Newspaper turns off Twitterfeed, gains followers
The Grand Island Independent, a small paper in Nebraska, has been on Twitter for almost a year. In the last month, @theindependent has more than doubled its number of followers. Web editor Stephanie Romanski tells how:
I turned off The Independent’s Twitterfeed on Sept. 17th on the advice of @robquig. Instead I have been tweeting site updates myself, giving them my “voice.” I also expanded the area in which I search for Twitterers by including pretty much the state of Nebraska. …
On the first day, I got two direct messages from readers, one who had a story idea for us, and another one who offered up his storm chasing videos if we’re interested. I received the following comments from followers:
- It is nice to see a Nebraska paper being progressive with technology. — @johnhenrymuller
- It’s nice to see a newspaper that seeks to hear what its audience has to say. Would be curious to know your goals. Grew up reading GI paper. — @4whatitsworth
- Thx for following; you’re on my Faves & I check every AM! It’s been 2 yrs since we lived in GI — @motherconnie
Today I spend more time interacting with our readers than ever before (and we have had our Twitter stream going since November of 2007.)
On May 1, when I found it, the Independent had 12 followers; its audience has steadily increased since then. On Sept. 1, it had 95 followers. Today it has 196 followers.
- Other newspapers have had great success using Twitter as a conversation tool — not an RSS feed. Among them:
- Austin American-Statesman: @statesman, @360acl and @trackingike
- Chicago Tribune: @coloneltribune
- Dallas Morning News: @dallas_news
- Orlando Sentinel: @orlandosentinel — one of the first to buck the Twitterfeed trend
I’ve been encouraging newspapers to use Twitter the “right” way for awhile. If you don’t believe me, Statesman Internet editor Rob Quigley offers great some advice.
One last note from Stephanie:
I would completely and without reservation recommend that papers shut off the Twitterfeed and find someone who can tweet headlines by hand, and TALK to the readers.
You should also see what Stephanie’s doing with live-blogging.
See which newspapers are on Twitter. Did I miss one? Let me know!
- Posted by Erica Smith at 12:27 am / Permalink for this post
- Filed under: , Grand Island Independent, Twitter
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[...] Newspaper turns off Twitterfeed, gains followers [...]
nice! good for you guys. and nice to know there is still SOMETHING to voice.
[...] There’s already evidence that newsrooms that shut off the Twitterfeed auto-shovel significantly increase their followers. [...]
[...] twitter feed and began hyping headlines in a person-to-person style. Check this post on the blog Graphicdesignr. I do get sick of receiving any and all headlines from news sources. In the world of PR, I think we [...]
[...] @theindependent. More interaction with readers, story ideas, and positive comments. See post at Graphicdesignr.net; maybe this is right for your [...]
It’s good to see Newspapers, are starting to use electronic media for what it should be used for!
Now I just wish we could start to see politicians doing the same :)
Thanks
Farhan
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