Zombie Journalism

Here’s a tipsheet I compiled for our reporters at the Enquirer to get acclimated on Twitter. Use these however you want – and feel free to add your thoughts and additions in the comments.

How-Tos on Twitter

Message length: You have 140 characters to write a Twitter message – so make them count.

Sending public messages: Write @theirname to send a message or otherwise address a Twitter user. Example: I spoke to @marvinlewis today, he sad Ocho Cinco will be traded.

Direct (private) messages: Use d theirname before your message to make it private.

Re-tweeting messages: If you see something on someone else’s Twitter you’d like to directly share with your followers, you can copy and paste it as so it looks like: RT @theirname And then what they said. This is sort of a way to give “link love” to others and to further spread the coverage of their tweet.

Hashtags: Sometimes on Twitter, you’ll see people use # before a word. This is called a hashtag and groups of Twitter users will use it to tweet about the same subject or from the same event. Using these specific tags makes it easier to find all tweets relating to a certain topic in a search (see below). Using hashtags isn’t required, but if you happen to see one that is about a group or event you’re covering, include it in your posts.

Tweeting links: Because you only have 140 characters to work with, you’ll want to shorten any links you put into your messages. Some applications do this for you (see below), otherwise you should shorten your link at tinyurl.com.

Posting photos: If you’re tweeting from a mobile application (see below), it should have a way to directly tweet images from your phone’s camera. From your desktop, you have the option of putting images in via Twhirl/Tweetdeck or you can upload and tweet a photo at Twitpic.

Posting your geographic location: If you want a map link to show in your tweet where you are, post L:  followed by city/state, zip code, landmark, address or coordinates. This can be handy if you’re on a trip or you want to map your movements.

Posting from your computer: There are several applications available to “tweet” from your computer. Of course, you can use Twitter.com, but there are other ways to make it easier. One of these is twhirl, which will shorten links for you and allow you to easily post photos in one click. Another is TweetDeck, which is a bit more complicated, but it also allows you to sort your incoming tweets. I’m a big fan of DestroyTwitter, which combines a lot of features from Tweetdeck and Twhirl.

Posting from your cell phone: You can set up your Twitter account to accept tweets by text message by going to twitter.com/devices. Once your phone is set up, you send a text to 40404 (or 20202 if you’re on Cincinnati Bell) and it will send it as a tweet. You do this by going to Settings > Devices on your Twitter home page.

Posting from your Blackberry or iPhone: Smart phones have some nifty apps that help you tweet on the go – most include ways to easily tweet photos and GPS locators with your posts.  You can download Twittelator or Twitteriffic from your iPhone’s App Store or go to www.orangatame.com/products/twitterberry/ on your Blackberry to get Twitterberry.
Using Twitter in Reporting

Find tweets by subject, zip code, keyword, time and more: Twitter search will give you a feed of all tweets according to what you want. Enter a keyword or hash tag to see what everyone is saying about it. To narrow results within the radius of a zip code or time, click on “Advanced” on the right top of the screen. This is handy if you want reaction or info from a specific neighborhood. If you’d like to monitor more than one keyword search, try Monitter.

Find recent tweets or a specific Twitterer on a map: Find area tweets on a map by entering an address, landmark or zip code at Twittermap. If you want to see where a certain Twitterer is (given that they’ve uploaded their location, you can search by their Twitter name).

Find tweets by subject: Tweetscan let’s you search all tweets by keyword. Want to see who’s talking about P&G? Try it and see.

Find local twitterers: Twellow is a service that searches local people (or people anywhere, really) by their specialties and popularity on Twitter. Great for sourcing.

Tweeting from live events: Everyone finds their own style, but Twitter really shines in reporting live events. You don’t need to have a story or even a link to do this – just tweet what’s going on, play-by-play. Check out The Hyperfix to see a good example of this from Chris Cilizza at the Washington Post.
Suggested follows:

Go to the address and click on “follow” to add them to start subscribing.

Enquirer staffers: http://news.cincinnati.com/twitter

National news: @cnnbrk, @breakingnewson, @nytimes, @ColonelTribune

Industry news: @jayrosen, @romenesko, @1000words

Find more follows using sites like mrtweet.com, twellow.com or twubble.com

Great tips from journalism sites on using Twitter as a reporter:

http://savethemedia.com/2008/12/13/how-journalists-can-use-twitter/
http://poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=154238

My own collection of links about Twitter and social media for journalists (also linked on the right side of this blog) is on Delicious.