, universities, and governing bodies are some of the best places to go to when you need an expert to talk about something specific. Or even better find an individual and contact them directly.
Funding your freelance project
In this week’s podcast we talk about all the different kind of ways you can finance a new freelance project. We talk about how to get funding with Amanda Nunn, a freelance broadcast journalist and co-founder of the Off the Record newsletter and Warren Nettleford, an ITN television presenter and reporter and co-founder of Need to Know, the UK’s first youth news service built purely for the digital generation.
Triumph of the week
Finding not one, not two, but three pedorthists!
That feeling when
You put out a request on Twitter and get 50 email responses within minutes…
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Bye for now!