Don’t worry, I’ll get over this Twitter thing very soon, but for now I want to address all of the ill informed coverage that stifles use of Twitter because it can’t see beyond a) celebrities using it and b) the Facebook-style status update thing.

If you’re struggling to think of what to talk about on Twitter, here are some suggestions:

1. What you are doing right now – clearly the most obvious one, and the easiest one, but also the least interesting. Let’s move on…
2. What you will be doing later - more useful, as people may be interested in the results, or want to meet where you’re going.
3. A useful link you’ve found – easy and useful. If others find it useful they might pass it on, introducing you to more followers. Which brings us on to…
4. Retweet something interesting someone else has tweeted – again, pretty easy – and in fact many Twitter clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl allow you to retweet with one click. The more people you follow, by the way, the more likely you are to come across something useful.
5. Something you’ve done – many people use Twitter as a way to alert people to their latest blog post. You can even automate this with an RSS-to-Twitter service like Twitterfeed or Pingvine.
6. Something you’ve seen – upload your pictures to Flickr and post a link, or use a service like Twitpic which will do it for you. If you have Shozu on your phone that will allow you to upload images directly from it to Twitpic.
7. A message to someone else on Twitter – Twitter is a social medium, not a broadcast one, so conversation is part of the deal. To talk to someone just put @ in front of their name (e.g. @paulbradshaw) and they will be able to see it when they click on @replies on the right column of Twitter (if they use a client like Tweetdeck they will get an audio alert).
8. A quote - by someone else, or one of your own
9. A question - this is where it gets really useful. Twitter allows you to put a question out to everyone who follows you – meaning access to a wealth of experience and knowledge. You may get the right answer – you may get a range of interesting answers. You can also ask people to retweet it in the hope of finding the person who can answer it best.
10. A call for assistance - equally, Twitter is a great organising tool. Arrange a meetup, a demonstration, a protest (real or virtual) by tweeting what you want to do, and asking followers to pass it on.

One great thing about Twitter – and this is why it is so useful for student journalists – is that after a while it trains you to look for interesting things around you (and think how you can communicate that in 140 chars). Those who write off the minutiae of Twitter need to realise: it’s the writer who makes it interesting.

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My post on 1000 Things I’ve learned about blogging (actually 100) has attracted some attention, with quite a few people wanting more. So for those who are interested, I’ll be posting further ’1000 things’ as I learn them via Twitter – you can find them with this search or this RSS feed. I’d love to know your ‘things’, by the way.

PHP Freelancer

I was looking to draw up a list of ten essential books on online journalism – but it seems to me that there are really only six (updated to 8, September 2010).

Have I missed something? Let me know. In the meantime, here are my six 8 essential reads for online journalists:

1. For a different angle on the whole shebang: Gatewatching by Axel Bruns: not the most famous of books – perhaps because it is so far ahead of its time. Gatewatching looks at peer to peer publishing, and non-traditional news organisations: the likes of Slashdot, Kuro5hin, and Wikinews, among others. An essential read for an insight into how news reporting can be organised completely differently. See also: Digitizing the News by Pablo Boczkowski.
2. For an authoritative history: Online News by Stuart Allan: a refreshingly rigorous look at some of the most famous moments in online journalism – Rathergate; 9/11; Drudge. Helps supply the reality behind the mythology. See also: Online Journalism by Jim Hall.
3. For an essential challenge to your basic journalistic values in the new media age: Online Journalism Ethics by Friend & Singer: poses the questions we should all be asking ourselves, and is brave enough not to supply the answer.
4. For the definitive guide to citizen journalism: We The Media by Dan Gillmor: doesn’t sit on the wall, but then Gillmor would be the first to point out that objectivity is dead. Not to be confused with the also very good We Media by Bowman & Willis (online only).
5. For a good introduction to the basics of writing for the web I will obviously now recommend The Online Journalism Handbook by Liisa Rohumaa and I. Also good: Digital Journalism by Mark S. Luckie which brings up to date some of the techniques first introduced in Journalism Online by Mike Ward, which is still worth reading. And Convergence Journalism by Janet Kolodzy and Convergent Journalism by Stephen Quinn focus specifically on multimedia. Also, download Journalism 2.0 (PDF) by Mark Briggs (thanks to Steve Yelvington in the comments for reminding me about this one).
6. For a guide to interactive storytelling: Flash Journalism by Mindy McAdams: covers the ideas behind good multimedia interactives as well as the practicalities.
7. ADDED SEP 2010: On community management, 18 Rules of Community Engagement is a great introduction.
8. ADDED SEP 2010: On the enterprise side of things, Funding Journalism in the Digital Age (reviewed here) is a great introduction to the range of business models and experiments.
9. ADDED JULY 2011: For a vital grounding in search engine and social media optimisation: The Search by John Battelle, beefed up with Click by Bill Tancer and The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick.

PS: I maintain an ongoing list of useful books for online journalists at My Amazon Associates store. If you’re in the US, you may prefer the Amazon.com version.

UPDATE: It’s very true that blogs are a better source of up to date information and reflection on what’s going on now. Check out Shane Richmond’s list on must-read online journalism posts.

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