Tools of the Trade - by Patrick Thornton on Sunday, July 6, 2008 15:31 - 2 Comments
The Listening Post just got more social with Twitter
The Listening Post, Wired’s multi-author music blog, joined Twitter a few days ago and promises to use Twitter to deliver micro-posts of information to music fans:
Hope you are having a hot holiday, party people. And since you probably are, and far too busy to get deep with Listening Post, we set up a Twitter feed to keep you abreast of music-related news and tech in bite-sized pieces.
The Listening Post’s Twitter account was launched just three days ago and already it has more than 100 followers. That’s a good start. If they want to see more growth — and drive more traffic –, they’ll have to make their Twitter account into a destination for music fans.
A few suggestions for the Listening Post and all news organizations using Twitter:
- Make sure this Twitter account isn’t just a glorified RSS feed. So far, the majority of the posts fall into this category.
- Make more tweets like this one: "putting together a contest for Weezer fans. Anyone have ideas for that?" It’s great to get users involved, and Twitter is a great social app for two-way communication.
- Making tweets for the latest blog posts are fine, but give people a reason to click. A headline is not enough. Give us the best quotes or info in separate tweets. Make us want to click that link.
- Better yet, get people excited for upcoming posts before they happen. Use Twitter as a way to discuss upcoming stories and news. Maybe the lede is already written, but the details are being fleshed out. Share with us that tidbit of information. In other instances, Twitter can be a great crowd-sourcing tool. Need feedback from users for a story? Twitter is a great place to start.
- And, of course, have conversations with people. That’s where Twitter really excels. It’s a fantastic tool for public conversations. And that two-way communication can build user loyalty.
Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch account is a great example of how to use Twitter to drive traffic. Arrington regularly teases upcoming stories, especially really big ones. He also converses frequently with people about tech topics and in general is a very strong Twitter member. That’s why he has more than 20,000 followers.
20,000 followers is a great way to drive traffic.
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2 Comments
@Daniel,
You’re correct that these tips would be helpful in other sectors. In general, it makes sense to utilize Twitter to its fullest potential. Using Twitter as yet another RSS feed is not the way to do that.
Twitter really excels as a communication tool, and people who use it that way find the most success. Twitter can be a great way to engage a community and gauge how the community is doing.
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Thanks for the helpful hints, Patrick. I think the general concepts might be applicable for organizations in the non-profit sector too, especially because of Twitter’s potential value as a community listening tool.