Tweet Tweet

The online social network Twitter has become a hotbed for online journalism activity and a resource for newspapers nationwide.

In his blog, Alessio Signorini, a researcher at the University of Iowa, estimated that in October 2009, Twitter received about 26 million tweets per day, up from only 2.4 million tweets daily in January 2009.

Signoini went on to write that of those 26 million tweets, 22.3 percent - or nearly 5.8 million - tweets contained a link. Newspapers now have a unique opportunity to present readers with a direct link to stories and web content like never before.

Local newspapers using Twitter include The Daily Evergreen, The Spokesman Review, The Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman News. All four papers report a high of 30 to 40 clicks per link they tweet.

“It appears that we have a 30 percent click through rating, with an average of 30 to 40 clicks per link,” said Jeff Purcell, new media manager for The Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

According to Purcell, the Tribune first registered their name with the Web site six or eight months ago but didn’t really start utilizing the account until about two months ago.

Purcell said that the Moscow-Pullman Twitter account has more followers, which he attributes to a younger demographic due to the newspaper’s proximity to the two universities.

Washington State University’s The Daily Evergreen, created a Twitter account to create more of a Web presence, reach a greater audience and have a stronger breaking news cycle, according to Rikki King, editor of The Daily Evergreen.

King also said the newspaper gets news tips from students and community members who tweet about their thoughts, clubs, meetings, activities and campus life.

There are also characteristics Twitter provides that other networking sites and traditional advertising do not. King thinks that Twitter gives an opportunity to link to breaking news, is more direct and personal, and involves a more technological audience.

Aspects of Twitter that local newspapers report struggling with are determining what to tweet and how formal or informal the tone of the tweets should be.

“It’s been tricky finding out what to share on our Twitter account,” said Andrew Zahler, online producer for The Spokesman Review.

In regard to the Spokesman’s Twitter account, Zahler said he tries to find a balance between being too institutional and just sharing links, and being too informal and using acronyms.

With these barriers and in light of the dramatic changes in membership Twitter has experienced this year alone, newspapers are left with an uncertain, yet hopeful, tweeting future.

“I’d love to see our traffic from Twitter go up to boost our site numbers,” Zahler said. We’ve tried a few experiments with crowdsourcing on Twitter. I’d like to do a little more of that because it gets back to the interactive part of Twitter.”

Purcell also has high hopes for the future of the newspaper’s online entity and residents’ interaction.

“I really think the next step is community,” Purcell said. “How that will happen – social networking, user blogging, or a user-related news site – I have no idea. We’re working on that but there’s definitely some frustration there.”

Sources:

Jeff Purcell- 208-848-2257 (found via Twitter)

Rikki King- 509-335-1099

Andrew Zahler- 509-459-5314 (found via Twitter)

Alessio Signorini - http://deepintech.wordpress.com/