How to use Twitter as a journalist

Technology is constantly evolving. Web sites pop up and disappear everyday. Occasionally, I'll go over Web sites that you may already know about, but aren't sure what they do or how journalists are using them.

Twitter:
I'm sure you have all heard about Twitter, but journalists are using it in many different ways. Here are three ways to use Twitter.

How it is being used:
A) Some papers just dump their RSS feed (learn about RSS feeds) directly to Twitter. This is the wrong approach. When a media outlet sends their rss feeds to Twitter it overwhelms users with messages. Many followers will get annoyed with the sheer number of messages posted and will likely quit following the feed. Additionally, if they are interested in your RSS feeds, they have probably already subscribed to them. The Twitter feed needs to be unique.

The New York Times and Arizona Daily Star both use the RSS method. The Star feeds in their breaking news RSS feed.(Click on the links to see their Twitter feeds)

A better method for News outlets to utilize Twitter is to allow a few people in the newsroom to have access to the account. They should tweet with an actual voice rather that just posting headlines and links to the story.

As an example, when the Arizona Daily Star got word that porn had been shown on some cable viewers TVs, they posted these tweets. (First tweet appears at the bottom):


What they should have done was tweet with a personal voice and say something like: "We are receiving calls about porn being shown during the Super Bowl. Then attach a link to the story.

This does two things. Because it is clear that it is a real person tweeting it encourages the followers to interact rather than passively follow the Twitter feed. If interaction is encouraged you might get a follower to tell you a detail that you missed and add it to the story. Additionally this method prevents you from over tweeting.

A great example of using developing a Twitter voice is the Phoenix Mars Lander. They tweet as if it were the lander doing the tweeting. It encourages questions from the followers and became one of the best Twitter feeds for 2008. When the lander began to shut down Twitter followers were emotionally upset. (Interesting read about the feed and the person responsible for it)

B) Using Twitter to find sources
Our very own Nate Olivarez-Giles used Twitter to find sources for his story about the plane that landed in the river:


Looks like the Twitter post worked for Nate.

You can also use Web sites like tweetscan.com to search for keywords. When the Super Bowl porn escapade happened, I hopped on tweetscan and searched "porn" and "super bowl." As the night progressed more and more people started talking about it and it was really interesting to see what people were saying on Comcast's Twitter feed and what Comcast was tweeting back.

C) Using Twitter to network and learn
Journalists are following other journalists to discuss new techniques and ideas. An example is Mindy McAdams. People ask her questions about multimedia and equipment. She also poses her own questions to those that follow her.

Those seem to be the main ways in which journalists are using Twitter. Is there something that I missed? Leave a comment.