Q&A: One reporter’s journey from Twitter skeptic to Twitter believer

Twitter has become a media darling in the past few months as the in tool for journalists, but many journalists aren’t finding much value in Twitter.

Twitter, unlike a lot of other Web technologies, doesn’t always immediately make sense to people. First, people struggle with the 140-character limit. Even if a person grasps how to make a coherent tweet, Twitter isn’t particularly useful without followers and if a person isn’t following relevant people.

The value in Twitter is largely based on the quality of network that a person can set up. Following the right people is key. Getting the right people to follow back is also key.

Political reporter Alex Roarty has been on Twitter for months. At first, it didn’t make that much sense to him. It seemed like more of a toy than anything else.

A few months ago, however, he took a new job with PoliticsPA and decided to start a new Twitter account for his new job, @politicspa. He still hasn’t found much value in his personal account, but his work Twitter account has become central to his job.

Roarty has gone from a Twitter skeptic to a Twitter believer. Why? Because he now finds a lot of value in Twitter.

In fact, he now breaks most of his news first on Twitter. His turnaround is largely due to the strong network he is building on Twitter. Roarty even says that Twitter is starting to replace Google Reader as a research tool.

Below you’ll find a Q&A session with Roarty on why he views changed on Twitter and why Twitter is so useful to him now:

Q: When did you first sign up for Twitter?

A: Well, I’ve signed up for two accounts. One personal; the other for work, politicspa. The personal one was about three months ago, but the only one i use now, the work one, I started using two months ago. It’s one of the first things I did when I started my new job

Q: What were your first thoughts of Twitter when you originally joined?

A: Mostly uncertainty. I probably joined it initially because it was the current “media sensation.” Although I did know other Pa. political reporters had started using it for a while, it was pretty peripheral to my job.

Q: Did it offer any real value when you first signed up?

A: Well, its a good way to get your name out there to some people — and every person counts when you start. But when just 25 people are following, it’s not that big a deal. Truth be told, even with 225 people following now, that’s not a huge number, even for a niche Web site.

Q: You recently told me your views on Twitter changed. What’s different now?

A: Well, I think the bottom line for Twitter is how many useful, from a professional perspective, people you follow, and how many follow you. Once i got a couple of hundred people following, that’s when I started seeing consistent retweets of messages I wrote. And also very importantly, people responding to me, asking questions, criticizing stories, etc. The other genuinely surprising piece of this was how much Twitter keeps me up-to-date on what’s going on.

Just in the last week I’ve come to realize it’s almost more valuable than Google Reader. Part of that is I’ve been so incredibly busy since Arlen Specter switched parties that I’ve barely had time to look through my RSS feeds
but Twitter is easy, even without twhirl or tweetdeck — just the web

Also, let me talk about why I’ve started tweeting things first before even putting them on my Web site, politicspa.com.
Political reporting, because it’s so competitive even at a state level, is all, all, all about speed many times. Commanding a story is often times about publishing it first (of course, accuracy also critical).

Twitter is the easiest way to get things out there. Last week, I thought I got the scoop on a Democratic state lawmaker dropping out of the Senate race because Specter switched parties. Turns out, the local public radio affiliate had tweeted it half-an-hour before me. So, it was his scoop.

Q: How has Twitter changed your job as a reporter?

A: Ehh, I mean, it’s just another thing to update. I don’t approach my job any differently.

Q: How has your view of Twitter changed over the past few months?

A: I think it’s gone from something that was more a toy that I played around with to something that’s fairly central to what I do.