Twitter for Journalists Gina M. Chen

1. How to Get Connected Twitter for JournalistsGina M. Chen

2. Why Use Twitter? • To mine the web for story ideas • To find out what is buzzing on your beat • To make connections with readers • To make connections with sources

3. Twitter basics • It’s a microblog (short blog) • You can post messages, called tweets, that are 140 characters or fewer • Message can link to your news story, your blog, other people’s stories, blogs Bit.ly

4. A journalist on Twitter • Keep up with the news • Find needle-in-haystack sources • Get ideas for stories • Get traffic to your blog • Get traffic for your news story • News finds you

5. Twitter basics II • @Replies • Tweets directed to another person that the whole Twitter stream can see • Uses @username of person you are addressing • Retweet • Repeats another person’s tweet to give wider audience. • It’s an endorsement of person and the tweet. • Uses RT: @username to build reputation currency • Direct Message

6. How to get started • Create a profile • Some people won’t follow you if you don’t have one • Use real name • Include real city and state • Keyword load your bio • Be professional, but not boring • Use a real picture

7. Step one: Get connected • Twitter is like a party • It’s boring alone • Get people to follow you • Follow people • Respond to @replies • Retweet people’s tweets

8. How to get followers • Twitter search • Twittergrader.com • Look for people near you geographically • Look for people who share your interests • Look for people with a lot of followers (reputational currency) • Follow news organizations • Follow journalists who cover same topic as you • Use Twitter lists to find people to follow

9. What do you say? • Be human • Social media is social • Tweet links to your news stories/blogs • Tweet links to interesting stories/blogs you read • Don’t be me, me, me • If people talk to you, talk back

10. What about lunch? • Why would anyone care about what you had for lunch? • It’s chitchat • Foster interaction • Builds reputation currency • 80-20 rule: 80% of posts should be news/story related; 20% are human related (Vilfredo, Pareto)

11. Twitter lists • What is a Twitter list? • “curated Twitter streams of the latest tweets from a specific set of users” (Mashable) • Allows you to bunch together users into groups to get an overview of what they are up to. • Can group them by categories (news organizations) or topics (journalists)

12. Why to use lists • Create a group of followers in a topic or geographic area • When you get a lot of followers, this makes it easier to check on who is saying what • Makes it easier to interact with specific followers • Make Twitter less overwhelming (How can I read all that?)

13. Find followers through lists • Using Listorious • What is it? It’s like a phone book of Twitter users, sorted by keywords • Search it to find the type of people you want to follow: • Click on topics of interest to you • Follow people listed under that topic • Follow other people’s lists

14. The power of lists • Target your messages using @replies, direct messages • Keep track of people on your beat • Keep track of news organization you want to follow

15. Reputational currency • What is it? Sense of value derived from your online reputation (Anderson) • Web interaction is based on this concept • More connected people have more currency • More people read their blogs, tweets, etc. • You want to connect with people with reputational currency

16. How this works onTwitter • You endorse people on Twitter, you are sharing your reputational currency • What is an endorsement? • Anytime you perform an act on Twitter that benefits someone else • Retweets, @replies, listing, following lists, tweeting other people’s links

17. Generalized reciprocity • What is it: Idea that I’ll scratch your back with belief that someone – maybe not you – will scratch my back at some point (Putnam) • So it is good to tweet, @reply, retweet, or list other people • Why: Other people are more likely to do those things to you • The result: Your reputational currency is boosted

18. Weak ties • Based on Mark Granovetter’s “weak ties” concept • He found that we benefit from “weak ties” with other people • What is a weak tie? What is a strong tie? • How do we benefit from weak ties? • Twitter is a network of mainly weak ties

19. Relationship • Courtship: Wooing your followers • Pay a lot of attention • Invested/engaged • Bloom off the rose stage • Don’t take him/her for granted • Don’t just stop talking • Satisfying relationship • Regular interaction • Proportional response (Remember weak ties)

20. Finding time • You have time for what you value • We all have 24 hours in a day • Make a “date” • Aim for 10 minutes every day, spend on Twitter • Consistency matters more than quantity • Remember proportional response

21. The result • Remember: Twitter is a party • You need to engage to benefit • People who talk have more fun, make more contacts, get benefits of Twitter • The more engaged you are, the more reputational currency you will have • That makes Twitter more useful to you

22. Online persona • You are developing an online persona • Potential employers, spouse, anyone can find what you said if they want • You can’t take anything back • It is on the web forever • Be professional (but still friendly) • If you wouldn’t want anyone to know it, don’t say it