Lecture 5 writing news tweets

Week 5: WRITING EFFECTIVE NEWS TWEETS

What Twitter Does Best

• It creates connections through common interestsrather 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 youcan do on other social media too (find sources, get questions answered, crowdsource content, push out news blasts, take the temperature of a community, etc)

What are you aiming for?

• Retweets

• Replies

• Follower growth

• Getting your links (to your own content, thoseyou’re retweeting) up on Google as quickly as possible

SIMPLE TIPS FOR NEWS TWEETING

• Tweet your beat

• Use hashtags (judiciously): they can increaseengagement 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)

Simple Tips for News Tweeting (2)

• If a story is brewing/breaking, don't wait untilyou've written & posted whole thing. Tweetsomething as soon as you can be accurate and factual. Let your audience know you’refollowing story.

• Posing questions in tweets can elicit very richmaterial

• Retweet or reply to posts by local people/actors/institutions within your« community »

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 attractsthe eye

It’s both content and form (2)

• Use capital letters (judiciously), like a headline/dateline to grab attention:

Ex: BREAKING NEWS: former French presidentJacques Chirac taken to hospital.

• Shorten your urls (Bit.ly, is.gd, ow.ly, goo.gl, TinyURL)

How often?

• Think of Twitter as a stream, post severaltimes 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

Who is seeing your replies?

How to have everyone see your reply

Start the Tweet with a period.

.@rkapfrance

That allows all of your followers to see the replyand not just those who also follow the person

you’re replying to.

Tweeting during breaking news

• You can phrase your tweets by saying somethingalong the lines of, “X is reporting Y, but wehaven’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.

Some good Twitter clients

• Hootsuite

• Tweetdeck

What Twitter clients do better thanTwitter

• 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

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 everydayoutput

• Focus on the kind of Tweets that only youcan create (an opinion, a physical vantagepoint, exclusive access, etc)

Tips for Live Tweeting (2)

• Use photos and videos

• If it’s a scheduled event: Tweet out in the dayspreceding to let followers know and try to link up withany who will be there

• Research speakers’ Twitter usernames beforehand

• Confirm the event hashtag. If no official hashtag, makeone up

• Quote people or speakers at the event (and @cite them)

• Keep an eye on replies…and respond!

And after a Live Tweet…

Write a blog post!

Use your tweets (and those of othersfrom the event) to write a blog post

as a permanent and readableaccount of the event.

Storify is great for this.

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 likeany other saved search on Twitter. An

important tool for journalists who covera community or particular beat regularly.

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 hashtaguse, the more targeted followers you’re likelyto attract

Tips for RT-ingOr why you should avoid the retweet button on

the Twitter desktop platform:

Tips for RT-ing

If you auto RT you can't add anything : whyyou 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

Searching Twitter: review

• Using lists

• Searching/organizing with hashtags

• Tweetdeck and saved searches

• Delaying/timing your Tweets