Twitter tips for journalists

twitter-foloAs a newbie on Twitter, I quickly found myself drowning in the gusher of Tweets from the folks I follow.  I have a pretty short “following” list so far, but some of them are such prodigious posters that it was hard to for me to keep up.

Then along came Twitter (wouldn’t you know it?) to my rescue.  Someone I follow (can’t quite remember who) pointed to a terrific post from Kim Pittaway at Canada’s J-source listing tips for journalists on how to use Twitter. What saved me was this simple advice:

On the subject of time-sucking procrastination: When I first signed on, I used to scroll back to see what I’d missed since I last checked in. Great way to kill time—and go bleary-eyed. Now I treat Twitter more like a river than a pool: I watch what floats by when I’m signed in, and accept that if I miss something, I miss it. There’s plenty of info-fish in the stream, and I’ll catch something interesting later (to push that metaphor to its limits—and beyond).

I’ve already sent Kim a DM (direct message) of thanks and started following her.  The rest of her suggestions are spot on, too. Check them out.

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