This document provides advice and guidance for journalists on using Twitter. It discusses who journalists should target with their tweets, such as developing followers and using Twitter to feed content to other platforms. It also offers suggestions for what journalists should tweet, including linking to new stories and engaging in conversations. The document cautions journalists to be ethical and careful when using Twitter, such as maintaining separate personal and work accounts and avoiding opinions. Peers provide examples of how they use Twitter for their journalism.

1. for Journalists Steve Buttry, Gazette Communications Iowa High School Press Association October 29, 2009 steve.buttry@gazcomm.com @stevebuttry on Twitter

2. Twitter use by age Chicago Tribune graphic

3. Audiences for Twitter Develop followers; they read your tweets Use Twitter app on Facebook Feed tweets into CoverItLiveliveblog Twitter RSS feed for home page, blog

4. What should I tweet about? Link to a new blog post, story, video, photo Retweet (with a comment) a link from a colleague Reply to students’ tweets Tweet an unfolding story Tweet something insightful or funny

5. Linking with Twitter Use compressed links: bit.ly, tinyurl.com, is.gd, tr.im, etc. Write a headline or a comment; give tweeps a reason to click Credit (RT or via)

6. Examples from one day in Iowa Click trends Search hashtag #iagaymarriage @tdorman from Supreme Court, press conference @DM_in_the_PM from rally @dianeheldt from court

15. Advice from your peers “We are starting to use twitter for getting sources, gaining interest, and getting contacts.” Students covering games text scores to Twitter account editor, who posts updates. – Sana Bakshi, @thevikingmag, Palo Alto, CA

16. Ethical considerations How do you identify yourself? Separate personal and journalism Twitter feeds? What, if any, opinions are OK?

17. Be careful 39 percent of teens have posted something they later regretted. 25 percent of teens have created a profile with a false identity. 24 percent of teens have hacked into someone else’s social networking account. Source: Common Sense Media, 2009 study

18. Wrapping up These slides at slideshare.net/stevebuttry Follow me on Twitter: @stevebuttry The handout for this workshop is on my blog: stevebuttry.wordpress.com

19. 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?” “What am I reading?”