OK – Convince Me to Use Twitter!
[by Howard Fencl]
If you’re still scoffing at Twitter, know this: the news media uses it every day—all day—to break news, find interviews, verify facts and look for story ideas. Twitter works as a 21st century tipline for journalists. A Cleveland reporter recently confirmed a tip about who would run for Lieutenant Governor by watching Twitter. When ”higher-ups” tied to the Democratic party suddenly started following the rumored candidate, the Plain Dealer published her name hours before the campaign’s announcement.
But it’s not just media. Twitter gives all its users the potential to be real-time citizen journalists. If emergency responders are called to your facility, witnesses can instantaneously share photos and videos that may go viral on Twitter and wind up broadcast on TV news and web video streams. An employee tweets a photo of a workplace accident or posts about a layoff you just announced. A tech-savvy reporter may call you in seconds.
Twitter users increasingly post content while they watch TV. They can tweet about news coverage of your crisis in real time during a news broadcast. And a recent study by ratings giant Nielsen reveals there is a 50x multiplier effect for people tweeting as they watch TV. So if 5,000 people tweet about a news story exposing your issue, 250,000 people see those tweets. If you are not ready to respond in real time on Twitter during a crisis, your side of the story goes untold, and your crisis deepens.
Twitter is now my primary means of sorting through the unrelenting avalanche of daily news content. I use it as a “title page” to the day’s headlines, and click the ones I want to read, or that have a trending hashtag (the “#” symbol before a word or phrase that lets you search for related Twitter content). I’m not alone. According to a 2013 Pew Research Center report, one in ten Americans are now getting their news from Twitter. That’s 30 million people.
When your organization becomes the trending hashtag, you must be prepared. Social media should be a prominent component of your crisis communications plan. You don’t have to love Twitter, but you ignore it at your own risk.