AR&D Reinventing Local Media

We’re finally past the point where people have (largely) stopped arguing over whether Twitter is journalism, and we’re now Tweeting in big numbers. I’ve said for some time that Twitter is an excellent marketing tool, but that we can’t look at it strictly as a device for driving traffic. We can also learn a few more things about how people consume information — and even how we write.

Twitter forces us to use an extreme economy of writing. Now, we’re not about to switch to 140-character scripts, but we can think of script-writing in terms of Twitter in this respect: is every word necessary?

Writes Josh Catone at Mashable:

These limits can be seen as a burden, or they can force you to think creatively about your content. If you only have 140 characters to work with, for example, you have to work extra hard to pack as much information as you can into each tweet while maintaining a voice consistent with your brand’s other copy.

Right on. We have to ask ourselves: Does each word add to the understanding of the story? Have we chosen our words carefully? With Twitter, we have no choice. It’s an excellent cure for logorrhea.

Twitter reminds us that people talk about the news in real time. I strongly recommend visiting twitpipe to get a view of just how much conversation about news is happening. Twitter is not all about “what I had for lunch.” Go to twitpipe, enter a keyword from the news, and watch the river flow. What do we learn? That we need to be a part of this river. The continuous news model that we preach feeds this desire. Tweeters (and webbies in general) don’t wait for the whole story. As I watch twitpipe today, I see a blast of tweets about the various Apple announcements.

There’s another good reason to use twitpipe (or the many sites and programs that do similar things). We constantly wonder what people are talking about in our community. Enter some search terms and you’ll see whether your guess is on the mark. This is real-time eavesdropping.

Josh also points out that Twitter is an excellent case of the importance of knowing your audience. My tweets are aimed at the people I think are following me (mostly TV and tech types). I try to offer helpful links and advice, mixed with my own strange sense of humor. My feed would be unsuccessful if I were to post my favorite recipes. If I were a chef, on the other hand, that’s exactly what I’d do because my followers would expect that. Know your audience, and use your expertise.

My other takeaway from years of using Twitter is the importance of links. The most helpful tweets are those that both summarize a story and link to it. That way I have a choice. We don’t link out enough. We need to. TV news websites are designed to be “sticky,” but the web doesn’t care about “stickiness.” What matters is being the right place to start. People will opt in to your Twitter feed when they believe you’re a trusted source of continuous, multi-platform information.

Check this out: The Business Insider’s Silicon Alley Insider now makes it easy to embed posts on your sites and blogs. It’s like “YouTube” for text.

Picture of Embedded Text from Business Insider

When you click on the “Embed This Post” button on the lower right, up pops code similar to what you’d get from YouTube or any other embedded videos. This also moves the link to the current page, thereby improving authenticity. This is an excellent idea, because it encourages sharing. Ads will be included with this downstream.

Silicon Alley’s attitude here is great:

“We have the privilege of having thousands of you link to and excerpt our content on a regular basis.  We’re thrilled that you find our site worth reading and sharing, so we’ve decided to make this even easier.”

Note that the site is not saying “knock it off sharing our stuff the way you want to!” The site isn’t turning off your ability to copy text and it’s not going on a witch hunt for those who do so. The message is simple: “Here’s another way to share. Use it if you want.”  It’s another example of how letting go of a piece of your control can pay off.

Terry Heaton contributed to this entry

I had another gathering of high school friends last night, and it was fantastic. We now have a group of regulars who meet frequently and enjoy each other. We’ve gone past the early stage of “Hey! What have you been up to?” and are now simply regular ol’ friends. We have rebuilt a long-dormant community and added spouses and friends along the way. Herein lies one of the many wonderful values of social media. If eBay is “The Nation’s Garage Sale,” then Facebook is “The Nation’s Reunion.”

I should probably call it “The International Reunion,” as I hear from friends in England and Belgium, but for the purposes of this brief entry and the desire to coin a phrase, I’ll leave it.

We have reunited through Facebook in a way that’s just not likely (if not impossible) via email. We set up a page for our high school class (and anyone who graduated within a fair amount of years in either direction). A couple of us told friends. They told their friends. Now we update each other regularly and hold spontaneous meetups.

Beer is occasionally involved…

What happens at a regular reunion? You go reluctantly (or avoid it), see who looks fatter, and strike up a few brief conversations. (”Really? I have a Nissan too!”) You show a picture of your kids or pets or both, and that’s pretty much it. You say “let’s get together soon” and then you don’t. Why would you? These are people with whom you stop sharing experiences 5, 10, 15, 20, 25+ years ago.

Our little coterie doesn’t have reunions that are divisible by five. We have a Thursday gathering, a Saturday meetup, a “we can’t do this until August, but everyone send in your dates and I’ll pick one” barbeque. It turns out there’s a reason you were friends in the first place.

You meet and you clarify. Karen says “I thought you hated me in high school.” I tell her I didn’t recall hating her at all, and it’s entirely possible I liked her and couldn’t bring myself to say so. Paul talks about being a teacher now, and what it’s like to be on that side of the desk. Dave, Tony and I share thoughts on the Sox and remember a friend who was killed on 9/11. Kristi tells us of this magical land called “Nantucket.” We compare notes on adulthood: matters serious and funny. It goes on.

There are plenty of strange “friendships” on Facebook. You will be friended by people and think “Do I know this person? Do I want to?” You will hear from old girlfriends and boyfriends and think “You know, there’s a reason we broke up.” You will, at some point, be friended by your parents and rethink your choices in status updates.

But if you’re lucky like me, you’ll also rediscover a community; a Pompeii of friendship waiting to be unearthed and brought back into this world. You’ll stop obsessing over whether Facebook (and Twitter and MySpace etc.) is “news” or “silly” or “for people with too much time on their hands” (my pet peeve insult).

Instead, you’ll reinvent those friendships. You’ll rediscover how funny P.J. is and how Kristin’s remarkable perseverance inspires you. Hopefully, you’ll get Chris to buy you a beer, too.

Where newsrooms fall down in understanding the power of social media comes in the details. We think of Facebook as a way to get “fans” who will then watch us on TV or come to our Website. But it doesn’t work that way. We need to use it to build small communities, one interest at a time; a niche approach to those ideals our towns cherish. You can’t monetize that any more than I can monetize my friends. But you can connect and reconnect in a way that is more meaningful and long-term. You can remind people why they loved local news before things started to go haywire.

My friends and I are long past the “I knew someone who went to Vassar too!” stage. We’re back, like a band that reunites and discovers how much fun it is to jam together.

The music’s damn good, too.

UPDATE: July 13. After reading this, the “Kristi” mentioned above writes:

My only addition would be that there are people you didn’t know in high school and are just meeting now as old friends of old friends. You have a lot in common, can share a lot of the same old stories, but didn’t know each other 20+ years ago. It’s like a new old friendship (or an old new friendship?).

The other thing that’s great about Facebook is … that it’s nice that you have support whenever you need it. All you have to do is mention having a bad day (one of my friends posted “–is fascinated by the mean things people do”) to get a barage of support and anecdotes agreeing with your sentiment and offering help, if needed. Another of my friends was venting about a leak in her bathroom that made things unliveable for a while. Within 10 minutes she had over a dozen offers of plumbing help and places to stay. It really does feel like there’s always someone looking out for you.

“Looking Out for You” is often a news tagline. With Facebook, it’s a reality. Thanks for the extra words. The Web and its works are always in beta. Just as we are.