Harvey Lawrence spoke to Online Writer and Twitter Specialist Tom Head from ‘The South African’ (The SA) on how to use Twitter for news effectively. Here are Tom’s five top tips:
1: Find contacts and reliable sources through social media
Head was keen to begin with this point as he feels you need networks and sources to be able to gain your information.
Contacts and reliable sources give you somewhere to get news from and share stories with. These people may also have a large following on social media with the same audience as you, so if they were to interact with a tweet as yours then it could increase your twitter following.
“It may sound simple, but for example if I was to follow the right government department and have their notifications turned, it can give you a story to begin with. You can then build on to this, adding additional information that you discover which hasn’t been published on social media yet.”
Tom Head, The South African.
Head was quick to add that this strategy won’t work every time as it there may not be much more to add to a story which other twitter pages have already tweeted about.
2: Being able to identify when a tweet is news
‘The South African’ is the third largest online news organisation in South Africa. Head feels that with this news organisation being so reputable online, they have to be able to spot when a tweet will become news and use it to their advantage.
Head gave a prime example of when he found a tweet which was news, he said: “Former opposition leader Helen Zille was suspended from her role for tweeting about the colonialism in 2017.”
So now, whenever her tweets mention anything on this subject a story can be made out of it on how she’s tweeting about colonialism again.”
3: Know your audience and your targets
On Twitter, once you begin to gain some interactions and followers from tweets, you should start to sense the audience you’re targeting. For example if you’re constantly tweeting the latest news on football and people are interacting with these tweets and following you then you will know that your audience is mainly football fans who want the latest on what’s happening.
“If you don’t know your target audience when tweeting then it will end up not getting the attention it could have got. This could lead to the tweet getting nowhere near the engagement it was capable of because little things like the complexity of the tweet.”
Tom Head, The SA
4: Tweet your stories out as soon as possible
Head emphasised how important this point was. In today’s world if you’re the one to break a big story on twitter then the engagements on that tweet will be emphatic.
This is part of the process of the story trending either nationally or globally and your tweet being displayed on so many people’s twitter timelines that don’t follow you which invites a new audience to read your twitter journalism.
“An article online will also index better on Google if the tweet related to it has a presence on Twitter. The sooner it’s released after the gaining information on the story, the better,” explained Head.
5: Be proactive and inquisitive
The final piece of advice Head gave was to always try and add to the story you’re tweeting about. Look for more information on the story, ask for people involved in the story for comments and get other people’s thoughts on the story via Twitter. There is always way’s of angling the story and getting more engagements and interactions through what you’re tweeting.
Following up the initial tweet with another related to the story you’re reporting on is something which will benefit the detail in the level of reporting on, keeping the reader looking at your tweets on the story. This could lead to the reader going to your account later on to see if you have any more information on the story they’re interested in.
“Usually if your tweeter is the subject of the story you can get further comment from them just by asking. This adds the meat needed to flesh out a story on Twitter and give the audience the detail they want.”
Tom Head, The SA
So now that you’ve gained some top tips off a Twitter expert, why not set up a Twitter journalism account yourself and see if you can have an effect on the digital news world. Remember, don’t make up fake news for the sake of a couple of retweets. That’s where you’ll lose trust and respect.
Best of luck!
Harvey Lawrence's Sport Blog 