How Twitter Covered the News in 2009

We've all heard it - "Why would I want to get on Twitter, I don't care what someone had for breakfast" - As anyone who has engaged in Twitter can tell you, you get much more news and information from this tool than any other media (please note that I wholeheartedly support traditional media, subscribe to a daily newspaper, listen to NPR and local news radio stations constantly, etc.).


Our friends at the BBC have just put together a great rundown of how news has been broken and covered on Twitter throughout 2009 - Click Here for 2009: the year on Twitter.

You never know when the Governor is reading your posts...

On June 5, 2009, the state of Delaware held The Governor's Entrepreneurial Business Conference at the Chase Center on the Riverfront.

After the great Chicago experience, I figured I'd cover this event with as much social media as possible - that meant Twittering while recording as many of the speakers as I could on the Flip Video.

This is probably where some others (yes, I'm talking about you @rfaber) and I started almost competitive tweeting at public events (that could be an Olympic Sport in a few years, "...and now, representing the United States in the Competitive Tweeting event..." - just an idea). Throughout the morning, we were posting messages on every aspect of the conference - who was there, what the speakers were saying, the mood of the room, everything.

Lunchtime comes around, and about 500 of us make our way in to the ballroom - I was running late, so I sat way over on the far end of the room and recorded some of the address from the Governor. After he spoke, the Governor shook a lot of hands and spoke with everyone who mobbed him. Then, he went to the back of the room, spoke with his staff, and starts walking towards my end of the room. I looked around to see who he might be going to see when the Governor walked up to me and said, "I've been reading your tweets this morning." He then went on to quote some of them.

That's the great thing about Social Media - you really never know who is reading what you're posting.

Chicago!

It was March, 2009 - and Pittcon was taking place in Chicago - and I had been using twitter for less than two months.

I decided to try a little experiment - I would twitter about everything on the trip - from the ride to BWI airport, the flight on SouthWest Airlines, the hotel check-in, the trade show, everything.

A couple of cool things happened.

First, I was contacted by a corporate job service representative (aka Head Hunter) who said she was impressed with what she was seeing and wanted to know if I was happy with my current employment (I am), and that if I ever wanted to consider changing positions to contact her.

Second, I woke up one morning and picked up the Chicago Sun Times to see an article about how Chicago was the #3 city in the world for Twitter use - and encouraging people to follow them on twitter. I happily did so and they quickly followed me back. That evening after dinner I found myself having a great conversation with a group of people when the talk finally got to the "what do you do for a living" part - and I found out one of my new friends was a writer for the Chicago Sun Times. I asked if it was OK to mention his name on Twitter - he agreed and said his editors were trying to talk him into using the social media tool. A few minutes after posting:

"Just met ______ from the Chicago Sun Times"

I received a message from the Chicago Sun Times:

"Tell him to get on twitter"

These are just a couple of experiences - there was also a great "tweet up" in Chicago and quite a few serendipitous meetings.

Using social media while travelling is a great thing!

Conferences!

I have a ton of great stories about meetings, conferences, and other gatherings of people - and I'll share one soon, but know this - if you can get just three or four people using Social Media at your conference, you've just exponentially raised the number of people who are aware of your message. There may be 50 people in a seminar, but if just a few people are posting messages about that meeting on Twitter or Facebook - then you could be reaching thousands of people.

OK, here's the example - it's August, 2009 and The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), National Venture Capital Association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Delaware BioScience Association, Delaware State Chamber of Commerce and Delaware HIV Consortium organized the Delaware BioScience Business Roundtable (Notice how I just plugged all of those organizations).

This was a great event, and some of us were posting real-time updates from every presentation made - I still get comments from people who were NOT there, but who say they followed the entire conference through the Social Media feed that was happening there.

Click Here to see more.

A whole bunch of great Social Media Success Stories

Justin Williams has some great Social Media Success Stories - and yes, he's from Delaware!

Click Here to read Justin's stories.

Why I will always love Annapolis

This was one of the first things that showed me some of the potential of Social Media - I think it was February of March of 2009, probably a Tuesday, and I see a friend of mine post a message on Twitter saying he was on his way to Annapolis, Maryland for some meetings.

I sent him a message saying that my wife and I really like Annapolis.

Within 90 seconds, I got a message from VisitAnnapolis - essentially thanking me for my comment and asking what I liked about Annapolis.

I sent a message to my friend letting him know about the exchange, so he sent a message to them asking for suggestions about where to have lunch near the capitol - and they responded with three places they like.

Simple, right? In a matter of minutes the Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Conference and Visitors Bureau was able to impress two guys from Delaware and promote three of their restaurants. Think of how much you can do! What's your Social Media story?

Using Social Media to connect with Traditional Media

I have worked in news and talk radio, I've worked for a daily newspaper, I've worked as a PR Flak for a political party - and I can tell you that I have never seen more open communication and access to reporters and editors as I have in the Social Media realm in the past year.

From what I'm seeing and hearing, everyone is benefiting from this (at least in the sense that accurate information is reported quickly - I won't talk about the economics of newspapers right now, other than to say that I subscribe to my daily newspaper and I read every weekly I can get my hands on). What I'm seeing and experiencing is reporters and editors spending time on Social Media sites to not only share the stories they are working on, but to see what others have to say about breaking news - or trends - or events happening locally.

Through Social Media, I've been able to pass along news tips, pose questions that get asked of the newsmakers, and help many of my reporter and editor friends get their stories to a wider audience.

Oh yea, and thanks to Social Media, our company has been featured in stories on NPR, in local press, and has been the cover story in a couple of trade publications.

Getting on the Council

I work for a great small company (www.iChromatography.com) - this company has been attending the single largest trade show in our industry (Pittcon) for about 30 years. This trade show regularly features more than 1,000 exhibitors.

One of the first people I connected with in Social Media (Twitter) asked if I'd be willing to serve on the Advisory Council for Marketing for the trade show!