Tweeting the news Slide 2 Breaking news Hudson River plane
crashplane crash Fort Hood shooting Hurricane Irene Aurora theater
shooting Slide 3 Twitter use More than 175 million users.175
million users Up from 58 million in 2009. Adding 370,000 a day!
Slide 4 Twitter as a news source News travels fast. Osama bin
Ladens death: 12.4 million tweets an hour. Sense of immediacy.
Slide 5 How journalists use it Provide real time news. Engage
audiences, create community. Connect with people, sources. Develop
personal brands. Link to their work. Crowd source content. Get
questions answered. Slide 6 Slide 7 Slide 8 More ways to use
Twitter Interviews Man on street Interviews Newspapers Use Twitter
to link to stories Newspapers NYTimes on Twitter Curate with
Storify Neil Armstrong + Hurricane IreneNeil ArmstrongHurricane
Irene Humor/news Top 17 D.C. quake tweets + Pizza in newsroomsTop
17 D.C. quake tweetsPizza in newsrooms Slide 9 Understand Twitter
terms RT Retweet (Repost someone elses message) Automatic retweets
cannot modify the message MT you have retweeted a tweet but
modified it. DM Direct Message (Private message sent to a specific
person) # - Hashtag Precedes a keyword and makes it easier to
search for particular topics Slide 10 Understand Twitter terms
@Reply -- a tweet sent in direct response to another tweet. (@
followed by their Twitter name) Your @reply message will only show
up in your followers tweet timelines if they also are following the
person to whom you sent the reply. If they are following you, but
not following the person you replied to, they won't see your reply
tweet. Slide 11 Understand Twitter terms How to get all of your
followers to see? Slide 12 Understand Twitter terms Place a period
before @username. Or post a direct tweet, but use the @username
somewhere other than the beginning. Be judicious with @reply
tweets. Slide 13 Using hashtags Automatically groups tweets
identified with that hashtag, making topic search easy. Great way
to share information at conferences, events and during breaking
news. Find out if an event has an official hashtag; if not, you can
create one. You can save searches, to make it easy to review. Slide
14 Some hashtag examples Twitterfall Hootsuite Slide 15 What to
live tweet Twitter works well for breaking news and for the blow-
by-blow account of an event. government meetings public forums
press conferences speeches sporting events Slide 16 Slide 17 Slide
18 Live tweeting tips Consider your live twitter stream a story it
needs a beginning, middle and end. The first tweet should announce
to your followers that youll be live tweeting. Describe briefly
what youll be covering. Slide 19 Live tweeting tips Slide 20 Once
the event begins, be sure you have an opening tweet that sets the
stage location, what is happening, what is expected, etc. Slide 21
Live tweeting tips Cover the event on Twitter just as you would a
story. You wouldnt write a story that includes everything that was
said at a meeting or event. Be discerning use your reporting
instincts to decide what is relevant and pertinent. You only want
to report the highlights. Slide 22 Live tweeting tips Be a careful
observer and have an eye open for novel and important information
that might be relevant to your audience. Slide 23 Live tweeting
tips Each tweet should cover one point at a time. Think subjects,
verbs (like headlines). You can drop articles for space. Strive to
make each an understandable, self- contained message. Slide 24 Live
tweeting tips Use good grammar. Punctuate for clarity. Dont
over-abbreviate if message too long consider using a follow-up
tweet to clarify Slide 25 Live tweeting tips Be useful provide
information or insight. Be judicious about your links. Slide 26
Live tweeting tips Always be professional. Avoid using exclamation
points, emoticons, jargon and slang (including LOL) Slide 27 Live
tweeting tips Try to be consistent and concise in how you use
attribution. Slide 28 Slide 29 Slide 30 Dont be afraid to use color
in tweets to help readers feel like they are there. This one could
have indicated the person was angry and shouted. Slide 31 Live
tweeting tips Visuals either photos or videos are always good to
include if they contribute to the story. Slide 32 Does this one
contribute? Slide 33 Does this one? Slide 34 Live tweeting tips End
with a wrap-up tweet indicate to your followers that the event is
over. Then tweet to tell readers to look for an upcoming web story
on the event. Slide 35 Encourage the conversation Let your
followers know ahead of time that youll be live tweeting. Slide 36
Hashtags Also send tweets to interested hashtags know ahead of time
that youll be live tweeting search for those that might not be
obvious by topic. #LNK #UNL #OMA #immigration Slide 37 Hashtags
Slide 38 Encourage the conversation But be courteous when using
others hashtags and dont flood them with tweets. They consider it
spam when you over tweet on their line or frequency. Slide 39
Encourage the conversation Good idea several times during the
course of your live feed to repeat a summary tweet that tells new
followers who have joined what you are covering live. In that
tweet, you could also include other hashtags that might be
interested. Slide 40 Encourage the conversation Try to watch for
responses or direct messages to get reader comments and questions.
Retweet or respond when its appropriate. Slide 41 Using hashtags
When selecting a hashtag for a live event, try to keep it short and
relevant. But be sure to explain it well in any promotional tweets
and when you begin the live tweet. And be sure to use it in every
single tweet. Slide 42 Using hashtags Slide 43 Hashtag confusion
Slide 44 Nuts and bolts Correcting tweets: If notice a typo, delete
and retweet. If a factual error, correct with new tweet and delete
the original. Slide 45 Nuts and bolts If using a phone, make sure
your battery is fully charged; take charger in case. Arrive early
to scope out best location locate power supply. Be sure to check
out Wi-Fi access beforehand. Slide 46 Do your prep work Find out
before the event as much as you can. Interview people, if
necessary, to get background info. If its a speech, can you get an
advanced digital copy? Slide 47 Be Cautious Source of breaking news
but be cautious. Slide 48 Ethics still apply Verify before you
Tweet. Verify before you Tweet Admit what you dont know. Credit
what youre using. Remember its public. Tweets can be libelous.
Tweets can be libelous Slide 49 Your ideas for live tweeting? Slide
50 Your assignment Live tweeting practice assignment due in your
Dropbox folder Sept. 4. Once you have tweeted, you will need to
copy and paste your tweets into a Word document in Dropbox, but
also bring in a printout to class.
http://unlnnn.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/live-tweet- examples.pdf
http://unlnnn.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/live-tweet- examples.pdf
Slide 51 See what journalists are doing Muck Rack is compiled of
real-time Twitter activity by journalists. See what journalists are
reading, following and talking about. The site is searchable by
news organization, tweets, links and photos. Muck Rack Slide 52
Study live tweeting examples WaPo live tweeter CoJMC immigration
forum @TBD D.C. death The Lede on Twitter Storify @BreakingNews
Slide 53 Resources Mashables guide Twitter for Journalists 20 Tips
for Journalists 10,000 Words Twitter etiquette 10 commandments
Twitter for newsrooms #TfN
