Twittering about
I know that all the cool kids are atwitter over Twitter. I want to be a cool kid, too, so I've been checking it out. At this writing, 46 people with a Greensboro, N.C., location come up in a Twitter search, including some online friends.
The potential value of a Twitter network for journalists is clear and striking. The ability to shoot out information to a network -- and to get information from the network-- during hot and heavy breaking news is a powerful incentive.
It will be a simple, even essential, tool for an experiment like this. Surely there are enough people interested in getting immediate, real-time updates on what the state legislators are doing and who would want to be able to talk back. Same with people interested in local government and business.
But given the speed with which new technology is adopted, are we ready yet? Have the Twitter people reached a tipping point, even for experimentation? Of the 46 people from Greensboro, the most recent updates range from an hour ago to 8 months ago. I asked my college-age daughters, who know their way around technology and use their phones for everything, about Twitter, and they looked at me blankly. (I'm used to that look; it is right next to the look of condescension I get when I show my ignorance. Had they known about Twitter that's the look I'd have gotten. The third look, by the way, is the one of shame, like when they discovered I have a Facebook account.)
I know from experience on our blogs that asking for help with a topic or judgment or interview subject gets spotty response at best. But Twitter is certainly more mobile and more immediate than blogging so it could be more successful. I've certainly watched enough people text during driving to know that if so inspired you can read and write anywhere.
More than a year ago, writing about something else, Jeff Jarvis said: The question is not, 'How do we get enough stuff to get people to come to us?' That is their old-media model. I think the question is, 'How do we go to where the people are with what they need and how do we enable them to do what they want to do?'
I believe that's exactly right. What I don't know is whether enough people are gathered at Twitter right now to make it much more than being a cool kid engaging with a cool new thing. Help.
Comments (4)
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Twitter is already playing a role in reporting disasters and getting emergency equipment on scene, and the LA Fire Dept. already has a Twitter feed. Teens rescue a stranded motorist from a train and the reporting is done via Twitter.
This isn't (right now) a passing cool-thing-of-the-month. Getting on board is easy. Get an account; get lots of friends; keep the window open (or the IM) and read it once in a while. It's all free.
Then again, you can offer some reward for Twitter scoops, like by-ling the Twitterer. Help? All these tools are free (your fav word, methinks). All you have to do is ask a young person to set it up with you and get it on everyone's computers.
Posted on December 17, 2007 9:17 AM
As always, I hold no illusions that any one platform (RSS, Facebook, E-Mail, SMS, .com, Twitter) is going to reach a mass audience.
These are all ways to start conversations about the news -- not just to deliver the news.
So if Twitter reaches 46 well-connected net-savvy Greensboro residents, I say have at it and see where it snowballs.
Maybe they'll tell their friends the News-Record is one of the 'cool kids.'
Posted on December 18, 2007 9:51 AM
Great post, I use twitter all the time. I'm following over 2000 users and have 760 following me. It's great for information resources, and sharing information. I always try to answer the question "What are you doing?" and encourage others to engage in the conversation. I would say keep twittering and not only will the Greensboro community will find you but the world will.
Wayne
Posted on December 31, 2007 9:58 AM
Sound like you get Twitter and the web a million times better than my newspapers. sigh... ;)
First off I found out about this blog post on twitter via waynesutton. I'm not one of those 64 people who claim to be from Greensboro, I live in Chapel Hill. Why limit the concept of your reach to just G'boro? Not saying you shouldn't focus on your home town. But as you know folks all over the world can read your stories and click on your website ads.
64 twitter people probably have large networks of followers. And those followers have followers too. After while the number of people within six degrees of separation from you're twitter text is really large and viral fast.
The web is about conversations. Make your twitter reports the same and we'll learn from each other. That sounds like a 21st Century biz model to me.
Posted on December 31, 2007 10:00 AM