Monday 28 April 2008

Twittering away

I've been prompted to think a lot about Twitter today.

Firstly, there's a great post on how Twitter can be used by journalists on ReadWriteWeb today. Really insightful article that I think shows the next step that journalism might take. Firstly journalism had to take the step from print to online, then from merely linear one-way online communication to blogs, and now from interactive 2-way communications to multiple-platform communications. Could this be the end of the 'article' as we know it? Instead journalism and articles as such might span across multiple platforms instead of being a single piece of copy on a single page.

Then I followed a link through from one of the comments to a nice little article on Marketing Vox on how to use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity. This got me thinking about the education sector in particular and how Vice Chancellors of universities, many of whom have been reluctant to engage with blogs, could instead use Twitter as a means of communicating with their students, giving themselves a 'presence' on campus even when they're not physically there, and giving them and their institutions a more friendly face.

Finally I came back to thinking about potential uses for Twitter for Crisis Communications again. At the CIPR Education & Skills Sector Group we're currently putting the final touches to a conference on crisis comms and new media. I'm working with one of the speakers to help develop a 'how to' session, and I think we need to do a step-by-step walk through of Twitter for our audience. This one is a no-brainer as far as I am concerned.

Now I just need to decide the best use of Twitter for PJC! I've been a little slow with keeping it updated so far but am sure I'll pick up momentum soon.

1 comment:

Tracy Playle said...

Having just posted this, I've since found at least one example of a University senior manager (in this case the Registrar of the University of Conneticut using Twitter to do just as I say - put some human things up about what he's up to and thus giving the university a friendly face.