CoverItLive, Twitter, and the State of the Union Address
A couple weeks ago, our Assistant Editorial Page Editor Kate Riley and I talked about ways to increase the online presence of @SeaTimesOpinion, the Twitter account for The Seattle Times’ Opinion section. Of course, establishing dialogue, a unique voice and engaging your audience on your social media space(s) were chief among the list of things to try. But getting started on that route takes an overall shift in mindset. Shepherding your social media accounts takes time and spaces such as Twitter and Facebook only work as strong reporting tools if you spend time managing your account. When reporters ask how they’re supposed to juggle reporting and using social media, I always tell them that they should find some way to work it into their daily workflow, like responding to e-mails and listening to voicemails. That advice doesn’t always work, however, leaving some journalists unconvinced. The best way is learning by doing. Sometimes it takes an event, project or even breaking news, to show others that social media can be used as a powerful reporting tool that can engage your audience.
I thought the best way for push ourselves off the ground with @SeaTimesOpinion would be to host a live Twitter chat via CoverItLive. Kate had the idea of getting together opinion writers from The Times, the Kansas City Star and a Scripps newspaper in Central Florida as a way to bring in voices from a variety of political backgrounds. The result: 12 Twitter-folk across three states.
The idea of inviting newspapers across the country was to encourage diverse voices and bring in an equally diverse audience. So we got editorial page editors from each of the newspapers along with guest writers from each region. The guest writers include the President-Designate of the Florida Senate and other elected officials at the state and local level. We’ll also have bloggers and freelance writers. En toto, about 4 from each state.
During the address, people will have the opportunity to participate via Cover It Live on seattletimes.com, kcstar.com, and tcpalm.com. We’ll be pulling in tweets from our writers and those in the Twittersphere using the hashtag #OPEDSOTU. Our tweeps will be talking amongst themselves, answering questions and responding to other tweeps’ comments about the speech — and politics in general. I’m not sure how much I want to direct the conversation, but I will be throwing in ideas every so often to possibly stimulate discussion.
I’m looking forward to the experiment and am hoping that we get a lot of participating. Be on the lookout for #OPEDSOTU and please … join in on the discussion!
What do you think about this project? Have you tried something similar at your news organization? As always, tips and suggestions are greatly appreciated!
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