Steph Stuff

Earlier this morning I put out a call for help via my Twitter account asking for as many media articles, examples and testimonies to the benefits of using Twitter for my newspaper. We are teetering on the edge of having it taken away from us because of its potential use as a personal tool to chit chat and not get Real Work done, as well as its potential security risks (of which there are few – no more than using Outlook.)

These awesome Tweeps really came through for me and I was able to quickly put together a decent response for our corporate people, who may or may not really “get” Social Media tools like Twitter. I wanted to re-post it here because I think a lot of valuable information came from this and maybe it can help another newspaper dealing with the same problem. Huge thanks to everyone who helped me out this morning. I couldn’t have done this without your help.

Below are some articles explaining the use of Twitter by the media and how beneficial it has been, followed by a summary of the uses of Twitter for The Independent.

• Journalists still skeptical of Twitter, Now Hear This
• How We Use Twitter for Journalism
• Journalists still a-Twitter about Social Media
• @Future of Journalism: The benefits of Twitter
• The ROI of Journalists and Magazines Using Twitter
• How to Make the Most of Twitter (Highlight: You can follow Twitter at the website, but that’s inefficient. Smartest moves: get a program for your PC or Mac, Like Twhirl.)
• The Austin Statesman surveyed their Twitter followers and the feedback is here
• Personal statements from other newspapers who use twitter:
  • Robert Quigley (The Austin Statesman) will say his paper gets about 10 tips per week via the @statesman account, and that turns into 3-5 stories/blog posts per week. The return is evident to the broad amount of readers, even if they’re not a part of Twitter.
  • Joe Ruiz, from KSAT News in Texas replies, “We’ve had breaking news tips sent to us that we’ve turned around into stories that might save our viewers/readers from massive traffic jams. We’ve been introduced to human interest stories that we might not otherwise see and we’ve had investigative tips we’re chasing down, all via our Twitter account.”
• Finally, take a look at this chart of Newspapers around the country who are using Twitter:  (Over 1,300 accounts and counting. She is unable to keep up with her list anymore.)

Obviously that’s a lot to read but for the most part, they’re quick reads. And they are just a *small* sample of information on the value of social networking for the media available online. The articles I’ve linked to above were solicited via Twitter and the hundreds of journalists, experts and media professionals that follow my professional Twitter account.

Regarding the use of Twhirl, as noted above, using just the website is inefficient. You have to manually refresh the page to see new updates, if you have a large number of people you follow, you can miss messages to you, and it requires more attention than a light desktop app like Twhirl. A security expert I follow says that our environmental security (firewalls, IDs, anti spam) does the heavy lifting, and that Twhirl is no more a security threat than Outlook. Twhirl runs in the background, auto refreshes, and has special alerts built in when someone sends you a message. Therefore you can have it running, be working on other things, tweet when you have an update, and respond quickly to reader queries.

As the main person sending “tweets” for the Independent, I have learned over time that using automated systems to spit out headlines is undesirable for people using Twitter. When I switched to manual updates, using an informal voice, our follower numbers doubled in less than a week. As of this writing, @theindependent has over 500 followers – this mean 500 people are interested in our newspaper and will click links to stories I tweet, and thereby add traffic to our website. This number grows daily, especially now that Twitter coverage is growing exponentially in the media.

The key to Twitter and to Social media is interaction. The social web is a conversation. That’s why a certain level of our personalities is expected in our tweets. I use my own voice when I tweet for the Independent. It lets followers know a real person is here giving them headlines and answering questions, passing on news tips and it engages them, endears them to us and keeps us in their mind as the best news source to come to – especially if there is breaking news. Twitter allows us to post quick updates as a large story breaks. Look at the recent plane crash in the Hudson River in New York – The news broke on Twitter, and the now-famous photo of the rescued passengers standing on the wing waiting to be picked up was taken with someone’s iPhone and posted to Twitter first. Then the media picked up on it.

Or to bring it to a local level, imagine how the coverage would have been if we’d been able to tweet immediate updates during the shootings at Von Maur.

The Independent is the leading Twitter account in the state of Nebraska. All of our competitors (NTV, KETV, KHAS) are now joining Twitter and using it to report the news. To ask us to give up on it now would be a huge leap backwards for us and it would give our competitors the opportunity to supplant us as the best news source in Central Nebraska. Up until now, they have been playing catch-up with us. I would ask that we be allowed to continue to innovate and try new things that only benefit the company.

Please also check out our successes in the various interviews I have done for media magazines and websites:

• For Graphicdesignr.net
• NE Press Assoc.
• Inland Press Assoc