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Gannett: "Tweet"
Bless my soul, Gannett's all a-Twitter. I've been paying particular attention to TV/video innovation of late (a brief list later), and noticed this fun innovation: http://twitter.com/wusa9. <Cue evil laugh> NOW I have you... Some of you may have read my post from the AlwaysOn Stanford Innovation Summit this summer called "Humbled by the Hammer." (Things will be in transition from Newzmaven for awhile, but for those of you who may be confused, I will post things there that may not be on point for Opportunopoly.) All I'm saying at this point is, I'm guessing 90% of you non-Twitterers read the blog and didn't register. You'll have to take the plunge to appreciate what's going on here for this "publisher." The Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, D.C. uses Twitter in the way you might expect from a "publisher." It "Tweets" the news of the day, or at least the stories it's following. More than 1,900 "followers" have signed up for this service, meaning they can go see what's going on at Twitter.com, or have Twitter forwarded to their mobile phones (particularly effective for smartphones with email.) Having established one of the more obviously interesting, one-way uses of this disruptive micro-blogging tool, I wonder if they've missed catching one wave their initial innovation engendered. Bear with me for a moment while I explain the nuance to non-Twitterers. When you register, you have the option as a user to "lock" your tweets off from the public, and make them only available to your friends or "subscribers." WUSA9 wisely left its tweets open for general consumption, and folks that want to merely consumer this information can "follow" WUSA9 without contributing. But becoming a "follower" of the station also opens up some enlightened opportunity. Enter the Twitter "495 . I have to admit, I can't tell whether this thread is from just another follower, or from WUSA9 itself (I sent an email to ask but haven't received a response). The wordpress blog that serves as the home page for the service certainly doesn't carry any Gannett branding. (There's a plea for more user posts at the top of the page.) Nor does it enjoy the kind of traffic (no pun intended) as the station's feed. But there are 66 users, and the users DO contribute (it's "theregoesdave" in the example at right.) So, in an INTRINSICALLY mobile environment -- traffic -- where users could contribute something clearly useful to others, such as a "tweet" on a traffic accident or tie-up from the scene, it looks like WUSA9 has facilitated innovation without in fact capitalizing on it. Absent Twitter ads, some might argue it doesn't matter. I'd observe that anything that adds value to consumer's lives creates the kind of symbiotic relationship to which we aspire with our audiences. And we all know the ads will come eventually. But, take care. Absent immersion -- a true understanding of the medium and its utility, there's also plenty of room to screw up. Witness the example of the Colorado newspaper whose reporter Twittered from the gravesite of a three-year-old. Could it have been emotional play-by-play in the right context? Perhaps. But from a medium from which users will increasingly derive hightly targeted "need to know" information, it was insensitive at best, and clearly represented little appreciation for the medium. Experimentation: good. Tweeting through the graveyard? Not so good.
Published
Oct 07 2008, 10:47 AM
by
MGipson
About MGipson
Melinda Gipson, who founded The Digital Edge, was once NAA's interactive business guru. She then proved that even really prescient people can misjudge their interactive champions. Having recently abandoned the ranks of interactive newspaper employees, she currently consults online innovators who themselves may offer good partnership opportunities for more established publishers. Rest assured that any such companies that come up in blogversation will of course be prominently disclosed. Any and everything else is fair game.
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