Using Twitter the right and wrong way
In March, I’ll be giving a workshop on social media with Karine Joly at the CUPRAP conference in Hershey, Pa. In preparation for that, I’ve been looking at how media outlets in my part of Pennsylvania are using social media, including Facebook and Twitter.
In my hometown of Erie, the local newspaper is on Twitter, as are 2 of the 3 local TV stations. The small (well, 30,000+ readers a month) news and events blog I co-manage also is on Twitter.
Here are two examples from our local newspaper about how to do it wrong and how to do it very right.
First, a tweet that isn’t terribly helpful.
To me, posts like this are a waste. If you’re pushing headlines, leave it at that. I don’t have a problem with tweets like that from a media organization. That would allow me, who cared enough to follow this account, to get enough information to decide if I want to click through to the rest of the story.
So they get low marks for their general tweeting, but then they posted a tweet that shows they understand this stuff a little bit.
Now, this is a great way to use Twitter. They’re using the medium to reach out and find people interested in a topic who want to share their thoughts and expertise. More and more media outlets, especially in a smaller town like Erie, should be using Twitter and Facebook like this to reach and find sources.
That being said, they could have taken it to the next level. A phone number is fine, but why not say DM or @ me? Yes, that takes a person to monitor the Twitter feed on their end, but its much more convenient for me to fire off a reply then stop what I’m doing, pick up the phone and hope that I can reach a reporter.
If you’re interested in newspapers and how they can/will/haven’t adapted, I’d recommend following @timwindsor – he’s an expert on that stuff.
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Great post and point. I love the idea of the classifieds! @jesskry