Many newspapers are experimenting with using Twitter to:
• Engage techno-savvy people in their communities who may not be regular newspaper readers and, through Twitter, provide lures to get those people to come to newspaper sites.
• Assist in newsgathering. The assumption is that the people on Twitter tend to be the type who, when they find out about something, want to tell everyone about it. As such, they can be used as a reporter’s supplemental eyes and ears in the community.
FAQ:
Why Twitter?
“Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates via SMS, instant messaging, email, to the Twitter website, or any one of the multitude of Twitter applications now available”.
For newspapers, Twitter is another way to publish and distribute your content, create a portal to your newspaper.com, to communicate with your audience, and to find story ideas or cultivate sources.
What kind of content should I post on Twitter?
- Use Twitterfeed.com to push RSS feed(s) to Twitter. Breaking news is best, but feeds from niche sections, sports, etc. work too.
- Make manual tweets when there's an interesting comment thread on Twitter or there is something special to report, with a well-crafted tease to (with your URL included) back to your Web site.
- Live-tweet an event. Use Twitter clients to publish audio and photos in your stream along with text updates.
- Use Twitter as an easy way to report late high school football scores on a Friday night, for example, or other breaking events that can be covered with quick, short updates in ‘real’-time.
How else can I use Twitter?
Use hashtags for upcoming events or ongoing issues and encourage readers who tweet to use those tags. Embed the feed from the tag on the event package page on your site. This works with reviews and local businesses, too.
Follow keywords (think: names of local politicians, cops, and business owners) related to your beat and you may find new sources in the chatter. Contact them by DM on Twitter even if you can't get them to return your calls of e-mails -- if they're a regular user, they won't be able to miss that connection.
Use Twitter followers as a focus group. Reach out to the early adopters in your town (find them by subscribing to Twitter search feeds for the name of your town or your news organization) and use them as a sounding board for upcoming coverage and new features on the site. Bonus points: Governor coming to town? Ask the local Twitter users to submit their own questions.
How do I get followers on Twitter?
Start out by searching for local users by looking for your town at www.search.twitter.com to follow.
How should I promote Twitter?
- Display Twitter feeds on your Web site, Facebook Page or wherever your paper may have a Web presence and in paper; when breaking news happens, let readers know they can find updates on Twitter.
To setup a Twitter account:
Go to www.twitter.com
1) Click the ‘Get Started Now’ link on the bottom of the page
2) Follow the steps to create your Twitter account
(note: use your newspaper’s or Web domain for username, or an abbreviation for your newspaper name, as characters are limited to 15 for username)
3) When your account is activated, type in your ‘Tweet’ in the ‘What are you doing?’ box to make your first post
To set up a RSS feed into Twitter page:
1) Go to www.twitterfeed.com.
2) You’ll need to go to https://www.myopenid.com/ and if you don't already have an OpenId, you can create one for as one way of setting up a RSS feeder. OpenID is a FREE site you can use to manage their online identities.
3) After you create your OpenID, go to your twitterfeed page and log in using your OpenID.
4) Selecting the RSS feeds you want fed to your Twitter account and copy and paste the URLs of the feeds onto your Twitterfeed page. Your RSS feeds will automatically get sent to your Twitter account. You won't ever have to update Twitter unless you want to post links/comments/or report real-time news that aren’t already in the RSS feed.
To set a Twitter RSS feed on Facebook Business Page:
1) Go to your Profile Page in Twitter, get RSS feed
2) Copy the RSS feed URL
3) Go to either the “Notes” or “RSS-Connect” application on Facebook Edit Page; Click ‘Edit’ link on the application
4) Go to ‘Import Blog’ if you want your Twitter feed under the “Notes” application; or, if using the RSS-Connect application, go the feed fields in the application; And Paste in Twitter RSS URL link
OR in Notes Application:
RESOURCES:
http://beatblogging.blip.tv/file/1761096/
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