Twitter

 Top stories
 Locations
 Wording –seven words max, and make them short. Headline style.
 E.g. allotment NCTJ story
Start spreading the news…

 Bills do not give the whole story away
 They are intended to intrigue the reader
Either
 Giving readers a reason to pick up the paper
 E.g. AYLESFORD: FUN DAY
PICTURES SPECIAL
Or
 Dropping a hint, but leaving them curious
 E.g. JESUS FOUND BEHIND
FRIDGE
Selling news

Twitter uses the same skills and principles as bill-writing.
E.g.
Latest: The end of the world is nigh via @EveningStandard bit.ly/1234 #apocalypse
It tells you:
 The gist of a story
 Which paper the story is in
 Where to read more
Tweeting news

 The “does what it says on the tin” Tweet
 Good when your story has key information that your readers will want to access quickly and unfussily
 Also good when the story is already in the public consciousness – the Frankenstormstory is an easy sell.
Direct approach

Generates interest in a story but needs to pull at the right strings…
 Most dangerous citymakes you want to find out more, but the drugs theme of the story is put across directly. It helps that the audience will expect this to be an America-based story. Too vague, and the intrigue fails.
 Underwater dogs! –sets up an expectation of pictures. Don’t fail it!
Intrigue

Three golden rules
 Make sure the answer isn’t blindingly obvious
 Make sure the question is one your audience wants the answer to
 Make sure the story you link to actually answers it
Questions

Word count
Language
140 characters, including spaces. Word’s word count function will count this for you. Links and hashtagsetc. are also included in the limit.
You don’t have to use all 140 characters!
Doesn’t have to be fully grammatical, but can be. Either way, keep language simple. Imagine it as a news bill does it grab your attention?
Writing Tweets

 Hashtagsare Twitter’s cataloguing system.
 Pulls together information from multiple sources
 Allows for speedy searches
 You should get in the habit of using them on key words, people and places in your newsflashes.
Twitter tricks #1 – the hashtag

A Tweet for the Bearstedstory…
 Anyone who lives in Bearsted might use #Bearsted as a search to pull together local news, and will see this.
 It does the same job as the top line of this bill –it’s a label which helps the story find its intended audience.
Uses - search

A Tweet for this might look like:
 The #Oveston is a label to help people find the story
 The #poisonparsnips is an attempt to make the story
trend –it’s a phrase that might grab people’s interest and bring new readers in.
Good trend words include:
 Famous people and places
 Sports clubs
 Businesses
 Quirky details
Uses - trends

Another NCTJ one…
 #peoplepower could be used to bring together Tweets that offer help to clear up the clubhouse damage.
 It means Twitter could be used to co-ordinate a campaign to save the club.
 Use this in question 2e – ways to use multimedia to generate a conversation with your audience.
Uses - campaign
Plea for help to clear flood damage at
#Oveston Sport and
Social Club this
Example: Bearsted story
Saturday after vandal rampage bit.ly/1234
#peoplepower

 Normally used to address a Tweet to somebody –they receive an alert to say they’ve got a message
 But it also encourages people to retweetyour messages, and makes the Tweet visible to anyone who searches for their username.
Twitter tricks #2 - @ signs

Rules:
 You should only use @ when referring to a Twitter user
 Assume, for the purposes of the NCTJ exam, that councils, sports clubs, people etc. do have Twitter accounts.
 In this Tweet, anyone who searches for
@OvestonCouncilwill see this Tweet.
 That increases the reach of your story.
Children have been eating toxic homegrown veg for three years after blunder
Example: Bearsted story
@OvestonCouncil bit.ly/1234
Uses

 Here, the sports club would
(hopefully) retweetyour newsflash to all of its followers, making it appear in all of their timelines.
 For campaigns, think about who would be likely to help you spread your message
 This works in Q2e of the
NCTJ exam, and in real life!
Plea for help to clear flood damage at
@OvestonSportsClu b this Saturday after
Example: Bearsted story vandal rampage bit.ly/1234
#peoplepower
Uses