As the battle to grab Tweets for news reporting continues to heat up Twitter on Tuesday officially launched Twitter for Newsrooms, a resource for media company’s that attempts to explain exactly how to best utilize 140-character tidbits of information.
Twitter created the newsroom with four section in mind: #Report, #Engage, #Publish and #Extra.
The first option #Report provides information to media users so they can better understand how to find sources on the microblogging service, including “best practice uses” for mobile device searching.
The second option, #Engage is a simple glossary of key terms along with an “effective tweeting” guide and tips for optimizing Twitter profiles to make them more engaging and easier to find by other media agencies and Twitter users.
The third section called #Publish is meant to attach actions to readers, while providing specific guidelines such as how to show tweets, user names and hashtags during on-air presentations, this section is similar to creating an AP Styleguide for Twitter information presentation.
Finally the #Extra section offers Twitter support forms, ecosystem partners and any other information Twitter has deemed important for media organizations.
Speaking about their new platform Twitter wrote:
We want to make our tools easier to use so you can focus on your job: finding sources, verifying facts, publishing stories, promoting your work and yourself –and doing all of it faster and faster all the time.
We know you come from different generations. Some are native to the pilcrow, others native to the hashtag. You began your careers in different media: radio, print, broadcast, online, and mobile. But you share a common bond: the desire to make a difference in the world, bringing reliable information to the communities you serve.
While this group is diverse, we think Twitter and #TfN can be a kind of common ground — and we know Twitter is a tool all journalists can use to find sources faster, tell stories better, and build a bigger audience for their work.
While the system provides an ecosystem for standardizing the reporting of Tweets, it’s a system that requires users to be proactive to examine Twitters suggestions and then actually implement those suggestions. The system also does nothing to ensure that reporters don’t jump on every tweet they read and treat them as “fact” which is currently a big issue faced by news organizations.
Report on important topics, present that information with the right hashtags, perhaps even trending tags and engage with your audience, that in my opinion is the best way to optimize your reporting of Tweets and the stories that contain them.
Have you tried out the Twitter for Newsrooms website? Let us know what you think.
