Twit-tastic realizations

Twouble with Twitters

It’s been a long time since I’ve laughed so hard that I thought I might pee myself, but the video clip above nearly pushed me to the brink of Niagara Falls.

It seems these days  you can’t swing a dead cat over your head without someone Twittering about it.

With millions of users, the service has risen to the level of cultural force. And, I’ll admit, I haven’t been strong on figuring a way to harness the power of this platform. I’ve stalled without a plan. And though my company’s Twitter account has grown in followers healthily, I realize now how much more effectively I can use it.

It’s about saying what you know, when you know it. I’m going to evangelize, train and plan to use this platform effectively when I return to my newsroom. Better yet, I’ll have a plan in hand because of this training program.

• I’ll train folks to use this as a tool for gathering the pulse of the community.
• We’ll establish separate accounts for sports and arts news.
• I’ll have custom art made for icons and backgrounds.
• We’ll instruct widely and make sure folks understand opportunities to use the service: events, breaking news, scores, weather, traffic, and the x-factor
• We’ll democratize widely and encourage slow adopters
• And we’ll listen to our readers. We’ll track what they’re talking about and let it help us plan coverage.
• And, with facebook and other services, we’ll retool our site to encourage users to contribute and form the conversation.

Big thanks to T.J. Ortenzi of The Seattle Times for his fantastic presentation.