10 best Twitter practices for journalists

Writing at Reportr.net Alfred Hermida says most journalists approach Web 2.0 services like Twitter with a 1.0 mindset.

He’s right, my personal bugbear is that many media organisations insist their reporters use Twitter as a broadcast media and not for dialogue. Although not everyone makes that mistake.

Hermida, a journalism professor, looks at a list of best practices guidelines for journalists using Twitter. Top of the list are two I consider the most important:

• Have a voice that is credible and reliable, but also personal and human.
• Be generous in retweets and credit others.

Too often media tweeters come across as cold and impersonal. In some cases the Twitter accounts feel robotic, because that’s exactly what they are.

And media outlets are often the least generous when it comes to crediting sources. It’s as if they fear they’ll lose readers if they point them elsewhere. Of course, they will lose some traffic that way, but they’ll gain more in terms of credibility by being more open and generous.

Reportr.net » 10 best practices for Twitter for journalists.

The original comments for this story were lost when the website moved to Ghost from WordPress. Here are the best ones:

aaronoverington says

• those tips apply equally for corporate tweeters too – particularly tip #4 (listen and respond to others). 

wiljr says:

• Seems most tips can be used for everyday interactions, too. Maybe even suggesting online and offline worlds aren’t too far appart after all?