Sometimes even the most useful things aren’t that obvious to the people who will benefit the most from them. And so it is with Twitter and journalists it seems.
Following on from Paul Bradshaw’s tweets today about what he described as his students’ “slowness” in taking Twitter to their hearts, plenty of journalists who have embraced the platform were ready to offer some help and encouragement so displaying in an instant one of the most valuable attributes of having developed a network.
In my experience reticence seems to fall into these categories;
1. I don’t see the point.
Getting over this objection is made more difficult due to the silly names and iconography involved. It’s hard to tell an editor or other journalist with years of experience that its OK to be a twit and that what s/he is required to do is tweet like a little bird! But probably the proof is in the pudding – ask people that do use it within your organisation why they bother, what value they get out of it. Ask your peer group – maybe you just don’t know that they have already found a use for it. Additionally there’s plenty of blog posts on the topic – do some research, read up on the subject.
2. No-one I deal with/write about/contact is on there.
Apart from the fact that you couldn’t possibly know this to be fact unless you are already on Twitter, could it be that you just haven’t found them? If your interest is a geographical area then have a look at Twitterlocal, set up Tweetgrid to scan for the town name(s) your publication covers, use the location search on Twittergrader to see who are the important influencers in your area. (This is the result for Manchester, UK where I work). If your beat is a topic/specialist interest there are lists springing up of “so-and-so’s on twitter” so keep a look out there, look at the influential blogs for your topic area and most likely their authors will be on Twitter or use a mixture of the tools mentioned here to track them down. If there is an area of life (in the UK) which remains completely untouched by any of the above – I’d be fascinated to hear about via the comments below.
3. I don’t have the time.
Your competitors have found time.
4. I have something better.
Brilliant – please share via the comments below.
5. I don’t have anything to say that would interest anyone else.
Are you in the right job?
Dim Sum Digital 
I work in radio news, and it seems the barrier for journalists here is “our listeners don’t use twitter” which is a fair assumption when your core is C2/D2. Also the line “what comes out of the speaker is most important” comes up lots; again, fair enough. I tweet loads but how can I justify it, if it doesn’t improve what ‘comes out of the speakers’?
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@Adam I’m not sure that it is a fair assumption – I haven’t seen any research on soci-economic breakdowns of Twitter users but my own experience in Manchester has shown a very wide range of people using it.
Have you tried to find out whether your listeners use Twitter by any means of surveying, polling, market research or perhaps a competition or similar? I’d find it incredible if at least some of them didn’t dabble and would be really interested to hear about the findings of any such research. On the improvement question – if you get better stories, leads, interviewees etc. out of your twitter network, won’t that all go to improve what ‘comes out of the speakers’?
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Really useful tips and a bit of an eye-opener for me. You have made me realise that I have not been using Twitter (or my blog, for that matter) to anywhere near its full capacity. Thank you.
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As a US (online) news publisher, we are preparing to back a low-cost press release service (132 city news sites involved in the US and CA) and I have been researching features that should be included, such as submitting to social network sites – like twitter. Your point (No. 2) about finding the right place to ‘tweet’ is well taken. I’d be interested in hearing more about how PR should use twitter to reach journalists.
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@Eric you may be interested in what Stephen Davies is doing in this area in the UK with regards to social media releases. http://www.prblogger.com/2008/12/dpsg-social-media-manchester/
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Question: It appears controversial – and some PR people have told me NO!! with white knuckle-clinched mice – but I thought it would be a good idea on the news wire site to permit social commentary and even develop an API to display comments from social sites on the Topic. Apparently, the PR people are afraid of having their customers see negative comments and some have told me there are too many non-related comments that could be post (buy viagra, etc), although that could be dealt with via monitoring.
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Having turned up my nose at Twitter at first, I am now fully converted. It’s starting to help me to make contacts for stories and I’m excited about the potential of it all. You’re right though – traditional newsroom colleagues may take some convincing!
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Sarah,
A very good post. I have also been following the results of Pauls initiation to the social media of his students. I am more than a little concerned at the disappointing uptake. Surely it is the natural media for investigation and innovation? The future of print is insecure enough without having an online presence.
Eric,
You need to give people that you want input from somewhere to do so.
There is alot that can be done in this area. I am currently aggregating the movements from online media, print and downloads.
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You forgot one other thing: Being put it off it by the evangelical nature of twitter users. At times it rivals Mac users for being obsessive to the point of blind to the flaws in the service.
It’s one thing to promote it, but a lot of Twitter users preach and bludgeon non-users over the head to the point where there’s an instinctive counter-reaction to it. And I say that as someone who’s used Twitter for the better part of eight months, and who uses it on a daily basis to disseminate content from a major news-stand title.
It’s a useful tool, but it’s also a highly limited one AT PRESENT, and certainly not the be-all and end-all of new media that many of it’s over-enthusiasts would suggest.
It also suffers from a very substantial chaff to wheat ratio – dialing down through all the crap that gets posted on there can be intimidating even for experienced web users, let alone newbies to the service. It’s easy for new media converts to pontificate about the benefits of Twitter, but it’s just as easy to point out it’s many limitations. Notably, you don’t see quite so many blog posts in such a vein though.
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Great post. On point #3, I use consume small quantities of Twitter while I wait for a program or web site to get some other task done. In that way, it has helped me make better use of my time.
Eric, you definitely should check out http://journchat.info (“an ongoing conversation between journalists, bloggers and PR folks”) and join in tonight’s conversation.
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I’m not all that surprised by the lack of take up of Twitter by his students or others.
The surge in uptake and subsequent use is i think to a large degree environment driven.
Most of the people I know who avidly use it do so at work because they are docked in front of a laptop throughout the day. Yes I used it on my Blackberry as well, but its much harder to maintain a connection with the flow of comments.
If you’re not working and therefore not at a computer a lot of the day then I can easily see why you wouldn’t get that excited about it.
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I don’t think Twitter is limited but I agree with Iain that sometimes there is a bit of an over-zeal for it. While to me it has been a great tool in more than one way, I must admit it has a steep learning curve and not everybody must be forced to climb it.
Does Twitter make one a better journalist? — It definitely could.
Does not being on Twitter make one a worse journalist? — I don’t believe it necessarily does.
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Hi Sarah, I am very interested in your opinion and thoughts on Twitter. I am a magazine journalism masters student at City University and am currently researching and writing a feature on Twitter for our annual alumni magazine XCity, with a print run of 10,000. Would it be possible to phone you up for a quick phone chat?
-Phoebe
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I really enjoyed your blog post today, enough to make it the subject of the lead item on my blog! Twitter, much like other new communication tools, presents a great outlet for newspapers to connect with readers.
The big question is whether newspaper Web sites will even consider implementing something such as Twitter.
Not only would Twitter allow newspapers to post quick updates on Web sites, but it would provide a convenient option for people wishing to follow the news.
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It’s an odd one isn’t it. I’ve been on Twitter since way back, been through all the fail days and yet like every other hack I know who started on it back then – we’ve all stuck with it. The somehwat annoying thing is I can’t articulate exactly why it is one of my top three online tools – the others being del.icio.us and custom RSS feeds.
I don’t follow many folk, maybe that makes it more manageable. Rob Crilly probably has the best explanation of some aspects of its use prefessionally that I’ve come across – and I think I’m the one who kicked Rob’s arse to tweet in thh first place… – as he tried to convince another hack to give it a go,
“Ttakes some getting used to but I’ve got stories out of it and built following for my blog. Need to find right people to follow.”
How do you explain to someone that chatting about your dinner, your train journey or the snow is useful for your work?
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So many interesting comments coming in so quickly it’s hard to know where to start on responding but thank you all for your time and thought. Kevin I think the time-saving element of Twitter is a point well-made, like you I think it cuts work otherwise spent compiling reports to bring people up to speed – if you’re already on the same page as it were, communication is a lot quicker.
Phoebe – happy to help with an interview. Please see the contacts page for relevant numbers etc.
Graham – you’re right about the benefits being hard to explain but I’m guesing time will tell and at some stage there will be an obvious divide of those that do and those that don’t. Glad you stuck with it though – life wouldn’t be the same without @noodlepie!
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It truly seems like Twitter is on the brink of becoming the next big Web phenomenon, and such blog postings like the one here provide a great service to people like myself who are just learning about this innovation. I’ve tried exploring what Twitter is and why it might help reporters connect with readers on my blog, scoopingthenews.blogspot.com, but I feel like I’m going to have to sign up for a Twitter account to really understand what this is all about. Some times the best teacher is truly experience.
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I think that Jeremy Paxman and Stephen Fry twittering have now completely put me off.
Isn’t it all a little too solipsistic ?
http://www.okathleen.wordpress.com
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I’m a business journalist and I’ve been using Twitter for about a year. It has become a very important tool for my job and I use it on a daily basis (including weekends which is how I found out about this blog!). You’ve only got to look at the Mumbai terrorist attacks and the Hudson River plane crash to see how an important a resource the site is becoming in news reporting.
Only this week, after struggling to get in touch with Liberal Democrat chancellor Vince Cable via traditional press office means a colleague vented her frustrations on Twitter. Within minutes the Lib Dems posted an apologetic tweet and shortly afterwards Vince himself phoned her! Result!
I’m so convinced about the benefits of Twitter that I’ve set a challenge for the UK’s PRs. On 23rd and 24th January I will only accept PR pitches via Twitter. No emails, no phonecalls, just tweets! The Press Gazette has covered it at http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=43141&c=1
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I’ve been using Twitter steadily for a couple of months. I tell other reporters about it, how useful it is for me, and most respond with a dull stare.
I see it only expanding my reach to readers and their’s to me. No question.
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journos should get on Twitter asas because with mobile phone access that is the first place news starts breaking
hmmm, Paxo’s twittering?
This i gotta see
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As a sportswriter, I’d like to be able to find a faster means of providing quick updates of local sporting events other than the clunky, time-consuming manner we currently use. Twitter would surely do that, but wouldn’t it be a nuisance to everyone else on my Follow list? I like the quickness of Twitter, but I can’t see firing off 30 or so updates just to annoy everyone else.
Currently I’m working with my paper to have sports updates listed within the newspaper’s Twitter site. Until then, I guess I’ll continue to use Twitter solely as an information/story idea source.
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Good points. Here is my blog post on the stupidity of journalists and their new media writing: http://www.madebymany.co.uk/barriers-to-understanding-twitter-00502
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Twitter needs create a way that people can post comments about events.
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