The power of Twitter shined bright again yesterday as I sat in the conference room at Burson-Marsteller PR on Brickell Key, surrounded by about 15 public-relations minds that were ready to pick my brain apart.

I was scouted on Twitter by Felix Leander (@fleander), the lead digital strategist for their Latin American division, to come and take part in B-M’s NewsFeed program, coordinated by Senior Associate Bradley Gerber (@bradleygerber).  About four times a year the company brings in journalists from all backgrounds to give a little inside scoop about the nature of the current state of business.

They’ve welcomed guests in the past who have given the company insight into the online realm of media like Joachim Bamrud from LatinBusinessChronicle.com. In keeping up with the ever-changing landscape, B-M wanted a glimpse at how journalists are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook in their day-to-day work routine.

I couldn’t help feeling nervous. This was the biggest interrogation I’d ever been the target of.

But I’ve got to hand it to them. I was met with some fantastic questions that not only gave them a peek into the duties of an online producer in the media world but I learned a ton about my job’s importance to public relations associates. Who knew that there actually ARE people up at 3:30 in the morning waiting to see the stories from the morning’s print edition go live on the Web? Now I know better.

We discussed everything from an average day at work for me, to the strategies I use when I tweet for @MiamiHerald, to the guidelines we give ourselves for moderating comments on our stories.  All completely relevant to PR folks who are keeping a watchful eye on what the media are saying about their clients.

Most of the associates had joined Twitter but were nervous about the inevitable first-tweet and still hadn’t sent it. This is an issue I hear all the time, even among my personal friends who have yet to succumb to the grips of Twitter addiction. I used to not understand it, but the more I realized that PR people are the epitome of what representation means, I laid off a bit. Their personal image IS the image of their clients. The disconnect is fuzzier so I can see the apprehension.

One of the strongest points we touched on to counteract first-tweet-phobia is to approach your tweeps as if you are already buddies, putting business tweets on the back burner until you can garner some real personal connections with fellow users. There ARE things to tweet about other than business (I like to tweet about music, our garden, my niece and nephew, South Florida) and the Twittersphere is much more likely to embrace newbies who don’t start out by blasting us with what they do for a living. Once I get to know you, I’m more likely to care about your line of work because it is important to you. In this case, PR.

There are plenty of PR associates who use Twitter successfully from personal accounts without saying anything that would harm the image of their clients.  Toby Srebnik (@FSUToby) and Heather Whaling (@PRtini) are some great examples from Florida, check them out. If you know of others please add them to the comments.

So don’t be scared to tweet, PR peeps. Just don’t scare me away with a pitch stream either.

Big, giant, huge, monstrous thanks for the opportunity to learn and discuss with smart minds at B-M.  I hope to see all of you at our next Herald Tweetup!

P.S. I just thought this was too cool. My picture on their digital welcome sign!