Twitter Workshop for Journalists

Twitter

Facts

• Short messages (no more than 140 characters)

• Like IM, Facebook status, SMS, e-mail, group chat

• Seven million registered users in February 2009

• 1,300 percent growth year over year

• BusinessWeek (50), NYT (30), Guardian etc.

• 42 per cent of users are between 35-49 (at work)

Twitter Growth

What is it for?

• Simple, flexible tool – so difficult to define

• What is email for? What is the telephone for? It’s a tool

• Trivial or mundane, but also thoughtful and useful

• Not “What am I doing?” but “What am I thinking”

• Follow interesting people, find interesting things

• Yes, it has a stupid name – but so does Google

When you hear people criticizing it, try replacing the word Twitter with the phrase “talking to people,” and see if the criticism

still makes sense.

What can I do with it?

• Short thoughts, a link, a request for info, a comment

• Ability to connect directly with readers, potential sources

• Promote our content and get others to do so as well

• See what is being talked about (Mumbai, earthquakes)

• Pushes traffic to our content (There Will Be Blood)

How do I do it?

• Follow people, post a message, then...

• Check @replies and direct messages

• See who follows you and others, then follow

• See a discussion and contribute to it

• Share a link, or “re-tweet” someone else

• Search for topics, people, discussions

Who's on it?

• @mathewi

• @sashaglobe

• @hartleyglobe

• @mattfrehner

• @snolen

• @dougsaunders

• @markmackinnon

• @giantflyingcarp

• @brodiefenlon

• @carolynireland

• @globecampus

• @globebooks

• @globeinvestor

• @globebusiness

• @misterjohndoyle

• @andrewgorham

• @nestruck

• @activeverbs

• @amyverner

• @pwente

Things to think about

• You have to give something to get something

• A blend of the personal and professional

• In a grey area between private and public

• Everything is searchable and can be captured

• Beware the impulse to flame someone

What tools are there?

• Twitter.com, m.twitter.com (basic)

• Tweetdeck, Twhirl (desktop)

• Power Twitter, Tweetfox (plugins)

• Twitterberry, Dabr (mobile)

• Twitscoop, Tweetscan (search)

• Tweetgrid (filter, aggregate)

• Backtweets, Retweetist (search)

• Bit.ly, TinyURL, Is.gd (shortening)

The bottom line

• Just a tool (with a dumb name)

• Can help you find people, sources

• Can help us promote our stories

• Conversational, thoughts and links

• Experiment with it (Ian Brown)

• Don't dismiss it without trying it

• Five Barriers to Journalists Using Twitter http://sarahhartley.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/five-barriers-to-journalists-using-twitter/

• Top Twitter Tools for Journalists http://savethemedia.com/2009/03/27/top-twitter-tools-for-journalists-2/

• The Ultimate Guide to Twitter http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-twitter/

• The ROI of Journalists and Twitter http://danblank.com/blog/2009/02/20/the-roi-of-journalists-and-magazines-using-twitter/

• How Journalists Can Use Twitter http://markmedia.blogs.com/markmedia/2009/02/how-a-journalist-can-use-twitter.html

• Tweeting the Future of Journalism http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2009/01/30/twittering-away-standards-or-tweeting-the-future-of-journalism/