Leading Your Staff
into the Twitterverse
Steve Buttry
Information Content Conductor
Gazette Communications
ASNE, April 7, 2009
steve.buttry@gazcomm.com

Thanks, @chhall

Why spend time with Twitter?
1. It improves your journalism
2. It connects you with the community
3. It changes your newsroom culture
4. You can use it quickly
5. It shows staff that you are learning and
changing, too

How Twitter helps journalists
1. Quickly locate eyewitnesses &
participants in breaking news
2. Connect with sources, journalists
3. Monitor community discussion
4. Promote content
5. Write tight (no lead longer than a
tweet)

How do I get started?
1. Open account
2. Be sure to fill in bio, location, picture
3. Decide how to use with cell phone
4. Follow some people
5. Start Twittering

Twitter lingo
1. Tweet, an update (noun or verb)
2. Tweeps, your followers
3. Retweet, to pass on a link or thought
(can be quote, paraphrase, starting
point)
4. Tweetup, a physical gathering of
tweeps
5. Fail whale, over-capacity graphic

Twitter basics
1. 140-character limit for tweets
2. Attribute (“retweet”) with “RT
@name”
3. Direct-message (DM) for private
communication
4. Compress links: tinyurl, is.gd. bit.ly
5. #hashtags for topics groups discuss

Your first week on Twitter
1. Tweet about 10 times/day
2. Follow about 10 more people/day
3. Twittercast an event
4. Reply to some tweets (“@name” or
click arrow)
5. Direct-message some tweeps

What should I tweet about?
1. Link to a new blog post
2. Link to your staff’s best work today
3. Retweet (with a comment) a link from
a colleague
4. Reply to someone from your
community
5. Tweet something insightful or funny

Editors* to follow
1. @johnrobinson (Greensboro News &
Record)
2. @chriscobler (Victoria Advocate)
3. @kirklapointe (Vancouver Sun)
4. @jacklail (Knoxville News Sentinel)
5. @stevebuttry (Gazette Communications)
* Actually, 4 editors and a conductor

Journalism academics to follow
1. @jayrosen_nyu
2. @jeffjarvis
3. @macloo (Mindy McAdams)
4. @sreenet (Sree Sreenivasan)
5. @wmacphail (Wayne MacPhail)

Journalism bloggers to follow
1. @ryansholin
2. @paulbradshaw
3. @michelemclellan
4. @nextnewsroom (Chris O’Brien)
5. @agahran

Reporters to follow
1. @rsylvester (Ron Sylvester, Wichita
Eagle)
2. @DM_in_the_PM (Daniel P. Finney, Des
Moines Register)
3. @bydanielvictor (Harrisburg Patriot-
News)
4. @gazettemojo (Jeff
Raasch, GazetteOnline)
5. @mollyr (Molly Rossiter, Gazette)

Follow some locals
Search in Twellow or search window
Five I follow from Cedar Rapids, IA
1. @hidama (student and twaddict)
2. @jenneumann (marketer)
3. @jbonewald (Presbyterian minister)
4. @Robin_Tucker (real estate agent)
5. @christianfong (young business leader)

Ways for journalists to use Twitter
1. Follow people on the beat (put their
feeds on beatblog)
2. Crowdsource (“Does anyone know
anything about …?”)
3. Story ideas (ask, monitor chat)
4. Connect with eyewitnesses
5. Drive traffic to blog posts, stories

Examples from Iowa Friday
1. Click trends
2. Search hashtag #iagaymarriage
3. @tdorman from Supreme Court, press
conference
4. @DM_in_the_PM from rally
5. @dianeheldt from court

Twitter examples of breaking news
1. Binghamton shooting (Breaking Tweets)
2. Airplane incidents (Hudson, Denver,
DFW)
3. Fargo flooding
4. OK tornadoes
5. California earthquake

Twitter twists
1. Tweetbeep & Tweetscan
2. Facebook app
3. Publish2
4. TweetDeck (& other apps)
5. Twtpoll

Ethical considerations
1. How do you identify yourself?
2. Separate personal and professional
Twitter feeds?
3. How do you verify?
4. What language is acceptable (WTF)?
5. What, if any, opinions are OK?

Now for some advice from your peers
ASNE Twittering panel:
Tweeting live:
@Cyndi_Brown, @amestribeditor
(Alexandra
Hayne), @kirklapointe, @jeremymcbain,
@newsdame (Marci Caltabiano-
Ponce), @tcallinan (Tom Callinan)
Tweeting earlier in the day:
@GerryKern, @johnrobinson, @chriscobl

Now for some advice from your peers
1. My Twitter stream
2. Search for hashtag #ASNE
3. Search for terms
4. CoverItLive
5. Individual editors’ Twitter streams

Wrapping up
• These slides at slideshare.net/stevebuttry
• Follow me on Twitter: @stevebuttry
• A handout for this webinar, links to
Twitter help, links to journalists on
Twitter, advice from Andria Krewson of
Charlotte Observer on my blog:
stevebuttry.wordpress.com

Blatant plugs
• I can bring API’s Upholding and Updating
Ethical Standards seminar to your
newsroom, press association or a
university
• Handout on “Journalism Ethics in Social
Networks” on my blog
• Liveblogging webinar for ASNE April 21

Some final advice
From @mathewi (Globe and Mail):
Don’t answer, “What are you doing?”
Answer, “What am I thinking?”
And from @stevebuttry:
“What do I want to know?”