Forced to tweet

[dixiehack]

How many people bleating about the evils of teh Twitters wouldn't have been caught dead on a message board 15-20 years ago?

 

[murphyc]

There's a positive about Twitter/Facebook/any other social media I haven't seen mentioned here yet: It will make you more employable for your next gig. Whether it be at a newspaper, SID or whatever, more and more places are looking for someone with social media experience. You never know, being able to say "I ran my paper's Facebook and Twitter feeds" just might get you the next gig. Of course it's not a guarantee at all, but I doubt many potential employers will say "His writing looks good enough, but I don't like that Twitter thing he talks about."
I haven't set up a Twitter account yet but I know I need to. I'm trying to add to my paper's Facebook page, "liking" a bunch of different local businesses and organizations.

 

[Bob Cook]

There's a positive about Twitter/Facebook/any other social media I haven't seen mentioned here yet: It will make you more employable for your next gig. Whether it be at a newspaper, SID or whatever, more and more places are looking for someone with social media experience. You never know, being able to say "I ran my paper's Facebook and Twitter feeds" just might get you the next gig. Of course it's not a guarantee at all, but I doubt many potential employers will say "His writing looks good enough, but I don't like that Twitter thing he talks about."
I haven't set up a Twitter account yet but I know I need to. I'm trying to add to my paper's Facebook page, "liking" a bunch of different local businesses and organizations.

Be shameless in getting people to like your paper's Facebook page. When I started my shop's page (a trade pub), I sent a "like" suggestion to about every Facebook friend I had, and I asked everyone on staff to do the same. In short order, we got 100-150 likers, or whatever they're called. Not everyone followed my lead, but enough did to start the momentum. Even though those folks, in the end, aren't going to matter much to your paper's page, at the start they matter a lot, because it tells other people that someone is interested. Few want to "like" a Facebook page that few others like.

I suspect a lot of the people we used to salt the mine have dropped off, but that's fine because now we have a community of people who really are interested in what we do.

 

[Ace]

If you cover a beat and don't blog, tweet, etc., you don't cover a beat.

You just get beat.

 

[ColdCat]

If you cover a beat and don't blog, tweet, etc., you don't cover a beat.

You just get beat.

THIS

We can't continue to think of ourselves as newspapermen who happen to have a website. We have to start thinking of ourselves as multi-media journalists, and if you want to reach someone other than 60 year old shut-ins, you have to have a presence on FB and Twitter

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Darren Rovell would like to see you on Monday:

http://alumni.northwestern.edu/yourbrand2011

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I suspect that in the months to come, the original poster here will sound as out of touch as the original poster in this old thread:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/43686/

 

[Stitch]

I suspect that in the months to come, the original poster here will sound as out of touch as the original poster in this old thread:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/43686/

Video doesn't work. Papers are cutting back on video because it doesn't bring in revenue.

 

[SeanKennedy]

I suspect that in the months to come, the original poster here will sound as out of touch as the original poster in this old thread:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/43686/

Video doesn't work. Papers are cutting back on video because it doesn't bring in revenue.

Well, some are. Others are doing the exact opposite.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I suspect that in the months to come, the original poster here will sound as out of touch as the original poster in this old thread:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/43686/

Video doesn't work. Papers are cutting back on video because it doesn't bring in revenue.

"Video is great!" wasn't the major point.

 

[Gomer]

We've been doing video for a while and it brings in some revenue. Not a ton, but enough that we're forging on with it.

 

[Gomer]

I suspect that in the months to come, the original poster here will sound as out of touch as the original poster in this old thread:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/43686/

I suspect you didn't read the middle paragraph of my first post, which pointed out that I had been using Twitter for a year prior to this mandate. The intent of my post was not to suggest social media was bad, only to ask whether it was reasonable to force employees to do it.