Social Media Top Five: Lots of Twitter, & Evolution of Journalism

Fair warning: I’m Twitter heavy (again)

The 14 Types of Twitter Personalities: Didn’t we have “9 Types of Twitterers” just a few months ago? (Yes)

I’m not even going to pay attention to these posts until we have delineated 71 types of Twitterers. Or at least 31, Baskin Robbins-style.

The Best Way to Build a Twitter Account? Step by Step: So says Dan Zarrella of Hubspot, and I agree– any social network, circle of friends (heck, maybe even a business) is not a “just add water” or “just add magic follower-adding script” proposition. Cultivate relationships, starting with people you know, and next thing you know it’s completely out of hand. As it should be.

Now, Dan, who is obviously one of those right-handed people I don’t understand, feels the urge to spin his propellers and back this up with numbers. I can’t follow that at all, but knock yourself out. Here’s a sample:

Got it? Bonus: Dan promises more in an upcoming post.

A G-g-g-ghost! W-w-w-writing on T-t-t-twitter! Apparently,celebrities and politicians, such as 50 Cent, Britney Spears, and Barack Obama, have people “ghost-Tweeting” for them on Twitter. I was wondering how some of these folks got so clever all of a sudden. Next thing, someone will be telling me that politicians and executives don’t write their own speeches, and those little quotes in press releases weren’t actually uttered and thought up by the CEOs themselves. just destroy my whole rose-colored image of the world, will ya?

Seriously, the people we know are doing it are generally up front about it, and that’s fine by a lot of us (me included). ghost away! As for me, I’m thinking of hiring a poltergeist writer. That could be more fun.

How Exactly is Journalism Changing? With troubles at the Houston Chronicle (see below) and other newspapers, to papers like The Christian Science Monitor (disclosure: a client) changing their print product to a weekly and concentrating breaking news online, a lot of people have been ruminating about what journalism- and journalists- will become. Mitch Joel writes about how journalists need to know SEO and be multimedia savvy (I completely agree, and it jibes with thoughts I am developing on where the journalism business could go eventually). David Meerman Scott blogs about the opportunities facing journalists outside of the traditional realms, as long as they think of themselves as “content producers” rather then strictly “news people.” Of course, journalists moving to the “dark side” of marketing and PR is nothing new, but it may become more common with the state of the industry. Last, I will link to the transcript of an “Editorchat” on Twitter (you didn’t think I would post a completely Twitter-free item this week, did you?), featuring BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief John A. Byrne.

A sampling of the points he discussed:

“I think there are three absolutes in today’s media world. You can argue any of them but I maintain they’re pretty much true.”

1. Print advertising will not come back. That means single-digit declines from here on in represent victory, with some exceptions.
2. Online advertising cannot offset the print decline or save a print product. Too much online inventory from too many rivals.
3. Subscribers will generally not pay for content unless it’s original, unique value-added.

Houston Chronicle Staffer Twitters Layoff Process: We have actually been through this before, with a Yahoo! employee Twittering his layoff last year, but this- “Vonwolffe” Tweeting during the runup to his own layoff from the Houston Chronicle (and after)- seemed like a timely reminder to expect that your news, sometimes, is your employees’ news too. Now certainly companies could make severance agreements contingent on not talking about certain aspects of the layoffs, but in this case, there wasn’t much bad being said (I think), and the employee was a contractor who had little incentive to hold back. We’ll be seeing more of these kinds of Tweets.

Blog readers: I am riding the Pan-Mass Challenge this summer, a 2-day bicycle trek across Massachusetts to raise money for the Jimmy Fund in support of cancer research. Will you join the generous folks who have sponsored my ride? Click any part of this message to go to my fundraising page– and thank you!