There are a couple of things I really like about a recent item The New York Times‘ Claire Cain Miller wrote about “Getting the Most Out of Twitter.” The first is that she described Twitter in a similar fashion as I have often been lately. She says of Twitter, “At its best, the social medium is a perpetual, personalized news service about topics of your choosing… filtered and served to you by people who care a lot about what you care a lot about.” The second is that she gives good, concrete advice on how to use Twitter as a news service. She talks primarily about how to use it to receive news, but there are important lessons in it for the nonprofit or foundation that seeks to use Twitter as a news distribution channel. The overall themes of the piece are very much in line with my thinking about Twitter being the replacement for wire services, only this wire service is free and people can select to receive just the kind of news they want. Twitter poses special challenges in getting people to subscribe to your news feed, but at least it isn’t just some fax going to a newsroom that ends up in the trash.
Miller has broken up her advice into topic areas: “A Custom News Feed,” “Check Your Lists,” “Attend a Conference, Virtually,” “What’s Around You Right Now,” and “Ask Questions.” Each section has at least one good piece advice for the information consumer and a key understanding for the information distributor. Check out the piece!
By the way, don’t you love that little graphic I made of the Twitter birdie eating the Times? ha ha. Old media getting eaten by new media! That laugh just never gets old, does it?
About Michael Hamill Remaley
Michael Hamill Remaley is the President of Hamill Remaley Communications. Previously, he was Director of Communications at the Russell Sage Foundation and Prior to that was Vice President and Director of Communications at Public Agenda. He has held a variety of positions at organizations such as The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, TCC Group and the Center for Social Policy and Community Development.