Yesterday, I assigned homework to the reporting staff at the Chronicle: Get signed up for a Twitter account by the end of the day, follow the newspaper’s account and send out your first tweet.
The staff responded admirably. Those with dormant Twitter accounts revived them. Those without accounts started them, including our resident Luddite, Gail Schontzler, who inaugurated her Twitter account with this:
http://twitter.com/#!/gailnews/status/93802592915828737
Later that evening, she went on to break news of Maya Angelou’s upcoming appearance at Montana State University via Twitter, hours before we got the same news up on our website. For her breakthrough efforts, she won one of our paper’s coveted Digi awards.
It’s good to see the staff embracing Twitter. Being able to use it is a core skill for journalists these days, and it was about time we got our newsroom on board.
Now, to encourage them to keep on tweeting, I encourage you to follow them on Twitter. You can find all of the Chronicle tweeps listed on Twitter. Subscribe to the list and then, for good measure, subscribe to each of the reporters too.