Post great messages. If your Twitter account is a resource in your sector, journalists will trust you quite a bit more. They may even find you through retweets and comments other people make.

Follow the media people who cover your sector. Often, they tweet out when they’re looking for sources. In addition, following them is a step toward building a relationship—but proceed with caution; they have a lot of people trying to buddy up to them, and they can smell self-interest from miles off. (We’re media people ourselves, so we know whereof we speak.)