The Austin Statesman’s comprehensive Twitter presence

18 Oct

Posted by: BryanPerson in: Microblogging

Screen shot of tweets about UT football game on Austin Statesman website
Now here’s an impressive use of Twitter by the Austin Statesman. The publication is aggregating tweets about tonight’s Texas-Missouri game (for the record, UT entered the game as the No. 1 team in the nation and leads No. 11 Mizzou, 42-17, as I get set to publish this post). It’s combining all #UT posts from followers of @bevobeat (the official handle of Statesman’s sports department) with game-related posts from staff writers.

In fact, the Statesman is all over Twitter. It publishes seven official feeds, and some 35 its reporters are tweeting on their own. This is the most comprehensive presence on Twitter that I’ve seen from a mainstream media outlet.

At the 2008 Online Community Summit that I attended last week, a participant who works at the UK-based Guardian likened many reporters’ participation in social media to a parent who puts in all the hard work during a nine-month pregnancy — and then forgets about all the hard work that comes after the delivery.

I’m betting she hasn’t seen what the Statesman is up to.

(Hat tip to Connie Reece on Twitter for pointing me to the Stateman’s work.)

2 Responses

robquig
19|Oct|2008 1

Thanks for this post! The Statesman’s management and staff has really bought into using Social Media, and especially Twitter. A lot of people are down on journalism right now, and for good reason. Using social media to connect with our community does provide a ray of hope.
Seth Barnburner
20|Oct|2008 2

Wow, very cool to see that. I think with the election and sporting events we’re on a precipice that will jolt Twitter into the popular culture even more…people are finding out how cool it is to be connected during these events.