Guide to Twitter Packs
Fleet Street PR
Twitter has spawned plenty of applications and accompanying websites (Snitter, Twitteriffic, the Tweeterboard), but one of the more useful (and necessary) tools to come along in a while is the idea of the Twitter “Pack.” An excellent resource for “newbies,” the Twitter Pack is simply a list of Twitterers with common interests. Dave Fleet lays out how to use Twitter Packs, and Twitter itself, to your best advantage, including some problems he finds inherent with this latest idea. “Another potential flaw – the possibility that these ‘packs’ lead to Twitter cliques and undermine the openness that is responsible for much of Twitter’s success. The potential is especially large with some of the race/sexual orientation/religion groups. However, that’s not the intention and I would hope there are people equal benefits for
who may look for connections and support within those groups.”
Interactive Content
Copyblogger
Interactivity is one of the keys to social media–we are constantly stressing the need for “conversation” without any real guide for how to create it. Brian Clark offers four tips for creating content that inspires interaction. He gives useful tips for eliciting comments, and calls for bloggers to turn questions from readers into new content to keep the conversation going. “One of the easiest ways to create compelling content is to simply invite readers to ask questions, and then answer the questions in public. This is the entire basis of the iconic status of folks like Dear Abbey and Ann Landers, and the technique can be applied to just about any subject matter.”
Print News’ Death Greatly Exaggerated?
Communication Overtones
Responding to reports that print newspapers’ online sites received a record number of visitors in 2007, Kami Huyse argues this as evidence that print media is far from dying out. This is a subject of great debate in recent months, and I’m prone to agree with Kami. In my interview with Steve Roberts, he pointed out that it’s just that the business models of print media will have to change, but that the medium itself is far from “dead.” It seems that this report backs up that claim. “The fourth quarter saw 62.8 million unique viewers, the largest number since NAA began tracking online usage in January 2004. representing a nine percent increase over the same period a year ago (57.6 million). I have said it many times, but news providers will adapt the format by which they deliver news. This is just a little more proof as the picture sharpens.”
