My First Day on Twitter

After four decades of writing in at least paragraph form, I finally joined, if that is the right word, Twitter yesterday. Presto: I already have over 190 followers, which makes Jesus, with 12, look like a piker. As Marvin Gaye sang, "How tweet it is to be loved by you." But it's the news scoop aspect that impresses me so far.

It was about time I signed on. I came across an online article just yesterday that stated, "Twitter has jumped the shark." It was dated March 25, 2007. Perhaps it is still in mid-air two years later.

So what happened yesterday?

For one thing, I discovered that another Huff Post blogger, who happens to work in my building in NYC, was recommending to everyone a Vietnamese sandwich shop in the nabe -- and I quickly replied that we ought to meet there for lunch some day.

At least three former online employees here at E&P, and a well-known writer who worked for me at a magazine 25 years ago, found me and are now true (if not necessarily rabid) followers. Also, three former interns tackled me. A former Hollywood producer I interviewed nearly 30 years ago did, too. A guy from The New York Times. Plenty of strangers. And so on.

Plus a bonus: I found out about the Christopher Walken page, which you simply must visit. L.V. Beethoven, too. And that guy Jesus now has more than 2,000 followers.

Why did I do it now? For one thing, I wanted to test it as a tool for E&P before committing the rest of the staff to it, singly or in a group twit. And I am amazed with the practical results so far. I have found numerous news tips on Twitter updates. Yesterday was a horrific day in the newspaper biz, with far-reaching furloughs and others cuts announced, and some of the twits I am following had the news first.

I then took those leads, contacted staffers to do full stories, tweeted quickly to "break" the news for E&P fans, then put up on our site the staff articles that in some cases were still scoops. All because of Twitter.

Later, at night, I found a few more quirky things that I linked at our blog. Meanwhile, I've already posted a couple of dozen tweets on subjects ranging from media and politics to film and music.

I've generally been dismissive of Twitter as a further dumbing down of our discourse and journalism but now I see, at least from the first day, the useful side - if you are in the news business. Frankly, I still don't want to know what you had for lunch. Unless you work in my building and want to do Vietnamese.

You can find me here.
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Greg Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher. His new book is "Why Obama Won."

Comments

[Mike Vardy]

I'm no math person, but this article seems way longer than 140 characters.

Mike Vardy
www.effingthedog.com

[Uosdwis]

It's sort of a more accessible IM, where you don't have to worry about the different, proprietary networks (and updating apps that claim to be cross-platform).

[mike551]

twitter has its pros and cons, just like any tool/technology. it enables communication of the now (hence great for breaking news ) and also propagates communication and amplifies it. And new Apps like the TrialX/Twitter app make twitter act like a personalized and responsive information interface. (see more info http://bit.ly/3dl8nH) . Just tweet to TrialX on twitter - for example if you send a message "@trialx CT looking for multiple myeloma trials for a 55 yr old female in CA' , the APP send you a link to clinical trials matching that criteria. So now you can "talk to twitter" through this app to find trials!

[goodgravy]

how is twitter different than facebook? don't they both function in the same way?

[Molly Porter]

Twitter is basically only the status updates as in Facebook without the annoying apps. There's a lot less to wade through.

[fleaba]

Okay, I tried it. But I guess I just don't get it. It did get me to go forward with doing a blog with photos of my artwork, because I saw some other artists who did this.

[Vis]

I'll have to check you out there. Just joined myself and I couldn't agree more about the Christopher Walken page. Thankfully nobody requires anyone to join so for those of you against twitter are safe; but if you have no interest at all then why would you read the an article about twitter and feel compelled to comment?

[gulopartisan]

I "understand" Twitter. It's yet another grope toward making the details of each person's life "news." It may be useful for some folks, but overall I see no value in it except to inflate narcissism.

[thebigbike]

so if you DON'T work in the news business? give me an idea of why ( since i am not much concerned with instantaneity in the news cycle which seems to have shortened to about 6 or 8 hours inthe last 6 months) I might be interested in it?

[sixletters]

I don't understand twitter.