Twitter has been getting a lot of buzz recently as a networked way to send out micro-updates to your network of friends. [What's Twitter? web.aan.org/twitter]
Newspapers like the New York Times have been using Twitter to send updates to their followers on the network, following the 2.0 Mantra of Web Publishing: “Get Your Content Out to Your Audience – Wherever They Are.”
But, no denying it, it can be time-consuming to “tweet” every update to your site.
Enter Twitterfeed.com.
Twitterfeed allows you to submit any RSS feed, and select how often it will send updates to your Twitter account.
Admittedly, papers who publish 100+ articles on a weekly basis won’t find Twitterfeed that useful, as it can only send out 5 updates per refresh cycle. And the automagic-posting means you’ll lose a little flexibility on the formatting side:
I think this service could be a good match for papers who update their content periodically throughout the day, or those seeking a new distribution/publication mechanism for their papers’ blogs.
Of course, Twitter can only drive traffic to your site if you have a network of folks receiving updates.
To see how it works, sign up for an account, and add AAN as your friend at Twitter.com/altweeklies.
[NERD NOTE: Pownce is poised to become the new Twitter; it combines short messages with events and file-sharing. Pownce is currently in beta mode, but once it's open to the public I'll write it up. if you're on it, add me as a friend. ]
I really don’t think any news sources/publications are using twitter well.
Dumping a bunch of stories is not a good idea. People will just drop your feed if they get overwhelmed (which I’ve done already with several sites).
Instead set up multiple twitter accounts to use in creative ways like breaking news, to suggest one event each day, to reach out to your readers when you need their input (perhaps to see if someone has a photos or video of news or an event). I’m sure there are many other ways it could be used.
And Pownce is getting a lot of buzz, it probably won’t become the new twitter.
It doesn’t have an API (you could set up a twitter account that would allow someone to direct message you their address to get their polling place or the highest rated place to eat nearby). People don’t have as many choices in how the information is delivered.
Still, papers should experiment with both as well as jaiku.com (and see which your readers are using if any).