Twitter, the social media application, has received an incredible amount of publicity in the past year. Despite the press, Twitter is not a panacea or will not cure cancer. Instead, it is another valuable communications tool--perhaps even more valuable to the sports information professional.
Signing up for Twitter is easy. You just head to Twitter.com, pick out your account name and soon you are tweeting away. You can send your tweets directly, and manage your account, from your address, for example: www.twitter.com/StudSID.
To just use Twitter only from the web address, is like driving a car in third gear. There are so many other ways to use Twitter.
- Third Party Applications
One of the many great things about Twitter is that software developers have embraced the technology. There are numerous third party applications that can enhance Twitter use.
In essence, these apps provide a different gateway to your account. Tweetdeck is great because you can manage a number of accounts when you sign in. You can also tweet to your different accounts by simply highlighted the account tab.
I like Twhirl, which is a desktop client for social software, and use it even more than Tweetdeck. It looks similar to an instant message window. When I receive a tweet, it also offers and audible bell tone.
- Others are Integrating Twitter
Another way to tweet is to use the "Add This" (www.addthis.com) button on many web sites. Simply click the "Add This" button on a story you want to share it will query your user name and pass word.
Like other third party applications, your tweet will indicate where it was sent from (web, Twhirl, Tweetdeck, Add This, etc.).
ICS (http://www.internetconsult.com/) recently added a “send to Twitter” feature when you get to the last step of posting a story or updating a score. This prompting saves me from having to log in elsewhere. If your web host does not offer this feature, ask for it!
Many choose to update their Twitter accounts via cell phone. Outgoing text charges have precluded me from using this technology. However, my incoming texts (and tweets) are free. This great feature allows constituents to be informed via cell phone.
It’s a bit of a buggy and convoluted set up to activate this feature. My one account I subscribe to on my cell: The local TV station’s weather alert. Now that’s a great use of Twitter on both ends!
I have a personal account where I follow and receive all my updates (other conference school Twitter account, my personal favorites, etc.). For my Greensboro College account, however, I don’t follow anyone.
Well, the promotion of game stories with a shortened URL is number one. Twitter accounts push people to our web sites.
URL shorteners (Tiny.URL, Bit.ly, Digg.com) are integrated into services like Twhirl and Tweetdeck. Without their help, it would be hard to keep under the 140 character limit. When a game is ready start, I often Tweet and provide webcast and/or live stat links. At football games, and when we have proper staffing elsewhere, I tweet score updates during games.
Additionally, our YouTube and UStream accounts automatically update when we create videos.
- Other Twitter Uses in Athletic Media Relations
Wake Forest University Assistant AD/Media Relations Steve Schutt set up a separate Twitter account for the football press box. “It acts like a public address announcer,” Shutt said. “For example, we provide information like attendance to media who are following the account.”
Managing your account is important, too. Typos and errors of course are frowned on and don’t reflect well on you or your organization. You can delete a post after the fact, too.
“I have one of my students go in and clean up our account after football game,” said Ferrum College's Gary Holden, who serves as Assistant AD-Compliance and Sports Information. “In-game score updates are relevant during the game, but it looks bad if people are looking at the account day’s later.”
Holden’s point brings up another app: Twitter Feeds.
- Feed the Monster (Twitter Feeds)
Just like RSS feeds, Twitter Feeds (www.twitterfeed.com) post your tweets on web sites. Users can put your feed on their Igoogle or Yahoo home pages. Or, you can put your feed on your web site. However, you want unique content and don’t want the Twitter feed to highlight the same three stories that are promoted as news stories two inches to the left on the web page.
"I like Twitter Feed because it let's you connect your website and/or blog's RSS feed to your Twitter account so any story you post goes directly to Twitter", said SID Dave Petroff of Edgewood College. “It also adds the #fb tag which then lets a Facebook app called Selective Twitter Status put my tweet on my Facebook fan page.”
Companies like Widgetbox can set up the code to place a feed on your web page.
- New Twitter Apps: Tailoring Your Accounts
In NCAA Division III, we just got approved to use Twitter a few months back. Yet our coaches are not allowed to use Twitter. The reason? They don’t want recruits following coaches and vice versa.
In Division I, however, coaches are tweeting away. As a UCLA fan, I follow men's basketball coach Ben Howland and his tweets.
Another interesting article idea might be profiling those DI athletic media relations folks who are helping coaches manage their Twitter accounts. Can the coach write? Is he/she appropriate and do they use good grammar, spelling and punctuation?
Most SIDs don’t use Twitter for its intended purpose: to indicate what your are doing right now. Maybe you have a separate Twitter account for that mundane stuff.
I said earlier that Twitter won’t cure cancer. However, when there is a cure, I won’t be surprise if it’s Twitter that tells us!