Reporting and Writing II Twitter

Start spreading the news…  Top stories  Locations  Wording – seven words max, and make them short. Headline style.  E.g. allotment NCTJ story

COUNCIL TELLS ALLOTMENT HOLDERS TOLD NOT TO EAT CONTAMINATE D VEGETABLES POISON PARSNIPS WARNING AT ALLOTMENT

Example: Bearsted story Selling news  Bills do not give the whole story away  They are intended to intrigue the reader Either  Giving readers a reason to pick up the paper  E.g. AYLESFORD: FUN DAY PICTURES SPECIAL Or  Dropping a hint, but leaving them curious  E.g. JESUS FOUND BEHIND FRIDGE BEARSTED RAILWAY SLEEPER ARRESTED

Tweeting news Twitter uses the same skills and principles as bill-writing. E.g. Latest: The end of the world is nigh bit.ly/1234 #apocalypse It tells you:  The gist of a story  Which paper the story is in  Where to read more

Direct approach  The “does what it says on the tin” Tweet  Good when your story has key information that your readers will want to access quickly and unfussily  Also good when the story is already in the public consciousness – the Frankenstorm story is an easy sell.

Intrigue Generates interest in a story but needs to pull at the right strings…  Most dangerous city makes you want to find out more, but the drugs theme of the story is put across directly. It helps that the audience will expect this to be an America-based story. Too vague, and the intrigue fails.  Underwater dogs! – sets up an expectation of pictures. Don’t fail it!

Questions Three golden rules  Make sure the answer isn’t blindingly obvious  Make sure the question is one your audience wants the answer to  Make sure the story you link to actually answers it

Writing Tweets Word count140 characters, including spaces. Word’s word count function will count this for you. Links and hashtags etc. are also included in the limit. You don’t have to use all 140 characters! LanguageDoesn’t have to be fully grammatical, but can be. Either way, keep language simple. Imagine it as a news bill - does it grab your attention?

GIANTS WIN SECOND WORLD SERIES IN THREE SEASONS MADONNA BOOED AT HER OWN CONCERT

Twitter tricks #1 – the hashtag  Hashtags are Twitter’s cataloguing system.  Pulls together information from multiple sources  Allows for speedy searches  You should get in the habit of using them on key words, people and places in your newsflashes.

Example: Bearsted story Uses - search A Tweet for the Bearsted story…  Anyone who lives in Bearsted might use #Bearsted as a search to pull together local news, and will see this.  It does the same job as the top line of this bill – it’s a label which helps the story find its intended audience. Railway sleeper arrested at #Bearsted station e.co.uk/xxxxxxx

Example: Bearsted story Uses - trends A Tweet for this might look like:  The #Oveston is a label to help people find the story  The #poisonparsnips is an attempt to make the story trend – it’s a phrase that might grab people’s interest and bring new readers in. Good trend words include:  Famous people and places  Sports clubs  Businesses  Quirky details Why were #Oveston growers told not to eat their homegrown veg? bit.ly/1234 #poisonparsnips

Example: Bearsted story Uses - campaign Another NCTJ one…  #peoplepower could be used to bring together Tweets that offer help to clear up the clubhouse damage.  It means Twitter could be used to co-ordinate a campaign to save the club.  Use this in question 2e – ways to use multimedia to generate a conversation with your audience. Plea for help to clear flood damage at #Oveston Sport and Social Club this Saturday after vandal rampage bit.ly/1234 #peoplepower

Twitter tricks #2 signs  Normally used to address a Tweet to somebody – they receive an alert to say they’ve got a message  But it also encourages people to retweet your messages, and makes the Tweet visible to anyone who searches for their username.

Example: Bearsted story Uses Rules:  You should only when referring to a Twitter user  Assume, for the purposes of the NCTJ exam, that councils, sports clubs, people etc. do have Twitter accounts.  In this Tweet, anyone who searches will see this Tweet.  That increases the reach of your story. Children have been eating toxic home- grown veg for three years after bit.ly/1234

Example: Bearsted story Uses  Here, the sports club would (hopefully) retweet your newsflash to all of its followers, making it appear in all of their timelines.  For campaigns, think about who would be likely to help you spread your message  This works in Q2e of the NCTJ exam, and in real life! Plea for help to clear flood damage b this Saturday after vandal rampage bit.ly/1234 #peoplepower