multimedia storytelling class in digital journalism. Using Twitter as a journalist: form, function, and good Twitter hygiene for the journalist.

1. Week 5: WRITING EFFECTIVE
NEWS TWEETS

2. What Twitter Does Best
• It creates connections through common interests
rather than friends
• It’s fully public and fully searchable
• It amplifies the news (does not reliably break it)
• Generally a quicker way to do all the things you
can do on other social media too (find sources,
get questions answered, crowdsource content,
push out news blasts, take the temperature of a
community, etc)

3. What are you aiming for?
• Retweets
• Replies
• Follower growth
• Getting your links (to your own content, those
you’re retweeting) up on Google as quickly as
possible

4. SIMPLE TIPS FOR NEWS TWEETING
• Tweet your beat
• Use hashtags (judiciously): they can increase
engagement almost 100% for journalists
• Don’t just Tweet your own stories
• Live Tweet
• Use @mentions (ex: better to talk about
@RoyalSegolene than Ségolène Royal)
• Cite your sources (and not just urls)

5. Simple Tips for News Tweeting (2)
• If a story is brewing/breaking, don't wait until
you've written & posted whole thing. Tweet
something as soon as you can be accurate and
factual. Let your audience know you’re
following story.
• Posing questions in tweets can elicit very rich
material
• Retweet or reply to posts by local
people/actors/institutions within your
« community »

6. It’s both content and form (1)
• Use a headshot or icon
• Use proper grammar
• Use white space if you have some to
spare…it looks better and attracts
the eye

7. It’s both content and form (2)
• Use capital letters (judiciously), like a
headline/dateline to grab attention:
Ex: BREAKING NEWS: former French president
Jacques Chirac taken to hospital.
• Shorten your urls (Bit.ly, is.gd, ow.ly,
goo.gl, TinyURL)

8. How often?
• Think of Twitter as a stream, post several
times a day (and check in several times daily)
• You can post the same link several times…but
judiciously
• ideally best to promote your own content
about once every 10 tweets

9. Who is seeing your replies?

10. How to have everyone see your reply
Start the Tweet with a period.
.@rkapfrance
That allows all of your followers to see the reply
and not just those who also follow the person
you’re replying to.

11. Tweeting during breaking news
• You can phrase your tweets by saying something
along the lines of, “X is reporting Y, but we
haven’t been able to confirm this information
yet.” Or send a couple of tweets saying: “We are
working on this story and will tweet updates as
soon as we have them.” … “Here’s what we do
know …”
• This enables you to get your voice in the mix,
while letting your audience know that you’re on
top of the story and care about getting it right.

12. Some good Twitter clients
• Hootsuite
• Tweetdeck

13. What Twitter clients do better than
Twitter
• Work with multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously
• View multiple streams of Twitter information
simultaneously
• Schedule tweets for posting when you're away
• Add photos to tweets
• Faster/smoother/more keyboardable performance
• Tracking and analytics
• Better URL shortening
• Integration with other social networks

14. Tips for Live Tweeting
• There is no formula for frequency
• Comment on events as they unfold
• use a specific hashtag in your Tweets to
set them apart from your everyday
output
• Focus on the kind of Tweets that only you
can create (an opinion, a physical vantage
point, exclusive access, etc)

15. Tips for Live Tweeting (2)
• Use photos and videos
• If it’s a scheduled event: Tweet out in the days
preceding to let followers know and try to link up with
any who will be there
• Research speakers’ Twitter usernames beforehand
• Confirm the event hashtag. If no official hashtag, make
one up
• Quote people or speakers at the event (and @cite
them)
• Keep an eye on replies…and respond!

16. And after a Live Tweet…
Write a blog post!
Use your tweets (and those of others
from the event) to write a blog post
as a permanent and readable
account of the event.
Storify is great for this.

17. Tips for using hashtags
Why are they so important for you?
Because a hash tag is essentially a search,
it can be saved for quick access just like
any other saved search on Twitter. An
important tool for journalists who cover
a community or particular beat regularly.

18. Tips for using hashtags
• Don’t overuse
• Generally limit to 2 hashtags in a message text
(possibly more after at the end)
• The more targeted and accurate your hashtag
use, the more targeted followers you’re likely
to attract

19. Tips for RT-ing
Or why you should avoid the retweet button on
the Twitter desktop platform:

20. Tips for RT-ing
If you auto RT you can't add anything : why
you felt it worth a retweet, what you'd like to
point out or add
Instead: cut and paste the tweet, place « RT
@username » at the beginning of tweet,
precede with a comment
If you edit, be grammatical and ethical (and
use MT)
Don’t RT just to curry favor: RT to add value

21. Searching Twitter: review
• Using lists
• Searching/organizing with hashtags
• Tweetdeck and saved searches
• Delaying/timing your Tweets