5 Tactics to find journalists and influencer’s email using Twitter

In the past few years, finding emails has gone from a challenging research task to almost a commodity, thanks to all the different email prospecting tools out there.

You see, we’ve used RocketReach, Hunter.io, and the other popular tools.
We tried them a bunch of them (we’re even paying for RocketReach).

While they are mostly able to deliver on their promise, a lot of the time they failed to find the critical emails we needed.

I’m talking about founders, journalists, influencers and more.

So what do you do with the emails you can’t find?

Well, Say hello to my little bird (you get the reference? Am I getting too old? Nah, Pachino is a classic).

Using Twitter to find Emails

Twitter is a great source to find people’s email.

You just need to know how to look.

I want to share with you 5 strategies you can use to find emails using Twitter.

This works amazingly well for reporters and influencers, but can also work well on other titles of course

1. The Bio ( + Trick)
2. The alternative Site
3. The “from – email.”
4. The [dot][at] trick
5. DM’ing

Check their Twitter bio

Yes. It’s banal. Yes, it works.

You wouldn’t imagine how many people post their emails on their Twitter bio.

I know, it sounds a little bit like an amateur move, but it’s pretty widespread.

For example, you can see how food writer and cooking show host Nigella Lawson is asking to send email to a specific address (her agent):

But what about Dion Caputi Writer at National FootballPost.com or Deputy UK Editor for Mashable, Sam Haysom’s? Yup, get their emails right off their Twitter bio.

See how simple it is?

I want to share a little bonus.

Let’s say you’re not looking for somebody specific, but need a contact on a major publication, or a company – where do you even start?

Here’s a trick:
Go to followerwonk.com
Navigate to “search bios” and then make sure you filter “check bios only” (you can use the other version as well, but it will be less accurate).

So if you’re looking for a journalist you can search for:
publication name + email me
See the results for Mashable & The Verge:

Visit their “alternative website”

Sometimes, high profiled personal don’t like to be to access on their main gig.

So a writer for a publication might not have put his email out there on the main site.

BUT – a lot of them have side hustles, personal blogs, etc.

While their “editorial” inbox might be exploding with emails to a point they are trying to play hard to get with sharing their email addresses – their personal emails, not as much.

If you try to contact a Buffer team member for a content partnership, you’ll find it hard to get attention through their Buffer email. But they’ll be more keen to answer on their side-hustle account.

Same for reporters.

But where can you find those “side hustle” or alternative websites?
Yup. Twitter.

Take Wired’s Senior editor for example.
If you check out his author page at Wired.com – no email:

Same for his Twitter account – No email.

Sucks right?

You wanted to get his attention with your story.
But wait – If you go back and look at this profile, you will see he is mentioning another site in his link – http://snackfight.com

Visit that page, scroll to the bottom – and there you have it

Search Operators 1# Email + From

Most chances are that if the person you’re trying to get their email is using Twitter for work, they’ve tweeted their email address once or twice to someone.

You need to find that tweet.
But how?

The easiest way is to go https://search.twitter.com/ and click on ‘Advanced Search.’

In the keyword field, type in: ‘Email’ or ‘My email.’

Then, go to the “From these accounts” and write down the Twitter handle of the person you want to get their email.
It will look like this:

Does it work? You ask.
Here’s how you can easily find Gary Vee’s email using Twitter:

Search Operators 2#: User + [at] [dot]

Some people don’t use the word email or spell our their name@domain.com email like that.

Why? Because they don’t want to be so easily found, and also – it’s a great way to avoid being spammed by different bots.

Instead, they would write name [at] domain [dot] com.
So for example, if I want to get Canava’s founder email, I’ll just search go to the ‘Advanced Twitter Search’ we saw before, but now, I will searh for [at] [dot] tweeted from Melanie Perkins’ twitter handle: @MelanieCanva.
Results would look like this:

Just DM and ask them

The best thing about Twitter is that starting a conversation is easy.

The entry barrier for Twitter engagement is much lower than email.

You can get a chance to have an efficient and meaningful engagement that will both get you the email address you wanted – but also, make it easier for you to have your foot in the door.

Follow the person you want to email’s Twitter account (always a great practice before pitching by the way) – and then DM them for their email.
It can be something like:

“Hey @name,
I would love to get the opportunity to guest post for blog Z,
Any chance you can share your email address with me so I can send you more information on why I think I can bring value without being a burden your private Twitter inbox?
Thanks so much”.

While it’s easier for people to ghost you on email, on social media, it’s a bit harder, because you feel more obliged to answer. After all, it’s part of the social game.

Now, you asked for their email, gave them only a little context (so they might be curious).

The best thing is when your email arrives, they’ll recognize it’s you, and it will pop out more when they skim their inbox for opportunities.
Sometimes asking is all it takes.

Takeaways:

Most of the time, the paid “Find email” tools will work fine.

But sometimes, they won’t get you the email you’re after.

You have to always keep up your manual email finding skills sharp, so you can have all the alternatives for doing the outreach yourself without relying on other paid tools.

Also, you won’t believe how many opportunities you find by doing this manual research.

How do you go about your email address research?